Cymbo
Stroom Brouwers in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Golden / Blonde Ale Regular|
Score
6.91
|
|
Lemongrass infused blonde ale with Asian inspiration
Label artwork: Manor Grunewald
Sign up to add a tick or review
nathanvc (6963) reviewed Cymbo from Stroom Brouwers 5 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
7 June 2025. At Stroom brewery. Cheers to Matthias's stag do!
Hazy bright yellow, small, foamy, off-white head. Lemongrass, potatoes, cold french fries, crackers, plain salted crisps, melon, citrus zest. Taste has sweetish melon & mandarin in a dry bready and cracker-like malt body, slightly sourish. Herbal hops in the finish, lingering herbal lemongrass, citrus and pale maltiness. Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Relatively dry and refreshing at the same time, but not taking that premise to the next level.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Cymbo from Stroom Brouwers 9 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
One of the newer beers by Stroom in Ghent, a blonde infused with lemongrass and therefore dubbed an "Asian inspired golden ale"; can from the Jumbo supermarket in the Darsen region of the brewery's hometown (the southernmost part of the harbour area). Thick, foamy, cobweb-lacing, egg-white, densely moussey, pillowy head on a hazed peach blonde robe with 'dirty' (pale brownish) orangey tinge. Aroma of spiced crackers, indeed a whiff of dried lemongrass but far less fragrant than I was hoping for, cake bottom, rainwater, cooked turnip, cooked jasmin rice, dried orange zest (the Mandarina Bavaria speaking), vague cantaloupe, cold potato mash, dry earth in the background, dry straw, hint ripe persimmon. Quite crisp, fruity onset, sweetish with a sourish edge, apricot, vague pineapple, persimmon and a background touch of papaya from the Mandarina Bavaria, lively carb but nothing too sharp or stingy, soft 'fluffy' body; cracker- and leftover dough-like maltiness, pale malts with a light caramelised edge, sweetish and honeyish but nowhere sticky, with this lemongrass effect aromatically hovering over it all but in a very subtle, background and 'dried' kind of way - in fact even difficult to pinpoint, as it is swiftly being overruled by the orangey and melon-ish effects of the Mandarina Bavaria hops, which continue further into an earthy, bit peppery end bitterishness. The sweetness of the malts and esters persist well into the finish as well, so that everything ends with a quite citrusy, orange-like flair, albeit in a rather dull and reserved way. I guess the lemongrass supports the Mandarina Bavaria here but it is most certainly the latter which carries this whole beer - frankly I would probably not have picked out lemongrass if I had not known it was effectively used here. In all, a pleasant, sweetish, malty and yeasty Belgian style blonde with a light postmodern twist, rather than a true Anglo-Saxon golden ale (which is exactly what I was expecting anyway). Stroom has made some very solid beers in the past years, but still I feel they will have to take things up a notch to fully compete with Ghent's current leader in craft brewing (Dok). Nice enough though, this Cymbo - I will probably even repeat this one if I meet it again here in Ghent in more fresh and crisp condition.