6.8

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

The house beer of a restaurant called De Bomma ('The Granny', if you will) located in the city of Antwerp, close to Het Steen and the Scheldt river; thanks to Maxime for the gift! Very thick, rocky, cauliflower-like, thickly woolly-lacing, irregularly edged, egg-white, stable head, initially clear, pale and bright yellow robe with slightly deeper golden tinge and lots of fierce sparkling rushing through, turning misty and deeper gold with sediment. Aroma of soaking wet chicken food and other grains, halfripe banana and banana peel, freshly mown lawn, unripe pear, fresh white bread, raw potato chips, dry straw, cooked turnip, soapy coriander, bitter green weeds, wet talcum powder. Spritzy onset, sharply carbonated even for a Belgian blonde, rather restrained fruity notes of green pear and halfripe banana, subdued in sweetness; lots of mineral effects under a slick, grainy pale maltiness, dryish and slender, the minerality not just coming from the strong effervescence but also the brewing water I reckon, even turning a little bit metallic in the end. Coriander seed spiciness with soapy effect also fills the finish, coupled with a grassy, bit leafy and quite long-lasting, resinous and eventually somewhat earthy hop bitterness, further accentuating the overall dryness and crispness. The hops set this beer right for me, combined with the restraint in residual sweetness, they effectuate a dry, quenching, almost saison-ish feel, even if the whole could have done with a bit more maltiness and body; likely intended (and used by the commissioning restaurant) as a more characterful, more bitter and more complex alternative for pale lager, this is actually a very crisp, quenching and technically well-made Belgian blonde. One can, however, ponder about its true identity: it has been a very long time since I had it, but I am willing to bet that this is nothing but an alias of Troubadour Blond (like Spoorzoeker). In the absence of hard evidence, however, I added it here as a separate beer, but of course I leave it up to the admins to decide if this should stay like that or not.