30 August 2025. At 7de Bier van Olier (Sijsele). Cheers to Anke, mom & dad!

Farmland or pasture, grass, manure, old apples. Sweetish apple, bitter grass. Dry grassy hops, straw, dry bread, wheat. Quite literally a 'Farmhouse Ale'.

Very good, stable, lightly yellow whipped eggwhite head over cold hazed golden beer. Bit soapy nose. Pale malts abundant and an overlapping herbal aroma. Bit sharpish, fiery malts flavour, "hot", suggesting more alcohol than it really has. Again herbal/spicy. Good carbonation, medium bodied. Way too sharp/alcoholic for a saison, for chrissakes.

The regular blonde from this 'bierfirma' located not far from Ghent, steinie bottle from their webshop. Very thick and foamy, rocky, pillowy, egg-white, membrane-lacing, stable head on a lightly hazy warm 'old gold' coloured beer with pale orangey hue and a whirl of cava-like visual sparkling rushing upwards from the bottom, sustaining the head; turns into a murky, almost vaguely brownish-tinged peach colour with sediment. Aroma of banana-flavoured bubblegum, ripe peach and pineapple, sweetbread, honey, dough, red Haribo candy even somewhere, minerals, soapy coriander, meringue, sweet ripe Doyenné pear, vague hints of cloves (becoming much more pronounced with the sediment poured into the glass), dried peppermint leaves, hard caramel candy, whipped cream. Spritzy, fruity onset, strong isoamylacetate (banana and chewing gum), cooked apple, ripe pear, sweet pineapple and peach, sourish effect from sharp but only slightly numbing carbonation acceptable for a Belgian blonde, smooth and bit fluffy mouthfeel; feels basically quite full, but coarsened by this fierce carbonation, though that 'fullness' probably has the use of oats as its cause. Sweetish bready and very, very lightly caramelly maltiness, cereally, with ongoing sweetish fruitiness and some light clove-like phenols here and there, some coriander-like soapiness but subtle enough not to disturb; in this case though, the soapiness may also be due to those oats again. Grassy, bit leafy hop bitter ending, only slightly earthy with mild bready yeast notes; quite long and drying hop effect, but clearly it is the banana ester and malt sweetness that form the 'tail' of this beer. The soapiness lingers a bit as well as the banana effect and an eventually very bready yeast 'powderiness' (after the addition of the sediment, that is). In all, a very typical Belgian style blonde like there are thirteen in a dozen, but admittedly technically flawless and well-balanced thanks to the hoppiness, which is seemingly a tad more generous than usual in this genre, though only a tad. This surely ticks all the boxes for this style: easygoing, not complex, sweetish with a bitter tail, fruity and fresh; then again, this formula has been drawn out so much that I find it difficult to get excited about it. I do believe that - when marketed properly - there is an audience for this in and around Zomergem, but it says enough that none of their beers seem to appear on Ghent beer café menus so far. Ironically, and that is the main positive thing I can say about it, this regular version seems to taste a bit hoppier than the version intended to be hoppy (Hopkamielke), a version I had from tap at Just Beer last year. With that one and the recently tasted Lievegems Trio in mind, I do not expect anything important from these guys coming soon.

Huge, dense, just off-white head, stable over very carbonated, slightly orangey initially clear golden beer; end of bottle solid yeast. Grains, malts, and quite flowery/herbal, grass, chamomille, herbal hops. Toast, slight caramel, white candi sugar, herbal hosp returning. Neutral to slightly sweet. Very carbonated, bit gristslick, smooth (the oats?). Better than the Hopkamiel, if not by very much.

Towering dense yellowish head, very stable, over clear copperish-golden beer, lively carbonated. End of bottle solid yeast. Huge head seriously hampering nasal perception. Some toasted & pale malts, yeast. Bit bitterish at first, mostly neutral with a faint, nearly sweetish malt + wheat character. Hint at vegetables. Finish has finaly some Contintental hops appearing. Spritzy carbonation, bit wheatslick, medium bodied. Neutral, uninteresting, superfluous beer. Bit like Zomergem, I suppose.

Multi-grain saison (barley, wheat and rye malt) hopped with hops grown in Beke, a small village in the Meetjesland region; brewed by De Biersmid at Den Tseut. Tasted at Maldegems Bierfestival. Snow white, medium thick, stable and mousy head lacing in shreds over a misty deep golden beer with warm peachy hue. Elegant, bit perfumey nose of orange water, ripe melon, honey, sweetbread, peach, lychee even, banana, soap. Sweet onset, overripe pear, melon and pineapple, medium carbonation, smooth and supple mouthfeel; some minerally side notes accompany a slick honeyish and bit soapy-wheaty maltiness, onwards to a long, bit spicy and elegantly citric-zesty hop bitterness, ending quite rooty even and thus countering the initial sweetness in quite a confident, surprising way. Very elegant, quenching little blonde, nice surprise really – if this is the direction Biersmid is heading for, then we may hear a lot more about this so far quite obscure and local ‘bierfirma’ in the future.

24 February 2019. Wieze Bierfestival - cheers to Meeki, Ama Deke & the lovely Anke! Clear golden with a lasting, thin, frothy, off-white head; some lacing. Aroma of apple sauce, pear, white bread, yeast, apricot, orange, faint lime, cooked cabbage. Taste is light fruity sweet, notes of apple, pear & apricot, and light to medium hoppy bitter, with orange peel, grass, some yeast & dank onion, touch of honeyish & bready malt in the back. Dryish, grassy & bit piney hoppy finish, more apple (sauce) & honey. Still very much goody-goody.

Allegedly 'hoppy tripel' from De Biersmid, a young commissioner in Zomergem, not far from Ghent so strange that I haven't encountered their beer in Ghent so far. Bottle at Just Beer. Snow white, tightly cobweb-lacing, medium thick, moussy head over clear warm 'metallic' old golden robe. Aroma of dried camomile, banana, raw turnip, white bread slices, young 'jenever', clear and disturbing DMS (I hate it), grass, bubblegum, green apple. Sweet banana ester in the onset, ripe pear and raw pineapple with a light green apple note, very lively and stinging carbonation, smooth and straightforward pale malt sweetish body, white bread and cereals, leading to a mildly florally hoppy finish which remains very subtle in actual hop bitterness, so that malt sweetishness keeps prevailing, with a touch of that DMS returning retronasally - stronger than any hop character. If you promote your beer as being moderately hop-forward without venturing into IPA territory as is the case here, then at least make sure it bears enough actual hop bitterness; this is just a bland, straightforward, bit 'empty' and stereotypical tripel. But I'm willing to revisit it in younger condition if it ever makes it into the pubs of Ghent, considering how my colleagues below did pick up the dry-hopping; perhaps the sample I got was just a bit too old?