New addition to Leffe, the (in)famous abbey beer brand ruined by AB InBev already decades ago, having entered the market fairly quietly - compare this with the many variants that followed each other about a decade ago now, including that disgraceful 'Leffe Royale Cascade IPA', with which AB InBev bluntly tried to keep up with the then fast evolving craft beer movement, and it is clear that the general climate in Belgian beer has completely changed. In fact I think I would never even have spotted this in the supermarket - the Delhaize in Zele in this case - if I had not read that 1240 number in passing by, thought to myself "here we are again with that fake Leffe history" and then turned back to the bottles in question to investigate them more closely, only slowly realising that this must be a new one I had not sampled yet. Remarkably uninspired even compared with its forerunners during the Belgian craft heydays, this variant is said to contain wheat and oats (in raw form) apart from barley as well as spices, which of course remain undisclosed; much to my delightful surprise, the back label now admits that carbon dioxide was artificially added, something I imagine EU laws have made mandatory recently (?). Thick and foamy, even-bubbled, egg-white, bath-foamy, very regular head on a crystal clear metallic 'old golden' robe with deeper 'rusty' tinge and multiple strings of, well, that artificially added carbon dioxide. Aroma of banana-flavoured chewing gum, sweet corn, of course iron (hand test!), the clove they boast (way too much 4-vinyl-guaiacol, in other words), something vaguely vanilla-like, industrial crackers or dry cookies, coriander seed (probably the spices mentioned on the label), industrial chicken broth powder, something smoky (boy scout bonfire fed by paper and cardboard more than by wood - fortunately not too strong here), an odd touch of freshly cut grass and, lastly but unsurprisingly, badly hidden 'white' alcohol (cheap vodka). Sweet, utterly clean onset - I forgot how sterile these modern Leffes taste - with lots of banana ester of course, with side effects of pear and pineapple, all in the most artificial, bubblegummy way imaginable; prickly carbon dioxide adding a touch of sourishness, very slick mouthfeel, glueish and resinous, but not really 'thin'. Barley malt of the pale kind is there but in syrup form much more than actual malt form, feeling 'empty'; the slickness of wheat and oiliness of oats are noticeable, but again in an industrial, soulless and simplistic way, backed by what seems to be a vast pool of sweet corn overseeing it all. This general 'cheapiness' is continued in the finish, where the added spices come in, sweet and perfumey, most reminiscent of coriander with side notes of clove, potpourri and vague vanilla - while down below, just a dash of grassy hops struggles to provide any meaningful bitterness, or worse even, struggle to get noticed at all. The white alcohol heat naturally ensues after that, but I must admit that it has more or less managed to behave so far - which does not mean it does not become annoyingly wry in the end. Ends sweet, with the bubblegummy banana flavour still upfront (I rarely got more tired of it than here), admittedly 'enriched' with the artificial spices, which may include actual coriander seed too. Alright, let us get things straight here: this is an 8.5% ABV blonde, sweet, banana-like, spiced with what is probably mostly coriander and said to contain four different grains (including the corn): could this actually be Tripel Karmeliet, usurped by AB InBev exactly ten years ago, disguised as a new Leffe as a form of market segmentation? AB InBev is obviously not above such practices, and I believe it is very well possible that the disclosure of corn as an ingredient here (and not, at least for as far as I know, in Karmeliet) has to do with Leffe simply being branded differently - every Karmeliet drinker knows of its three-grain bill, but no one can convince me that the AB InBev version does not contain corn as a fourth 'grain'. In any case this new Leffe Prestige, whether an alias (or derivative) of present-day Karmeliet or not, does not disappoint any more than I was expecting: a sweet, boozy, bubblegummy, empty beer pasteurised to death, artificial and industrial on top of being as unnecessary as possible. I seriously wonder what those monks at the Leffe abbey in Dinant think of what happened to their brand since its humble but doubtlessly sincere beginnings in the fifties - surely within the confinement of the monastery walls, they drink trappist ales instead of this. Poured half of it down the drain - but like I said above, not worse than expected.