Ballong

Blonde ale brewed by De Meester for the ballooning scene of Sint-Niklaas, the self-proclaimed capital of the Waasland region where ballooning is cherished as a local tradition (officially since 1948 - allow me to add that ballooning as such has its roots already in the 18th century and was already performed in Ghent before Sint-Niklaas got involved, though they do seem to come in second in Belgium historically speaking). Having been born in Sint-Niklaas and having gone to school there in a now distant past, I see why this beer is called "Ballong" instead of simply "Ballon" - the local pronunciation of course, and apparently it is the Hemelrijk pub, which I used to frequent two and a half decades ago, that came up with the idea. Egg-white, medium thick, slowly thinning but generally very stable, wall-lacing head on an initially clear, warm old golden beer with pale orangey glow and some loose visible bubbles in the middle, turning misty (and deeper orange) with sediment. Aroma of ripe red apple, banana but not overwhelming, pineapple candy, brioche bread or croissants, coriander seed, sweetclover, very old and dried out orange peel note, wet grass, clove or very old dried juniper berries, damp strawbales, cooked turnip, raw parsnip, old dried thyme, cold vegetable soup especially when the sediment is added. Fruity onset but not too sweet, slight banana mingling with persimmon, red apple and green pear notes but fairly low in esters for this genre; medium carb, on the softish side but still adequately 'bringing the beer to life' with minerally sparkles. Slick core, cereally and a tad bready, soft, with coriander seed surfing on top - clearly this ingredient was, unfortunately, not forgotten - until it meets clove-like phenols and a vegetable soup-ish effect retronasally, the latter probably related to onsetting oxidation. Powdery coriander seed spiciness, phenols and light cereally effects linger as the hops add a gentle, floral, hayish bitterness, which nevertheless extends quite long into the finish, albeit in a subtle way. De Meester has succeeded in brewing a commissioned Belgian blonde, the most ubiquitous Belgian ale genre along with tripel which is basically the same but stronger, in a perfectly stereotypical way; I am not sure if I should applaud them for this... I have only very rarely been impressed by this De Meester brewery (Filicious was a recent exception) and I dare say that even though I was born there, I am even less impressed by Sint-Niklaas, so my expectations of this were low - I guess this blonde manages to be just as boring as the city it was dedicated to. It has, however, been executed correctly, even packing a bit more extended hop bitterness than I was expecting, so I guess in a final conclusion I have to say that it could have been much worse.

330 ml bottle. Pours amber with light head. Aromas of Belgian yeast, white pepper and doughy malts. Flavors of dried bananas, a bit of cloves, and bready malts. An easy to drink malty Belgian.

33cl bottle from Struise Beershop Woesten e-shop. F: medium, white, quick gone. C: gold, hazy. A: malt, banana, apples, bready, spicy. T: medium malty base, apples, banana, bready, grainy, light spicy, decent bitterness, soft carbonation, yes there is a nice space for improving this boring beer, drinkable.