Bottle at De Paas, Den Haag. Poured a clear dark brown with a frothy off white head. The flavour is sweet malt, caramel toffee, roast, liqourice. The flavour is light sweet with a bubbly frothy liqourice bitter palate. Medium bodied with lively carbonation.

Tap at De Paas, Den Haag. Poured a slightly hazy straw colour with a frothy white head and some clingy lace. The aroma is light grassy hop, yeast, citrus. The flavour is moderate to light bitter with a light zesty citrus yeast, grassy hop bitter palate. Medium bodied with average carbonation.

Tap at De Paas, Den Haag. Poured a clear straw colour with a frothy white head. The aroma is big citrus, yeast, gluey resin. The flavour is moderate bitter with a crisp floral hop, yeast, light alcohol bitter palate. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

33cl bottle courtesy of and shared with Jmgreenuk. Medium off white head. Clear black pour. Some chocolate and sweetness.

33cl bottle at the Paas. Medium creamy white head. Hazy golden pour. Slight bitterness. Refreshing

On tap at the Paas. Medium creamy white head. Hazy golden pour. Ok but nothing special.

My first beer from this new craft brewery (they’re everywhere in the Netherlands now - even in far-out Groningen but this one is apparently brewed at Salland in Overijssel), big cheers to Craftmember’s wife and son for this bottle. Label elaborately - and, frankly, redundantly - explains the use of the wolf as a symbolic animal (including the onomatopoeic and ridiculously unnecessary "awooooooooooeh!" - which does not even remotely sound like a wolf’s howl if you try to read it out loud); where have I seen that before? Oh yes: Lupus and 3 Fourquets in Belgium, to name a few... Irregular, loosely structured, off-white head breaking quickly in the middle but leaving thin patches of foam on the surface and a steady moussy rim on the edge; clear ’old gold’ robe with medium fizz, turning lightly hazy with yeast sediment added. Aroma of melting rubber and burnt plastic (DMTS!), steamed broccoli, spelt bread, dry earth, bitter honey, dried apricot somewhere, grass, pear, withering flowers (even faint vanilla orchid), peanuts, wet cardboard, fried egg, very old dried orange peel, even some yellow grapefruit which I assume represents the Cascade, lifting up the rest. Mildly fruity onset, hints of dried apricot, green banana and unripe green plum, low in sweetness and soft in sourishness, softish carbo, supple and slick mouthfeel, bit oily and resinous due to the hops, evolving slowly over a backbone of grainy, lightly bready, not unpleasant maltiness with a sourish and spicy edge to it doubtlessly coming from the spelt. Bitterish finish, spicy hoppiness with resinous and slight dried grapefruit peel-like character, lasting for quite a long time and actually blending well with the light astringency of the spelt, altogether earthy and dry, but with retronasal grapefruit accents thanks to the Cascade; still a grainy sweetishness and a pear-like fruitiness keep lingering too. Quenching spelt beer with high drinkability, but the DMTS odour bothered me and I think it could have been better with a tad more malt sweetness - this is, in all, perhaps a bit too ’wryly’ spelt-like, so to speak. In comparison with e.g. Joseph, one of the heralding spelt beers in the Low Countries launched many a moon ago by Silenrieux in French-speaking Belgium, this lacks rotundity, fragrance and elegance. Comes across as quite lager-like as well - which apparently, according to the text on the label, was the intention, so all things considered, this more or less fits into the tradition of Belgian blondes, the more commercial examples of which were originally intended to compete against the tidal wave of pale lager (’pils’) in long-forgotten times. Luckily the Cascade is there to uplift the aroma and thus keeping things interesting (with a nod to modern day IPA), otherwise this would have ended up below 3/5 for me.

0,33 l bottle bought at Mitra, Haren. Nearly clear golden in the glass, more than one finger off white head. Grain and hay on the nose with some soap. Taste starts with more fruity sourness, followed by a mid grainy sequence, some hop, low bitterness. A lot of different tastes, but does it work? I don´t know. Can not really convince, maybe in the summer.