Clear dark blond colour with lasting head. Malty aroma with some floral hop. Similar taste. Also just a hint of spice. Subtle clove. Floral hop bitterness in the finish.

Blonde ale hopped with Mandarina Bavaria, brewed at Anders for Oud Beersel (one of my favourite lambic producers) - thanks to Gert Christiaens himself for the information. It may seem odd that a lambic producer comes up with an ale, but let us not forget that this phenomenon has a history, not in the least at Oud Beersel itself, which still has its Bersalis brewed at Huyghe. This new one forms a frothy, quite thick, irregularly edged, egg-white, stable, shred-lacing head and shows an initially clear, warm old golden robe with peachy tinge and a whirlwind of enthusiastic sparkling, turning misty later on. Aroma of lightly toasted white bread, dry cereals, unripe peaches in spring, old dried orange peel, wet cardboard, raw beetroot, drying grass, crumbling dry earth, raw cucumber peel, very vague sulfuric note faraway in the background. Spritzy onset due to high effervescence with notable minerally effects, a bit stingy even, covering up already subdued fruity notes of unripe peach, apple peel and courgette; low in sweetness, with supple body. Cereally and lightly toasted-bready malts, generally dry, quite crisp and grainy; slight rooty hop bitterness in the finish with hints of dried mugwort and straw, but also a very faint dried orange peel element, adding a bit to the overall 'fraîcheur'; light earthy and herbal notes join in too. Your typical present-day Belgian blonde but in a crisp, sleek, dry kind of way; I was hoping for more bright Mandarina Bavaria aromas (tangerine) which could really have lifted it up, though. In all, a rather unassuming, but correctly executed summery quencher, which I may even revisit if I come across it somewhere in an outdoors café. But contrary to Bersalis, which is intelligently used in lambic blends at least in some variants, I fail to see this beer's 'raison d'être' a bit, to be honest...

Veiled orange beer, under a small if stable yellowish head. Sweet grains, dried herbs, straw, hot malts, toast, bit of caramel and faraway pine. Quite bitter onset, but very fast settling into a bit grainy, neutral flavour. Some bitterness returns in the finish, but way more demure. There's also a faint acidity as from the mashsouring. All flavours slightly powering up once a bit warmed up. Feels very carbonated, almost as sparkling water, way more than visible. Watery aftertaste, more flat; maybe medium bodied. I'm left searching a tad for all this 'quote' finesse and complexity 'unquote'. And finally I'm really at a loss about its exact place of manufacturing...

27/04/2024 Malmö April 2024 tasting - yeasty and light malty, vague fruity notes, straw, light spice, not picking up any nutty accents, light to medium body, malty close.