Golden with a white head - Malt and somer citrus in the aroma - Malt body with some citrus and corrinader flavour - The malt goes into the finsih with some yeaty notes - This was nice

Uklar gylden med hvitt skum. Aroma hvetemalt krydder humle. Smak hvetemalt koriander humle sitrus gjær. Fruktig og saftig med godt krydderpreg. Godt øl. Flaske fra Vinmonopolet Evenskjer

Appelsinfarget. Uklar. Filmskum. Litt lacing. Aroma: Litt gjær. Søtlig krydder. Myk munnfølelse. Smaken litt søt. Mere krydder. Forsiktig tørr avslutning.

Bottle from LDW. Hazy yellow colour, white foam. Floral, citrussy, some banana, malty sweetness. Well balanced, medium carbonation. Not a bad tripel.

Another one in the wave of commissioned (and rarely inspired) brews facilitated by the concept of BeerSelect here in Ghent, this time for an Antwerp fraternity (Magistra). Towering high, foamy, egg-white, very pillowy and ultimately even cauliflower-shaped, plaster-like lacing head (filling your entire glass if you do not pour carefully), sitting on top of an initially lightly hazed, warm apricot blonde beer with pale orangey tinge and fierce sparkling rushing throughout, turning misty and deeper peachy with sediment. Aroma initially muffled by two inches of head, but then slowly revealing impressions of unripe peach, banana peel, coriander seed, white bread pulp, clear iron (confirmed by the hand test - and probably explaining the explosive and rocky head formation too), drying grass, old abbey cheese, dry clay, dust, vague accents of pineapple, green pear and cooked chicken. Spritzy onset, fruity but somewhat restrained in sweetness, hinting at halfripe banana, pear and unripe peach, lively carbonated with minerally effects, supple and bit 'fluffy' body; a thin layer of honeyish residual sugar lingers over a slick cereally maltiness, with that iron effect clearly noticeable at the sides and an increasing apple-like aspect towards the end, where dusty coriander seed and a floral hop bitterness take over. Some bready yeastiness remains in the end, running parallel with the hops, providing a late but eventually leafy and confident, yet ever friendly bitterness. An ordinary Belgian style blonde ale once again - of which there are thousands around in this country already. I can understand its purpose, this is clearly to be preferred over the cheap industrial lagers most students tend to drink - but what's with the iron? An attempt to solve an initial lack of head retention, perhaps?

5/III/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: n/a, just a smudge of ink (2021-179)

Clear orange beer, small creamy off-white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: passion fruits, orange peel, juicy, yeasty, bit spicy, some tropical fruits. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter, bit spicy, sesame seed, bit dirty, sulphur, very bitter, slightly fruity. Aftertaste: very bitter, bit metallic, sulphur, yeast, dusty, bit chemical, some band-aid, medicinal finish, meh.

Bouteille 33cl, BB 05/01/2023.
Blonde virant sur un effet paille accompagnée d'un léger voile, col épais crémeux tenace blanc.
Arôme porte de fines effluves fruitées - pointe d'agrumes - écorce qui apporte une bonne fraîcheur d'orange, épicé en rétro - girofle, coriandre avec un rétro houblonné noble un peu terreux - qcq phénols et esters de la levure.
Palais est, malgré son slogan de bière de contradiction, assez centré sur une approche belge - cela se ressent sur un caractère ester levure misant fort sur le côté triple. Le tout s'accompagne d'une bonne dose d'épices - et vu le rayon d'épices marocaines, je m’attendais peut être à un peu plus de soleil - ici, l'impression reprend l'inspiration d'une blanche belge - coriandre - pointe de gingembre pour l'épicé avec un léger retrait cumin voire cardamome ?
Le tout garde une approche malts belges - pils, cara pâle avec une touche fine et claire de sucre candi, houblonné noble avec une petite pointe de poivre concassé en fin de bouche.

Tripel flavoured with dandelion, from one of now absolutely countless hobby brewers in Belgium, brewed at Craywinckelhof like so many of these overambitious kitchen brews. Quite thick and frothy, off-white, uneven-bubbled, irregularly 'relief'-lacing head sustained by a whirl of almost champagne-like bubbles shooting upwards through an initially clear, deep and pure golden beer with 'metallic' old gold hue, shifting to a misty apricot blonde with sediment. Aroma of dry straw, banana peel, slight bubblegum even, 'oude jenever', cold French fries, indeed a hint of (dried) dandelion and other common weeds, bread crust, minerals, something 'dusty', old white pepper, rusk, potato juice, very vague 'band aid' phenols in warming up (but luckily remaining very vague all the way through). Restrainedly sweetish onset, banana ester but not overly sweet, mingled with hints of unripe peach and some pear, fizzy carbonation with minerally effects strongly lingering through a pale-malty, bready middle (strong as in artificially carbonated sparkling water), working to a gently herbal finish with a soapy effect from coriander seed and indeed this light background bitterishness of dried bitter plants - but remaining so light that nobody without the knowledge would ever suspect dandelion in this beer. Floral, bit leafy hop bitterness works together with 'jenever'-like alcohol to provide a slight astringency in the end - the alcohol eventually dominates, but fortunately not in an exaggerated way (contrary to what I sometimes encounter in many other new tripels). The finish is also softened by lingering malty and yeasty breadiness, providing some subtle sweetness against the hops, that herbal dandelion and the alcohol. In all: still a tad too boozy to be a truly great tripel, and the usefulness of the added dandelion escapes me a bit, but there is worse on the market these days. Passes - but on a side note: the unreasonably high score here is probably due to a 'hidden' tick from the brewer himself, though this is hard to prove - but if this is indeed the case, boo to that.

Bottle from LDW, Eke. Hazy golden colour, white foam. Nose of banana, citrus. Taste is bitter, spicy, some banana and medicins. Lots of alcohol. Harsh and unbalanced. Tripel I don't like.