Another rock (or metal) band beer - frankly, apart from Tanker’s Masinaol, I have not yet seen anything exciting coming from this new marketing hype, in which beer is made subordinate to the music industry. It greatly surprises me that a brewery like Eutropius is cashing in on this trend, but obviously the Flemish metal event called Graspop has a lot to do with this... Thickly cobweb-lacing, off-white, thinnish head with good edge retention and lots of ’islands’ in the middle, over a clear ’old gold’ coloured beer with low fizz. Aroma of damp kitchen cloth, soggy breakfast cereals, dried apricot, freshly struck matches (sulfuric hint, in other words), wet grass, bread crust, soapy coriander, soaked sugar corn, green banana peel, some pineapple and white pepper. Moderately fruity onset, hints of green banana and unripe gooseberry, sweetish with a sourish edge, fizzy minerally carbo, malt sweetish middle but very ’cereally’ with sharpish grainy edges as well as a softening caramelly touch, oily and even soapy, lean, while that DMTS (burnt rubber)-like sulfuric feature returns retronasally, mildly bittering finish with some grassy hops, but incapable of coping with this cereal and cornish, boring grain sweetishness, though a thin fruity edge (probably just malt fruitiness) is retained and alcohol remains hidden; soapy coriander lingers too. I keep wondering why all these rock and metal bands keep associating themselves with this type of beer - if you are extreme in music, why not be extreme in your ’house’ beer and commission, for example, an imperial stout or a black IPA? I have high doubts as to this particular beer: I can assume this is a ’Belgian ale’ (the coriander doesn’t lie), but clearly the intention was to achieve a lager-like quality and frankly, this thing comes across as a Euro strong lager, of the kind intended for alcoholics at cheap prices, but in a softer, more fruity and more ’rounded’ way. If Kataklysm wanted a Belgian ale to be associated with their name, they could have opted for something completely different instead of still trying to evocate that grainy, corny, bland pale lager experience. I do not understand this beer’s purpose outside of commercial intentions and - call me a snob if you will - I do not care for it at all. Seeing other ratings here, apparently infected bottles have been circulating as well - I guess I’m still lucky to have obtained a ’healthy’ one, and I can testify that even in this mint condition, this beer is not worthwile at all, it simply does not mean or add anything at all outside of this Canadian band’s own merchandizing purposes. Even for a Belgian blonde, of which there are way too many around here already, this is boring and below average - go figure.

33cl bottle courtesy of and shared with Kermis. Thin white head. Cloudy blond pour. Decent.

Bottle shared. Very hay golden orange with a white head. Aroma of herbs, citrus, yeast and caramel. Flavour is moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle @ Filosoof, Maldegem. Hazy blond colour, white foam. Sweet nose of pineapple, citrus and caramel. Malty. Belgian yeast. Sweet, unbalanced.

Troebel geel bier met stevig schuim. Smaak is licht bitter en licht zoet, fruitig abrikoos en citrus.

Donkerbruin bier met veel schuim wat snel inzakt. Smaak is licht bitter en licht zoet met iets van chokolade en karamel en hop. Komt wat licht over.

Quite a strong aroma and flavour of bread dough and candy sugar. Fairly crisp and clean despite the sweetness with some bitter citrus peel in the finish.

Helder donkergeel bier met stevig schuim. Smaak is licht zoet, fruitig en bitter hoppig met iets van abrikoos, citrus en koriander.