A bit dry and giving the impression of staleness. Like a poor version at a local style. Bier Central Gent

10/X/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ verjaardagsfeestje Anniek, BB: 16/III/23 (2021-1151)

Clear blond orange beer, big solid creamy off-white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: sweet, almonds, amaretto, banana, bit funky, yeast, floral, bit sugary impression… MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit medicinal, very yeasty, spicy touch, bit sugary, alcohol. Aftertaste: little bitter, almonds, bit oxidized, herbal hops, yeasty finish.

New blonde by Boelens, intended to support the catering business after a series of Covid-related lockdowns; made with Flemish ingredients (though Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is of course a part of the Netherlands) and only sold in local pubs, not in stores. Thanks to Johan for scoring me this bottle. Thick and pillowy, plaster-lacing, egg-white, dense and very moussy head resting on an initially near-clear, warm yellow-golden beer, turning into a misty apricot gold with sediment. Aroma of bread crumbs, banana, apple peel, crackers, field flowers, turnip, dry straw, baker's yeast, wet flour, unripe peach, hints of honey, soap and petrichor. Sweetish onset, banana ester mingled with light pineapple and peach notes, very lively carbonation adding a minerally effect but in a softish way; soft, fluffy mouthfeel. Bread pulp- and cracker-like malt sweetishness with a thin layer of honeyish residual sugars on top but moving on to a more dryish, quenching character, when a light residue of bready yeast supports a grassy, slightly leafy, floral hop bitterness, making for a gently bitter, dry but still fruity finish. Quite typical Belgian blonde indeed - as intended - so even if I can appreciate Boelens' message to support local pubs, this beer still feels like carrying water to the sea, as the Dutch saying goes. Completely interchangeable with so many other blondes, including many by Boelens itself, but admittedly correctly executed so not the worst one in this vast ocean of similar beers.

Raspberry beer of top fermentation, brewed at Boelens for a raspberry farm in Melsele, a village in my home region locally reputed for its raspberries and strawberries. Thick and moussy, audibly fizzing, lightly lacing, 'dirty' off-pinkish white, stable head on a misty brownish-tinged ruddy vermillion coloured beer. Aroma of indeed real red raspberries though not in a very fresh way, raspberry bushes, dusty old cotton cloth, old moist cardboard, sweet cherry tomato, sweetclover, dried chili powder somehow, white bread and old bread crumbs, earthy beetroot, honey, red apple, banana peel. Evidently fruity onset with clear raspberry juice, both sweet and mildly sour, mingled with apple- and banana-like esters, lively carbonated with rather fierce yet refined and therefore non-distracting fizz, supple and bit soapy body; bread-crusty core with slight caramelly edge, remaining soaked in raspberry juice, even showing some tannic effects in the end from - I suppose - raspberry seeds. Low but noticeable, earthy hop bitterness blends with clove-like phenols, lingering esters and strong yeasty breadiness, while this play of sour and sweet goes on till the last drop, filling the beer with raspberry juice from onset to finish; a slight degree of oxidation is noticeable somewhere, but not in an annoying way. I was dreading this one a bit, to be honest, but it is not the lemonade-like fruit syrup one so often sees: it keeps a certain balance between sweet, sour and bitter, with enough raspberry to convince the fruit lovers, in a very natural way; all in all, this is not half bad, even if these more 'beery' apéritif fruit beers that have popped up throughout Belgium in the past years are not my personal cup of tea. Better than expected, in short.

Gusher. Dull blind with lasting wispy head. Aroma and flavour have background cereal notes and bread dough yeast. Slight touchbof candy sugar in the background.

Huge, very dense yellow head over lively carbonated, clear golden beer; end of bottle solid yeast. Herbal nose, herb , good aromatic balance malts-EU hops. Bit toasted, spicy. Really bitter flavour. Notes of hops, ink, walnut, oakgalls, in the way that there is definite astringency, dry-out effect. This keeps hanging around whilst the few maltsugars are long gone in the aftertaste. Seen the wollop of yeast at the end of the bottle, yeasty flavours and creamier MF are for the last sips. Seems rather better bodied than 5.5% would warrant. Very lively carbonation. Not without merits. An outspoken bitter beer old style, pre-APA/IPA craze.

Backlog October 2009 as Boelens Santa Bee. Amber body with floaters and a huge beige head. Aroma of malt and mild spices. Taste is sweet malt and honey with some kind of sourness. Drinkable but feels a bit unbalanced.