26/III/22 - 33cl bottle from a trade, shared @ home, BB: n/a, 8370669 / 60666677 (tel nr?) (2022-284) Thanks to Wim VL for the trade!

Clear cola coloured reddish brown beer, big fizzy crackling beige head, a little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: malty, dark caramel, ginger notes, a little fruity, more ginger. MF: very lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: pretty bitter, good roast, bit malty, spicy, lots of ginger, some coffee and dark chocolate notes. Aftertaste: bit malty, ginger notes, soft acidity, gentle roast, dry finish.

Sample thanks to Grumbo: Poured a golden with a fizzy fast dissipating head. Aroma is grain, soupy, fruit, grass. Taste is banana, malts, a bit wet, some finishing smoke.

23/5/2020. Bottle courtesy of Idiosynkrasie, tremendous thanks again to Boris (and Aziz)! Pours pale golden with a short lasting white head. Aroma is grainy, malty, tropical fruits, grass, touch of banana and a hint of smoke. Medium sweetness, light bitterness. Moderate body, a little watery and quite fizzy carbonation. Sweet finish. Best so far of the Burkina Faso beers I've had.

330ml bottle [A very big thanks to Aziz for delivering this bottle in quite special times]. Minimally cloudy, yellow-ish golden colour with small to average, frothy to macropore, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, permanently replenished, white head. Slightly grainy, somehow wheaty malty aroma, fruity hints of banana, a touch of straw and grassy hop. Taste is minimally sweet, grainy and wheaty malty, slightly fruity, notes of banana, slightly bitter hoppy counterpart with a lemon dash, a touch of banana leaves. Kristallweizen resemblance, very explicit banana notes - pretty nice. Best beer from Burkina Faso I had so far, absolutely on par with the majority of anything labeled as Craft Beer in the superior Western World.

The global craft beer movement has swept across the entire world by now, even if many countries still lag far behind, including Burkina Faso in western Africa; yet meanwhile, a few initiatives have been set up even there, almost exclusively in the capital of Ouagadougou, and this Burkinabè is one of those. This one is an ale (apparently even intended as a stout of sorts) spiced with ginger and kola nut, the latter lending it a particularly traditional African streak. Thanks again to Ruben for the bottles! Mousy and small-bubbled, pale yellowish beige, audibly fizzing, lightly lacing, slowly thinning and breaking but edge-retaining head on an initially clear, warm and deep ruby red-hued copper coloured beer with lively visible sparkling; turns misty when adding the rest of the bottle so apparently bottle-fermented. Aroma very heavily dominated by the spicing, with both the ginger and the kola nut featuring strongly in the foreground (the ginger even more so than the kola nut); impressions of ginger ale and spice bread, fresh clove, toasted pine nuts, indeed cola in the background, toast crust, a subtle hint of smoked sausages, dried banana, tea, baker's yeast, fresh thyme, crushed black peppercorns. Sharply spritzy onset, harshly stinging carbonation, nicely restrained fruitiness (dried apple peel, apricot, baked banana - but all very 'clean' and subdued), smooth and somewhat oily malt body, a tad resinous due to all those spices, nutty and toasty, feeling relatively full for its strength, with the kola nuts actually accentuating the nuttiness; before long, the ginger takes over and dominates with a very strong retronasal ginger powder effect (along with a return of the smoked sausage accent), overt spiciness (even a bit 'hot' and chili-ish) and that typical spice astringency you get in so many overspiced beers. Still, the toasty bitterness of the malts, along with a late leafy hop bitter note, more or less maintains a basic structure that is, in all, well-constructed and pleasantly well-bodied. I never really liked overly spiced beers (still common in Belgium, and often more so in Wallonia than Flanders), but I have to admit that I did not see this coming from a country like Burkina Faso: if I were told that this is actually some Walloon Christmas beer, I would have believed it. The ginger dominates completely, but I assume this was the intention and for those who like (dry) ginger, this is certainly a treat, even offering a dash of hot 'piquanterie' in the finish, which I think is brilliantly done (and probably welcome in the country's climate). The kola nuts certainly feature prominently too, adding a sweet cola-like touch in the nose and additional bitter nuttiness in the mouth. Considering where this comes from, this is very well done, even if an established French brewery has assisted in its creation; even if this is not a stout in any modern sense of the word, it is likely among the best African beers I had to date. And on a side note: I think authors like Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont (known for mapping the entire modern beer world) would be most interested to pay this country a visit for the next edition of their Pocket Beer Book or World Atlas Of Beer...

11th May 2019. Sample from minutemat, who in turn received it from Grumbo, cheers too both of you; my first Burkina Faso rate. Hazy amber body, weak wispy scum on top. Mild citrus leanings in both the aroma and taste, decent semi-sweet malty base also. better than I expected to be honest.

Sample from bottle, thanks Grumbo for this country tick! Pours a mucky deep amber, thin off white ring. Aroma is lightly sweet malt, floral. Taste isnt too bad, a gentle floral citrus sweetness carries through with a bitter close. Interesting.

Bottle sample courtesy of Grumbo, many thanks Graham! Hazy amber orange-brown colour, off-white foamy head leaving a little lacing and aroma of citrus hops, grains, dough. Taste is sweet, floral citrus fruity, hoppy, grainy, sorghum, yeasty with some spicy bitterness. Medium bodied, soft carbonation, sweet light bitter finish. Quite drinkable.

21/4/2019. Bottle courtesy of Boris (and Aziz) than you so much. Pours initially clear pale gold with a small white head with a little sediment towards the end. Aroma of flowers, yeast, citrus and light herb, with a little peppery spice. Medium sweetness, light bitterness. Moderate body, slight oily texture, average carbonation. Well above your average African beer.

330ml bottle [Thanks to Aziz for this rarity!]. Hazy, orangey golden colour with average, frothy, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, white head. Rather intense, floral yeasty and grainy, spicy aroma with hints of leather, shoe polish, peat, cilantro, celery, cautious, unspecific fruitiness (close too woody, grilled pineapple); reminds of some smoked beers made from whisky malt. The impression is confirmed by the taste - hints of peat, leather, spicy grainy basis, floral yeasty overtones, dry, minimally bitter hoppy counterweight, a spicy touch of celery and lovage; minimally watery passages. Quite complex, almost smoky spiciness - very interesting.