Experimental Fruit Series - Melon - Draft Version
(has 1 batch)

@ Tilquin Fruit Extravaganza 2024

Draught at Lauter in Tel Aviv. Cloudy golden. Funk, a bit vegetal and farty, melon, sour, kinda lemony.

22 March 2024. At Geus van Gent - Fruit Extravaganza 2024. Solo tasting, cheers to me, myself and I!

A: clear dark golden-amber, small, frothy, white head.
A: ripe melon, dank plum, fruit cake, carré confiture.
T: sweet-sour melon, plum, biscuit, softly lactic (some fruit candy when warming up).
F: soft grassy hops, bitter melon skin, bit tart lemon.
P: medium body, slick texture, soft carbonation.
Unusual. Lost some freshness when warming up.

Draft. An unclear golden beer with a thin beige head. The aroma has notes of funk, fruit, and malt. The flavor is sour with notes of funk, fruit, and malt, leading to a tart finish.

Draught @ Mig & Ølsnedkeren. Pours almost clear golden no head. Aroma of light sourness, malt, yeast,, light wood, tart fruit, light melon. Flavor is sour, light malt, yeast, wood, tart fruity, light melon. Medium body, average carbonation, dry and acidic finish.150424

Tap @ Mig & Ølsnedkeren. Hazy golden with a tiny white head. Aroma is dry, malty, light melon, wood and barnyard. Flavor is quite sweet and moderate acidic. Dry and moderate acidic finish. 150424

New version of the melon lambic Tilquin has already produced in 2021 for a Fruit Extravaganza event that year; this year’s edition is actually a blend of meerts with young lambics and I the omission of the variety ‘Charentais’ this time also seems to imply that this year’s edition was made with at least one different melon variety. From tap at De Geus van Gent. Egg-white, quite dense and creamy, stable head on a hazy straw blonde robe with warmer apricot tinge. Aroma of lemon zest, yuzu, some melon but much more subtly so than in the 2021 version, green gooseberry, sorrel, damp hay, wet wood and a touch of ‘putteke’ (sewer water) warming up. Crisp, lemony tart onset, bit puckering even with unripe green plum and crushed green gooseberry; a thin layer of melon lies on top, adding more aromatic fruitiness. Fizzy, minerally carbonation piercing through a bready core, severely dried by lactic tartness and lemony acidity, in which the acids are probably enhanced by the added fruit; more unripe and green melon notes retronasally but never becoming as outspoken as in the 2021 version and frankly, if I had not known melon was used here, I would have had a really hard time identifying it. Woodiness and funky Brettanomyces elements, along with the return of that ‘putteke’, appear in the finish, but the fruity, lemony, even somewhat sharp acidity remains the star of the show. Certainly a vibrant, pungent fruit lambic in its own right, but far less melon-forward than what I recall from the 2021 version with specific ‘Charentais’ melons – too bad actually, I was really looking forward to revisiting that experience. In any case a different lambic for sure.