Gents Bier Festival 2023 - Black and oily with no head. Aroma and flavour of leather, liquorice, Bay leaf. Slick but could be thicker.

The second one in a series of new pastry sours by Totem; while the first one combined banana and kiwi, this one goes all citrusy and uses mandarin and calamansi (a Philippine hybrid of mandarin and kumquat). Thanks to Klaas, the brewer, for sharing! Moussy, opening, egg-white head, opaque orangey-golden robe with deep apricot tinge. Aroma extremely citrusy in a very perfumey and refreshing way: lots of mandarin and calamansi of course, freshly squeezed orange juice, marmalade even, banana, Orangina lemonade, orange-flavoured fruit yoghurt, vanilla, whipped cream. An extreme wave of sweet-and-tart citrus in the mouth, loads and loads of mandarin and calamansi but still feeling natural and refreshing, hints of lemon and orange, the first connecting with the underlying yoghurty lactic acid, mitigated by sweetness and creaminess, as well as additional fruity notes of banana, cherimoya, mangosteen and yellow kiwi. Nevertheless, everything remains soaked in citrus from beginning to end, in a way I never encountered before - not even in actual citrus-based drinks. A milky creaminess softens the sour aspect of this huge citrus flavour and accentuates its sweetness, but the balance between sweet and sour is maintained till the end. Baffling example of this new generation of smoothie sours, I had a few now and I am beginning to understand the appeal they may have on the latest generation of craft beer drinkers - but this one beats them all, this is immensely citrusy - more citrusy than citrus, in a way... I was absolutely stunned by this, 'unbeery' as it may be. One that delivers a smile instantly, even more bright and radiant than its predecessor.

Almost clear golden colour, white foam. Very sweet and boozy, almost syrupy with citrussy and hints of grapefruit. Strong, sweet, boozy but also hoppy.

Very good white head over coldhazed golden beer. Rather neutral nose (for such a strong beer!). There is lupulin obviously; vegetable frying oil, bit grapefruitpeel. Sweet, white grapejuice with a sugaroverload - probably natural, but all the same... Again frying oil and sugared pickles; further a good dose of lupulin, giving an undistinct bitter flavour. Viscous, almost cloying; yet good carbonation. Overdose - but not from the hops. Imagine white grapejuice from the bottle with a lupulin injection. I blame the dextrin malt.

New pastry sour by Totem (their third one in this style if I am not mistaken), this time with ingredients one tends to associate more closely with pastry sour than, say, carrot or rhubarb. Thanks Erwin for the can! Thinnish and open, loosely structured, snow white, unstable and dissolving head over a hazy warm apricot blonde beer with pale orangey tinge. Aroma of very strong ripe banana and even Pisang Ambon banana liqueur, also very strong green kiwi, Key lime pie, limoncello without the alcohol, vanilla beans, honeydew, meringue, sweetened pineapple yoghurt, cake dough, homemade lemonade. Opens with that typical pastry sour combo of very sweet and lactic sour, extremely fruity with that ‘mushy’ sweetness of banana dominating – yet gradually replaced by a strong green kiwi flavour matching well with the underlying lactic acidity; guava, granadilla and pineapple impressions join in, through a medium carbonated, very velvety and rounded body, built round a sweet doughy malt core and carrying retronasal added vanilla in its tail. The lactic sourness is very yoghurty and fruity, simple and efficient in cutting through the sweetness – but alas the sweetness appears too strong and dominates a bit too much in the finish, where this sticky banana liqueur effect is the last impression. I still have to make up my mind whether I actually like pastry sours (and its offspring smoothie sours) or not – this kind of concoctions is not entirely my cup of tea, but I cannot deny that this is technically very well done, if the sweetness is a bit much for me; it is also the umpteenth proof that Totem really is a cutting edge craft brewing business in Flanders, where the overwhelming majority of brewers stick to local 20th-century traditions. Injecting a totally uncompromising global craft colour in this traditional culture, or putting it next to it at least, has always been Totem’s core business and Klaas and Liesbeth still prove that their inventivity in this field remains limitless.