Clear golden colour, white head. Malty aroma, light hops. Malty flavour, light sweet, light bitter. Bitter hoppy finish, light fruity, sweet malts.
(from taster glass @ Gents Bier Festival 2015)

Huge, dense, yellowish head ove (cold)hazed golden beer. Nice, fresh (pale) malty nose, fresh garden herbs, grass. Bitter flavour, hops & yeast, with straw, and lightly toasted in the finish. Aftertaste (long) is bitter-hoppy again, acquiring a peppery streak, tannine-like. Light to medium body, lightly slick, well-carbonated. Hurray! Once, Willy Contreras made the best artisanal Pilsner (and Export) in Flanders. Now, the in-law is doing it again!

Commissioned Pilsener, with dense and creamy, thick, lacing, snow white head and very lightly hazy golden colour, clearly the appearance of an unfiltered pale lager. Unusual aroma of Brussels sprouts, raw cauliflower, cigarette tobacco, biscuit, cooked white cabbage, white bread and fried eggs as well as something DTMS-like (sulphuric smell of burning rubber) - interesting, but not very inviting. Grainy onset, bit sourish with fairly strong and minerally carbonation, light and smooth, bready malts, early hop bitterness, earthy and peppery and gaining strength in the finish, which ends dry, long and bitter in a ’deep’, tonic water-like hop pellet way. Just as bitter as the refermented version, but a lot less attractive in the nose: there is a whole lot of cooked cabbage here, but not like the usual DMS odour, neither in the pasteurized way: it almost smells as if actual Brussels sprouts have been added. Strange, but the flavour is in any case a lot more interesting (as in: more hop bitter) than your average Belgian pale lager. I would strongly recommend the referemented black label version over this one, though.

One of the two versions of this 13 Artisanale Pils developped by the Ministry of Belgian Beer and brewed at Contreras. Deep, warm ’old gold’ colour, equally misty with steady fizz piercing through, sustaining a moussy, lacing, off-white and fairly stable head. Aroma indeed reminiscent of an unfiltered German lager (I’m thinking Kellerbier) but clear presence of Belgian yeast as well, leaving impressions of sourdough, unripe plum, apple peel, white bread, minerals, white pepper, floral hops, cheese crackers, raw celery, garden weeds and a faint hint of rainwater, but undisturbing. Crisp onset, fizzy carbo but softer than in most macro pale lagers (more truly Pilsener-like, actually), bit minerally, sourish hints (vague lemon peel accent, sourdough), with a soft, restrainedly bready malt sweetness after that; earthy, leafy, peppery ’noble hops’ come forward at an early stage, already showing up shortly after the onset and gaining strength as the liquid passes through the mouth, with a surprisingly strong, deep, earthy and notably cheesy but also floral and spicy hop bitterness in the end, drying the mouth with an effect that can be described as both appetizing and thirst quenching. Unfiltered and refermented lagers are rare enough as it is, and practically non-existent in Belgium, a few exceptions aside, so this is a welcome distraction from all the top-fermented Belgian ales. Atypical in more than one way, but I am pleasantly surprised, this certainly belongs to the ’best’ Belgian lagers I had, or certainly the most outspoken ones. Recommended, also because hop-forward beers have gained considerable popularity in Belgium in the past years, and this is the first bottom-fermented beer in this trend; I will try to use it as a means to get people off the obiquitous macro lagers!

Bottle from De Hopduvel. Hazy golden colour, white foam. Medium carbonation. Very bitter with dry hoppy finish. Good pilsener.

Bottle from De Hopduvel. Hazy golden colour, white foam. Medium carbonation. Very bitter with dry hoppy finish. Good pilsener.

250 ml. sampled @ home. Purchased @ De Hopduvel. Black version was a pleasant surprise, flawed with light cooked vegetables & tad too much sweetness but it has a nice hop presence and flaws felt minimal. This one on the other hand… BBF 24/10/2015. Oily corn golden,…Nose is bitter vegetable, intensely oily, very strong pale lager bitterness, oily metallic, cardboard,… Taste is bitter very oily, white pepper & hay bitterness – like a very bitter pale lager – mixed with oily, vegetables, cooking oil, corn, cardboard,… Intensely oily,… This one tastes like a pale lager on steroids, I am not really meaning that as a compliment. Re-fermentation probably evened out this flavors a lot. Stick to the black version people unless if you are a completist / ticker like me then you just need to do it against better judgement. Poured it away after sampling some.

250 ml. bottle @ home. Purchased @ Willems & Zoon. Paired with spicy Asian food. BBF 13/01/2017. Light hazy golden, little white head. Nose is apple, light sweetness coupled with bitter grass & white pepper, faintly floral, hay. Taste is apple, light sweetness with okay grass, light floral & white pepper bitterness, bitterness is mild but satisfactory for sure. Light yeastiness. There is a light vegetable not so it isn’t perfect but rather nice still esp. for Belgium. One should check this one out.

Bottle from the Hopduvel. Hazy golden colour, white foam. Crispy and hoppy pilsener. Light sweet with very bitter aftertaste. Easy drinkable. Good.

Bottle at craig’s. Pours clear golden, nose is grassy, toffee, taste is dry toffee, grassy.