Flaska från SB. Smak och doft av körsbärskärnor, vinäger, dyig insjö med toner av äpple och trä. Torr, lätt sötma, syrlig med tydlig beska. Tyvärr tar doften ner hela smakupplevelsen.

Japan is increasingly becoming a new beer country and this is one example, though made in Belgium: a lambic flavoured with Japanese cherry blossoms. This being the first day of spring, when these trees adorn streets and gardens with their delicate pink blossoms, I thought the time was right to open this bottle. Thin, ’dirty’ pinkish white, stable head, colour is a somewhat strange, slightly pinkish, hazy orange blonde. Aroma is even more strange: there surely is lambic funkiness and complexity here, but there is also a striking presence of lemon balm, mint tea, indeed cherry blossom, artisanal cider and spiced cookies, which somewhat overpowers the usual odours of horseblanket, old sherry, wet hay, lemon zest and sweat. Taste begins with a refined, pointy, refreshing acidity, lemony and quite sharp on the edges, lots of sour fruitiness (unripe plums, starfruit, gooseberry, green apple), sparkling carbonation, softer lactic acidity (sour yoghurt) setting in as well as a background wheat sourishness, spicy fermentation effects, finishing dryingly tart, with a very subtle ’cookie’ sweetness piercing through here and there, as well as woody tannins and a faint background hop bitterishness. Utterly strange, this is something you’ll either love or hate, I guess. It took me a while to get used to the weird combination of the tea-like, leafy and spicy smell on the one hand and the lemony sharpness on the other hand. I love my lambics, but I guess this one just isn’t for me; I’ll give it a positive evaluation nevertheless, because I do have sympathy for unusual experiments with lambic as long as they let the actual lambic do its work.

Bottle at dina’s. Pours clear pale orange amber, nose is earthy, herbal, light plum, cheesy, taste is dry, funky, juicy, light plum.

(375ml 2013 bottle, kindly shared by a friend) Pours nearly clear gold with a small dense white head. Aroma is strikingly floral, rosewater?, a little cherry flesh too I think, cinnamon type spice, soft musty funk and earth. Palate initially fairly acidic with light malt sweetness, lots of florals, a little tart cherry, some funk. Drying out, florals continue but are joined by wood, cinnamon, dry earth. Acidity lingers through to the finish as does the cherry blossom floral tone, but it is softly bitter with a woody spice and some lingering musty funk. A medium bodied and slick mouthfeel with soft carbonation. Totally unique lambic in my experience, the cherry blossom/spice character is really something else. Elegant too. Not a big sour by any means, subtle but very enjoyable and rewarding to sip and think about.