33 cl. From Delhaize, Brussels
( Reward after some intensive cycling)
Mango and lychee aroma.
Overall sweet but quite balanced by some herbal bitter hops
Medium body.

Even this old-fashioned brand added this IPA to its range, formerly executed at Van Steenberge, but now apparently at Anders (?)... Found this at the Delhaize in Lokeren, steinie bottle with the deliberately sexy young nun used throughout this brand on front label and crown cap. Thick and frothy, snow white, tightly membrane-lacing, somewhat coarse and large-bubbled, stable head on a hazy apricot blonde robe with pale orangey tinge. Aroma of dried orange zest, green banana, lemonbalm from a herbarium rather than the garden, raw parsnip, leftover dough, fresh chamomile, cilantro, freshly ironed cloth somewhere, green pear, southernwood, old asphalt, cold clarified butter. Fruity onset, some 'Belgian' banana ester mingled with green pear, unripe kiwi and unripe peach notes, restrained in sweetness and fizzily carbonated with minerally effects; ferrous undertone, as in spring water high in natural metals, bridged by a smooth, malt-sweetish core, bready but in a sleek kind of way with a touch of sandwich, gradually bittered by earthy, leafy hops, while retronasally a touch of 'brightening' citrus blossom or mandarin zest admittedly appears - along with a soapy cilantro effect and traces of banana ester. Quite a long-lasting bitterness, but 'impure' as usual with these Belgian IPAs, muffled in aroma and constantly disturbed by esters, phenols (clove!) and other irrelevant elements. An annoying 'chemical' touch, somewhat wry, seems to linger alongside the bitterness of the hops, but fortunately in a very faint way. The minerality and that metallic aspect continue throughout. Another typical Belgian IPA - and I do not mean an Anglo-Saxon IPA deliberately playing Belgian by adding a Belgian style yeast, I mean an attempt by a hopelessly old-fashioned company to 'hop up' the old familiar Belgian blonde or tripel by throwing in more hops - sometimes even New World ones - and hoping that magically, an IPA will be the result. Drinkable, sure.

On tap at GIST. Pours hazy blonde with a white head. Spicy Belgian yeast on the nose. Flavour has floral Belgian yeast, mild spice, gentle carbonation. Not bad, but not terribly exciting.

On tap at GIST, pours a cloudy golden with a medium white head. Aroma has a sort of metallic character, with Belgian yeast, and floral hops. Flavour has a nice mix of Belgian yeast, floral hops, and an earthy piney finish. Floral and hoppy finish. Good stuff.

Bottiglia. Il gusto al naso è indirizzato verso l'orzo. L'olfatto viene stimolato in maniera normale e l'esistenza olfattiva è sufficiente. Il cappello di schiuma ha una buona tenuta. La grandezza delle bollicine è medio-fine, con carbonazione abbondante. Il liquido è di aspetto velato. Bollicine fini costituiscono la forma della frizzantezza, con carbonazione persistente. Il colore è giallo dorato brillante. Il corpo è pieno. L'amaro è pronunciato. La forza gustativa è elevata e la permanenza è buona. Il gusto è piacevole. Le sensazioni boccali finali risultano di pronta beva. Il retrogusto è di decente intensità. Al gusto vengono donati toni di miele, crosta di pane, frutta secca, erbaceo e agrumi.

Bottle from Conad. Murky pale yellow color bif fluffy persistent head. Flavor is floral and fruity midl pungent and citrusy, silky texture, lots of wheat malt, yeast and spices. Taste is balanced, sweetish, sour, delicately bitter. Solid body. Some herbs (spupposedly the cactus) and stuff for a spicy perfumed finish.

The 'blanche' or wit in this series of beers dedicated to the holy Lutgarde, who was venerated at the Abbaye d'Aywiers, a former nunnery and abbey in Lasne (Walloon Brabant). Steinie bottle from the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren. Egg-white, thick and foamy, membrane-lacing, firm and regular, dense head on a hazy straw-yellow blonde beer with greenish tinge - the looks of a witbier for sure. Aroma of dried ginger upfront (why add this?), dried lemon zest (retronasally even lemon-scented soap!), lots and lots of ground coriander seed, spice crackers, oxidized green apple slices, lime juice, gypsum, soggy white bread, sorrel, puddle water, raw radish, soap, flour. Fruity onset with sweet and sourish elements, some green banana overruled by Granny Smith apple and unripe pear; the sourish element, though soft in acidity, reminds almost of sorrel or gooseberry as well, though in a less 'colourful' way, if you get my drift. Carbonation is quite sharp - certainly for a wit - and adds minerality that only accentuates the sour aspect; medium-bodied slick middle consisting of a white-bready graininess on the one hand and a soapy wheatiness on the other hand, the latter strong enough to convincingly evoke an all-round witbier feel and flavour. Before long, the spicing sets in, with a ton of coriander seed reinforcing the soapiness of the wheat, competing fiercely with equally strong (dry) ginger and dried lemon peel; even a whiff of cardamom seems to be present, though this is not mentioned anywhere. Soft but effective floral hop bitterness ensues, still drenched in all this dried spiciness, while the fruity banana and green apple slowly fade away and the ginger remains all-dominant, with that heap of coriander on its tail. I get the idea of playing with the curaçao-coriander spice department classically seen as obligatory in this style (though it was added to it only in the sixties by Pierre Celis), from replacing curaçao by lemon over adding all kinds of other spices (I have seen anise, mint, cardamom and others) to leaving the spicing out altogether (Blanche des Honnelles), and ginger has been done at some point by some brewer too; but I still wonder why, as it overwhelms everything so strongly that the typical elegance of a good witbier is roughly disrupted. I have nothing against ginger 'per se', but in this case it is just too much 'in your face' - I could just as well have enjoyed a ginger beer... Technically okay in its basic structure, with the wheat upfront, but it would have been a lot better without ginger, a bit less coriander and just plain old curaçao - had these Lutgarde guys stuck to the original Hoegaarden recipe, this might have become a very decent example of its style. That said, this style has long lost its popularity of the seventies and eighties and is only rarely consumed these days, so I was quite happy to encounter one I had not yet seen before; but maybe some clever artisan brewer in the Hoegaarden region should stand up and recreate the late Pierre Celis' recipe from the late sixties and seventies, when it was still unsullied by Interbrew (now AB InBev)? The original drinkers of Oud Hoegaards, inasmuch as they are still alive and actively enjoying beer, will certainly applaud this, and to the hordes of Untappd youngsters of the present day it may well be quite the revelation...