Recently Dolle Brouwers have apparently made three fruit versions of their Dulle Teve tripel because locals visiting the brewery kept asking for it - but only in very limited qualities and only for consumption in situ, so you will never see these bottles outside of the brewery. One of them is this one, flavoured with dried blood orange, which I was just too curious about. Snow white, coarse, irregular, breaking and eventually completely dissolving head over a misty deep orangey-golden robe with slow-moving but visible sparkling. Very odd aroma initially more reminiscent of freshly crushed black peppercorns and paprika powder before anything even remotely smelling like blood orange appears - in fact there is hardly any citrusiness to the nose apart from old dried orange or lemon rind, with even a vague touch of lemon butter, next to soggy cereals, 'graanjenever', clove, straw, cheese rind, biscuit, wrinkled autumn apples. Fruity onset, hinting at pear, peach and only then some blood orange but in a sweet to almost sugary way (candied I suppose) and not refreshingly citric as I was hoping, though still feeling more 'natural' than the strawberry flavouring was in the Aardbei version of this; softish carb, slick but full body, bready core with biscuity edge, sweetish but the sugariness has worn off already at this stage while this paprika- and pepper-like aroma returns retronasally. Floral hops and warming, 'jenever'-like alcohol finish things off, with a lingering bitterishness; the blood orange effect dies out at an earlier stage so it is fair to say that in this case the fruit complements the beer rather than taking it over. The sugary effect makes it feel very "un-DDB" actually so these fruit experiments will never be my favourite Dolle beers, but this is an admittedly fascinating concoction, tasting and smelling very different from what I was expecting. Note that the brewery itself does not seem to take these three fruit variants too seriously - I am not including the cherry one here because that one was made with actual cherries from an actual cherry tree in the actual garden of the brewery (you can see it from the patio) - and the fact that the crown cap of this bottle simply said "BS" may perhaps be a hint at that...

New experimental brew by the legendary Dolle Brouwers, basically the wort used for Dulle Teve inoculated with the starter used to normally produce sourdough, from a sourdough producer whom the brewer has long been acquainted with - in fact the brewer in question is also an artist, as many beer lovers will know, and has already created a work of art for this producer years ago, a work of art now reflected in the label of this beer. Bottle of 75 cl with crown cap (one of only two hundred made) shared at Dolle's own premises in Esen. Thick and frothy, snow white, plaster-like lacing, stable head on a misty straw blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge and lively sparkling, turning cloudy further on. Aroma of indeed recognisable fresh sourdough - or fresh bread dough in general, even baked bread, oxidised green apple slices, sour cream, dried sorrel, straw, field flowers, raw Kohlrabi, old lemon zest, drying grass, sweaty note in the background (even a tad cheesy, one of the bacteria in the sourdough starter, no doubt). Very crisp onset, fruity in a dryish, restrained way, hinting at green pear, unripe peach and oxidised apple slices, finely tingling carb, soft and 'moelleux' body. Very bready core - indeed perhaps just that little bit more so than is standard in artisanal Belgian beers, with a recognisable aspect of sourdough bread to it. Ends with gently drying floral hop bitterness, fruity and 'extra-bready' yeastiness and vague spicy phenols (not explicit enough to mention clove or nutmeg, though). The sourdough bread flavour proves persistent and lingers after swallowing. I may have been a clever idea to have this mature for two extra years in the bottles after brewing - unusually long for such a beer, perhaps, but it must have contributed to its 'rural', stable, I would even say farmhouse character; the end result is very saison-like in a good, traditional way, with a soft and fluffy breadiness balanced out by a touch of refreshing lactic sourness - not actually making the whole beer sour, but adding this magic sparkle of acidity which greatly enhances drinkability. Ideal starter on a sunny spring afternoon at the Dolle's brewery patio.

Sample at Mikkeller Baghaven, Copenhagen, during MBCC Gold Event bottle share event. Sorry but bad memories... strange aroma.