Tripel made for a local division of the Chiro (a youth organisation), namely the Saleghem division of Meerdonk, a small village just a couple of miles from my home village; the name Saleghem refers to the Saleghem creeks, a string of creeks and swamps that meanders through this northeastern corner of the Eastern Flanders province - with a few of them located around my home village as well. Both the current junior brewer of Paenhuys and his mentor confirmed to me independently from each other that this is made to an original recipe so not an alias of an existing beer. Probably a one-off, at the time I’m giving in this rating, it is not yet certain that it will be repeated. Lots of pressure is released upon opening and there is a certain amount of slow gushing, but nothing dramatic. Coarse, irregular, frothy, egg-white head builds up quickly and leaves some cobweb lacing on the wall of the glass; it retains quite well, remaining closed for a while, but does break open here and there after some minutes; initially almost clear peach blonde colour with a pale orangey hue, hazed a bit by a translucent, thin suspension of yeast but turning into an equally, peachy orange with sediment. Somewhat weird, notably spicy and phenolic aroma of banana-flavored bubblegum, sweet cherry tomatoes, cloves, liquorish candy, dried calamus root, meadowsweet, peanut butter, lots of unsugared orange juice mixed through the whole, candied apricot, soap, caramel, orange blossom, hints of marmelade, freshly cut turnips, stewed rhubarb, dusty old dried flowers, brown paper. Very crisp, lively onset suffering hugely from overcarbonation, numbing the tongue completely in an obnoxious, almost painful way and covering the sweetish banana, peach and gooseberry notes underneath; it accentuates a deeper, more substantial, very vivid citrus fruit-like sourness with a sweeter edge, reminiscent of grapefruit and orange juice mixed together. Bready and lightly caramelly malt sweet underground, yeasty notes becoming stronger and explicitly phenolic in the end, very clove-like retronasally, but meanwhile this citrus juice ’sharpness’ keeps filling the mouth, with sweet-and-sour effects, eventually turning bitter in a very grapefruity way - much more grapefruity than actual grapefruity hops in fact, making me believe that some or other form or real citrus fruit went in here. An earthy hoppiness lags behind as well as bready, eventually almost starchy yeasty notes and lingering phenols, while the severe overcarbonation keeps disturbing the real flavors. Sugary sweetness (as in white sugar) accompanies the whole palate and even cloys a bit - an aspect which, in combination with this very convincing citrus presence, lends the overall beer a lemonade-like profile, a ’lemonade tripel’ so to speak. This is in any case a weird concoction, a tripel alright but certainly no alias of Schapenkop (the brewery’s house tripel), clearly something went in here and very generously so - my bet is firmly on some or other form of citrus fruit. This beer tastes almost Radler-like, a Radler at tripel ABV level one might argue but in this case still with more beer than lemonade appeal, bringing me to the tentative conclusion that it must contain orange juice or, perhaps, (artisanal?) citrus-based lemonade, both of which might account for the slightly higher ABV and the strong overcarbonation as well. Strange beer, not sure what to think of it, it does not really fit my personal taste, too phenolic, a bit ’dirty’ and most definitely way too overcarbonated for its own good, but if this is a ’fruit’ beer made with orange juice, then I must admit that it has achieved what it set out to do, not unlike e.g. Bertinchamps’s Pamplemousse, but in a more ’natural’ way. Puzzling - and at this ABV, perhaps not too well fit for the Chiro children, who may be tempted by its almost lemonade-like general profile - in that sense, it may have been wiser to opt for a ’real’ Radler... I can, however, imagine this having the potential to become a hit among more classically oriented Belgian beer drinkers, if it were to be produced on a much larger scale than the apparently only hundreds - but not thousands - of bottles that were only made now. I classified it as a tripel here because that is clearly still the ’beery’ basis, but I’ll ask the brewer what they threw into this and who knows, if this is Schapenkop mixed with orange juice as I suspect it is, it might have to be reclassified as a super strong Radler...?

