A clear golden beer with a white head. Aroma of mid sweet strong pale malt, honey, yellow fruits. Taste of strong pale malt, honey, straw, riped yellow fruits.

Bottle picked up from Bierkiste München and consumed Saturday 3rd June 2023 at Andreas Aulinger Gaststätte where we ate a lovely meal with Christian, Josef and Valerie after an afternoon at the new house, Manghlam 17, Innernzell. Pours gold/blond colour with a large white head in fact it was super lively, a real gusher, I lost half the bottle. Light citrussy, a bit warming and quite strong and not so refined. Some fruitiness, it's ok but not really my thing.

(Draught at Gist, Brussels, 20 Oct 2022) Golden colour with frothy, white head. Malty, slightly fruity nose with notes of bread, apricots and herbs. Malty, slightly fruity taste with bread, citrus, apricots, hay, a touch of coriander and a mild herbal bitterness in a slightly vinous finish. Almost full body, with a certain sweetness. A bit boozy, but tasty and well made strong lager. Very nice.

Imperial lager - the craft beer equivalent of those dreary, cheap strong pale lagers aimed at alcoholics - as interpreted by this progressive Hainaut brewery. Medium sized, off-white, stable, lightly lacing head on a hazy peach blonde beer with deep, almost amberish tinge. Aroma of old biscuit, rusk, dried flowers, 'jenever' - even 'perzikjenever', fried tomato peel, dust, hay - clearly showing some signs of ageing already. Sweetish but clean onset, touch apricot, green melon, medium carb with minerally effect; slick caramelly and bit old cracker-like pale maltiness, more bread-crusty in the end, with sweet melon- and even mandarin-like fruitiness coming up. The hops provide a pleasantly grassy bitterness, but are quickly overshadowed by jenever-like booziness, which nevertheless - unexpectedly - behaves quite decently. Less harshly boozy than feared, an interesting idea to 'pimp' the utterly depressing Euro pale strong lager style, but still a bit on the crude side. Must have been better when fresh, too.

On notera la tentative intéressante de la brasserie du Borinage de réaliser une Imperial Lager. Côté résultat, je reste plus dubitatif. Mais pousser une Lager qui de base, n'est pas extrêmement aromatique ou complexe, peut difficilement donner un résultat plus accompli. Le visuel est sur un blond orangé voilé surmonté d'une mousse blanche de 3 mm. Le nez est simple, malté avec du fruit (abricot, pêche). L'attaque est sur un duo alcool, et épices. Le ressenti de l'alcool n'est pas à 10 %, avec un alcool qui manque de tension et d'énergie (comme il peut l'être sur des quadruple). La deuxième bouche est légèrement plus amère (cette dernière restant modérée avec 35 d'IBU, à noter l'utilisation de summit, hallertau blanc et mandarina bavaria) mais sans que les arômes se développent. On reste sur un ensemble malté avec quelques épices. Un concentré de Lager en quelques sort. L'arrière bouche, d'une corpulence mesurée n'apporte rien de plus. Le final prend tout de même un peu plus d'ampleur mais sans nous faire vibrer. Un alcool plus vivace serait nécessaire.

Hazy blond colour, white foam. Citrussy, hoppy, fruity. Taste has notes of banana, citrus, bitter hops. Well balanced. Great lager!

30/IV/21 - 33cl can from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 11/III/23 (2021-337)

Clear orange beer, huge creamy towering dense white head, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of banana up front, pears, fruity, apples, soapy, bit oxidized, some caramel, bit of honey, more ripe banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very alcoholic, sweet touch, caramel malts, bit oxidized, fruity notes, little soapy. Aftertaste: bitter, sweet, caramel, banana, grains.