4/VIII/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Fred’s Social Distancing BBQ, BB: VIII/2022 (2020-725)

Clear red brown beer, big creamy beige head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: whisky, dried fruits, vanilla notes, soft roast, lots of alcohol, some tannins, nice and complex! MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: lots and lots of alcohol, good roast, lots of whisky, dried fruits, bit hoppy, slightly sourish. Aftertaste: caramel, more roast, alcohol, lots and lots of whisky, vanilla, some chocolate, decent, pretty bitter.

Bottle from Dranken Vandewoude and drunk on a campsite with Nelson. Hazy gold colour lasting white thick head. Light eaters on aroma. yes it's a more a blond strong than a Tripel. some decent citrus flavours. some good bitterness on the finish. yes so its somewhere between a Tripel and a strong blond nice enough.

Dark blond colour, white foam. Rather fruity nose, some peach, banana, a bit grassy. Ok.

Bottle from Dranken Vandewoude and drunk at the campervan. Clear deep brown ruby colour. thin beige head. malty fruity aroma. malty flavour. some raisins and plums. some pepper bitterness on the finish. a decent quad. lots of plum and dark grape.

Hazy golden colour, white foam. Very fruity (peach stone fruit), medium bitter. Not bad.

33cl bottle from Spar Oostende. F: big, white, good retention. C: pale gold, light hazy. A: fruity esters, bit spicy, sugary, bit herbal. T: medium to full malty base, bit spicy, sugary, mellow fruity, grassy touch, soft to medium carbonation, ok, enjoyed.

Very herbal and spicy tripel. Sweet malty, some fruity notes and a mess of herbs. Not very well balanced.

New 'streekbier' from Stekene since last year, a Belgian IPA brewed at De Graal for two hobby brewers. Bottle from Van Callenberge. Initially inches thick, irregularly cobweb-lacing, egg-white, uneven head slowly dissipating and breaking, but generally very stable head, misty deep orangey peach blonde beer with amberish glow. Strongly citrusy aroma, lots of freshly squeezed orange juice, orange cake, grapefruit pith and ripe mandarin, gradually making room for more subtle impressions of bread dough, ripe banana, cantaloupe, chewing gum, drying grass, sweetclover, red apple, dried wormwood leaves, ripe nectarine, old 'herbes de Provençe'. Spritzy, fruity onset, estery with notes of peach, red apple and a dash of banana, sweetish but the sweet impression is enhanced by the sweet-citrusy hop aromas; minerally edge from very lively carbonation, but acceptable for a hoppy Belgian ale. Soft, 'fluffy' body, bready and slightly cereally maltiness under ongoing fruity notes, connecting with the fruitiness of the hops, bringing in a - for a Belgian IPA - relatively bright, orangey retronasal citrus effect as well as a spicy, leafy, citrus pith-like bitterness, mingling with more 'earthy' notes from the yeast and some spicy phenolic aspects. The hop bitterness lingers quite long on the root of the tongue, outliving the retronasal citrusy effects. I think these effects will fade soon so that the Belgian yeast features will become even more obvious (they are very much present already), so I was lucky to get a relatively fresh bottle, I guess. Better than I was expecting, to be honest; a Belgian blonde embellished with a New World hop profile, but as usual in this kind of 'compromises' where Belgian traditional get an injection with international craft beer elements, the Belgian yeast character comes out strong - which in itself is not an issue, if one accepts Belgian IPA as, indeed, a compromise of blonde / tripel and 'real' Anglo-Saxon style IPA. Comparable with e.g. Troubadour Magma, De Plukker All Inclusive, Viven Master IPA and so on, a league of 'modernized' Belgian ales I can certainly appreciate.

Donkerbruin bier met schuim. Smaak is warm en krachtig met iets van veel whiskey en een beetje anijs en kandij.