7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle at a friends. Pours deep orange, nose is tangerine, banana, plum, red grape, taste is similar, juicy, loads of brett funk.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Clear glass bottle from Westhill Service Station most probably. It pours clear plum/blush with pretty much no head. The aroma is sour, zingy, funky plums, vinous, red wine vinegar, sherbet, granny smith apple, jam rolly polly and tart red berries. The taste is firmly dry, sweet - sour, tart, puckering, tangy, plum skin, red berries, bramble, crunchy granny smith apple, some tannin, vinous, sour candy, sherbet, nip of acidity and light boozey presence and firmly dry finish. Medium body and mellow carbonation. Works well. A touch more carbonation would improve it for me, but it's still very nice.

7.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

33cl bottle (8%) from Rob the Gourmets’ Market in Brussels. F: no. C: deep orange amber, light hazy. A: plums, light sour fruity, gooseberries, rhubarb, bit woody, caramel touch. T: light sour fruity, plums, gooseberries, bit caramel, rhubarb, bit funky, almost no carbonation, lactic touch, woody, very nice, of course enjoyed.

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

A red-yellow beer, a head is small and blond. Aroma has lots of grapes, some plum, earthyness, green apple and sourness. Taste has grapes, sourness, lether saddle. Medium bodied, low carbonation, higher level would be better and more lively. Quite complex, pretty nice.

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Barrel-aged plum 'saison' of mixed fermentation by Ermitage, from a colourless longneck bottle (indeed the cheapest kind, as used for Desperados, Corona Extra and so on), at Dolfijn, a new lightly craft-oriented pub in the old Begijnhof quarter in Ghent – recommended to me by the pub owner. Off-white, moussy, thinnish and loosely structured ‘head’, quickly dissolving completely over a hazy orange-copper beer with vague brownish tinge. Aroma of ripe blue (and yellow) plums, plum juice, white yoghurt, mandarin peel, rhubarb, sweet white grapes, gooseberry jam, wet toast, sorrel, light touch of wood but very low in funky ‘Brett’ effects. Tart onset, very juicy, vinous, sour and sweet plum effect, rhubarb and purple gooseberry side notes, hint of lime; lively sparkling through a sourdough and lightly bready core, the sweet side of the plum adding a vaguely cake-like association almost, but holding on well to its sour core, with a drying lactic and fruit-acidic effect in the finish – albeit nowhere harshly so and remaining juicy and highly drinkable. Light woody and leathery flashes in the finish – but the Brett remains understated at least at this age, so that the rich juiciness and tartness of the plums gets the last word. Lovely fruit sour (rather than anything really saison-like), very drinkable, refreshing even – but I wonder what the Brett will do with it after, say, six or eight months of cellaring.

7.6

Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8.5

Combined scores of two separate ratings (two different vintages)
7/VI/24 - 33cl bottle form Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 7/XII/27 (2024-xxx)
Ap: 4, Ar: 7, Fl: 9, Txt: 6, O: 8.5, Total: 7.4/10

Clear copper orange beer, small aery irregular head, actually just a bunch of big bubbles collapsing quickly, non adhesive. Aroma: fruity, some nail polish, sourish impression, dusty, oxidized, earthy ouch, some tobacco. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: pretty bitter start, tannins, good acidity, a little chemical, solvents, lemon peel, fruity, nice! Aftertaste: woody, tannins, earthy, plums, dry, pleasant sourness, good complexity, I love it!

24/VII/22 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Ardenne Holiday, BB: 10/V/24 (2022-920)
Ap: 6, Ar: 8, Fl: 8, Txt: 8, O: 8.5, Total: 7.9

Pretty clear deep orange to amber beer, irregular off-white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: quite some vinegar up front, very fruity, funky, wood notes, dried fruits, very complex. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: wow, nice, gentle acidity, some tannins, dry and bitter, woody, dried fruits, a bit of lemon juice, some fresh plums. Aftertaste: clean acidity, fruity, gentle bitterness, brett notes, a bit funky, spicy touch, dry, somewhat lemony, nice stuff, I like it!

8

Great!

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Draft sample @ Ermitage St Gilles.
Couleur cuivre, léger voile, col fin blanc.
Arôme marqué entre un bouquet funk/brett de barrique et un fruité de prune qui vient adoucir le tout - cela apporte un nez de baies - prune juteuse délicate le tout bien contrebalancé par les bretts.
Palais présente un excellent caractère de barrique marié avec les bretts, cela donne un caractère léger de funk avec une fine douceur de la prune - cette variété étant assez haute en sucrosité. Cependant, le caractère d'une double saison est un peu perdu - je ne retrouve pas le côté rustique, et cela même en ayant ce côté style 'sour saison' les variantes de DLS offrent en cela l'exemple de ce mariage réussi. Le fruité avec le mélange/assemblage des bretts est presque sur un côté griotte voire léger cassis. Le tout reste correcte.

Ermitage reprend ici les bases de son précédent essai 'Fellowship of la Questche', la version présentée est tout aussi bonne, même avec cette erreur de style, je concède que cette version Epineuse offre une corps plus malté-belge.