Gentse Wijze

Clear blond colour. Lots of carbonation, notes of citrus, yeasty, very alcoholic. Dirty and unbalanced.

One of several beers available on tap at the new Stadsbrouwerij Artevelde, situated in a dream setting (right across the town hall in a plot which was historically part of the Sint-Jorishof, the archers’ guild in medieval times); this is now the fourth location in the city of Ghent where beer is brewed on a commercial scale, but mind you, the brewing installation is not yet operational at the time I am writing this review – this is scheduled to be the case before the end of the year, and up till then, all the Artevelde beers are brewed at Huyghe, which is of course the brewery behind this whole project. Reason enough for me to be suspicious. This Wijze refers to the “Wijze Man” or wise man, a nickname of Jacob van Artevelde, a medieval hero of Ghent after which the brewery (and often the city as well) is named; it functions as the inevitable tripel in the range. Snow white, membrane-lacing, stable head on a misty yellow-golden robe. Aroma of green pear, white pepper, young ‘jenever’, soggy cereals, apple peel, coriander seed, unripe banana, clove. Rounded, sweetish onset, green banana and unripe pear impressions, fizzy carbonation (as is all too often the case in this style) with ‘half-full’ body; white-bready, bit doughy pale maltiness with sharper grainy edges, mildly spiced with soapy coriander seed and subtly bittered by peppery, grassy hops, making room for ongoing pale maltiness (and an ‘empty’ feeling of adjuncts), restrained yellow-green fruitiness and obvious, warming, ‘jenever’-like alcohol. Dryish, sleek tripel, lacking in yeasty depth – and conceptually very cliché. I remain pondering about the difference with e.g. Haeseveld Belgian Strong Blond, from that other Ghentian Huyghe playground on the border with Destelbergen…