The competitor of Achterdeur, essentially the same beer but fermented with a "French" saison yeast strain instead of classic Belgian tripel yeast. Snow white, moussy, stable head, hazy golden robe with slight olive greenish tinge. Aroma of gooseberry, apple peel, light banana (notably lighter than in Achterdeur), unripe yellow plum, cereals, unripe pear, faint touch of DMS (cooked white cabbage). Fruity, bit estery onset, banana touch but again much less so than Achterdeur, more emphasis on gooseberry and green apple extending to the finish, soapy and soft mouthfeel, cereally and bit bready pale malt sweetish body, soapiness seemingly more explicit here than in Achterdeur; minerally side notes as well. Floral and bit herbal hop bitterish touch in the finish alongside lingering fruity esters. Beats Achterdeur as far as I am concerned in being less ’banana ester sweet’ but the difference is small and if they would chose to continue this one, I’d recommend them to make it a bit drier and hoppier, which would probably fit the saison yeast character better. Curious to see if either of these two beers makes it to the shelves of my local bottle shops within the coming months...

Paenhuys is aspiring to renew their range - promising a lot of changes and novelties, fortunately they are situated less than ten miles away from where I live so I’ll be able to follow this closely. This one, presented at ZBF, is a good example of this new search: it is part of a ’tandem’ of two blonde beers only differing in the yeast strain used, and Dave and Sylvester - attending Paenhuys’ booth at ZBF - kept track of which of these two the visitors of the festival preferred. This Achterdeur was fermented with Belgian tripel yeast. Looked exactly the same as its Voordeur counterpart / competitor, with a moussy, snow white head and hazy pale golden robe with greenish hue; aroma of banana, some bubblegum even, straw, pear, soap, bread, pear. Fruity flavour, obvious banana ester, some apple and peach, gooseberry sourish touch, medium carbonation, soft bready pale malt sweet body, light herbal hop bitterish touch in the finish. Perfectly acceptable but very stereotypical Belgian blonde, the least interesting of the two for me but the difference is small.

Sampled at Zythos 2017. Thnx for sharing, Ruben and Tim ! Pours bit more unclear than the voordeur. Smell is way less sharp, on overall not that intense, even. Taste is sharp, overcarbonated as well. Mild citrussy notes; OK . Overall a less intense tasting version of the voordeur.

Sampled at Zythos 2017. Thnx for sharing, Ruben and Tim ! Pours clear blonde. Small white head. Smell is bit sharp, mild popcorn notes. Some citrussy aspects. Taste is very sharp, bitter, citrussy. Agressive carbo.

Sampled at Zythos 2017. Thnx for sharing, Ruben and Tim ! Pours unclear blonde, small white head. Smell is bit sweet, natural maltyness. Taste is full, bit bitter. Very lemon-ish citrussy. AVG MF and carbo.

Pours clear and golden yellow with a small white head. Aroma is estery and light fruity. Mild sour. Fruity. Estery. Dry and light fruity. Bitter and mild fruity far finish.

33 cl bottle. Pours hazy yellow with a small white head. Aroma is fruity. Grassy and toasted malty. Sweet and crisp hoppy. Phenolic and fruity finish.

Imported from my RateBeer account as 't Paenhuys Achterdeur (by 't Paenhuys):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 2/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 2/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.1/5

23/IV/17 - on tap @ Zythos Bier Festival 2017 (Leuven) - BB: n/a (2017-521) Thanks to kraddel for sharing today's beers!

Clear pale yellow beer, small creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: sweet, some marzipan and almonds, malty. MF: very lively carbon, too much to be enjoyable. Medium body. Taste: alcohol noticeable, and is that chilli? I guess not. Bit fruity, some citrus, soft bitterness. Aftertaste: chilli? Nah. Little bitter, fruity notes, some citrus.

Imported from my RateBeer account as 't Paenhuys Voordeur (by 't Paenhuys):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.2/5

23/IV/17 - on tap @ Zythos Bier Festival 2017 (Leuven) - BB: n/a (2017-520) Thanks to kraddel for sharing today's beers!

Clear pale yellow beer, creamy white head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: grains, hay, sweet, meh. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty bitter, some citrus, fruity touch, quite some Belgian yeast flavours. Aftertaste: sweet touch, malty, little bitter.