Hazy golden colour, white foam. Fruity notes, a bit herbal, quiet sweet and fruity tripel. Good.

Bottle 33cl. @home poured into a shaker. Slightly unclear pale golden colour, good frothy white head, slowly dissipating, good lacing. Aroma pale malts, lemon, grassy hops. Taste medium sweet and light bitter, malty, lemon, grapefruit, light salty notes. Medium body, watery to oily texture, lingering dry sweetbitter aftertaste, orange pith, chalky notes, refreshing, lacks character though, okay.

20/VIII/22 - 33cl bottle @ Gents Bierfestival, BB: n/a (2022-1063)

Clear orange beer, creamy dense off-white head, stable, non adhesive. Aroma: malty, grains, hay, some cow fodder, a whiff of raw mussels, caramel, a bit yeasty, some ripe banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: a little bitter, malty touch, grains, cow fodder, ok but not very good. Aftertaste: banana, yeasty, grains, a bitter touch, a little grassy, ok but pretty boring. Gimmick beer, that apparently needs to be served in a can shaped glass, hence the name (cannette = French for a beverage can). Yet the beer itself is being bottled. Oh my...

Billenbijter

Bottle at home. Golden color, medium sized white head that lasts quite long. Aroma is malts, a bit yeasty and lightly citrusy. Flavor is malts, again a bit hoppy, softy bitter, a bit yeasty. Decent body and carbonation. 8-7-7-7-7,5

The first beer by another new hobby brewer going commercial, located in Hamme in East Flanders; brewed at BeerSelect and honest in the sense of claiming to have no story and no history... Eggshell-white, moussy, foamy, membrane-lacing, bit irregular but stable head; misty yellow blonde robe with vague ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of old potatoes, soggy old bread, damp straw, banana peel, coriander seed, pear, musty damp kitchen cloth, oxidized red apple slices, candyfloss, plaster, stale bagels, spoiled celeriac, green cabbage 'stoemp' of four days old, clove, some very faint band aid. Estery onset, sweet with notes of ripe banana (quite strong), cooked apple and pear, fizzily carbonated; full, rounded mouthfeel with somewhat soapy edges. The soapiness continues around a brioche-bready, fluffy pale malt sweetness lying under a proportionally thick layer of residual honeyish sweetness; clove-like phenols, verging on the edge of the medicinal, appear in the end, while the ripe yellow fruit and honey notes linger. A floral hop touch shows up too, with withering grass-like associations but, sadly, not enough bitterness to balance out the sweetness; the alcohol, though considerable here, remains admittedly quite well hidden, though an 'appeljenever'-like effect is noticeable. Plaster- and soap-like effects linger on - and assist to make this already unbalanced whole even more tiring and annoying. Sweet, crudely made, feebly structured, boring tripel: this is not "just a good beer", this is "just the umpteenth bland and overly sweet cliché tripel". I am still surprised more of these half-hearted tripels keep showing up and I can only hope this Dionysos brewer has more solid recipes up his sleeve before taking to BeerSelect again for a new one...

Solsletta 160522. Golden color with a white head. Aroma is yeast, fruit, malt. Flavor is yeast, fruit, malt, pine, sugar, herbs, bread. Nice beer.m

Smell- weak wheat, yeast, citrus. Foam-thin, weak sourness, weak acidic tones. Head is large, and white. Sticks. Appearance- generic white bottle cap, but a nice label. Clear-ish yellow color, medium carbonation. From - pint Taste- citrus, weak sourness, weak wheat, weak hops. Bland and not for me. Something missing.

Special version of this ‘Engelken’ tripel by Brouwbende in Berlare (East Flanders), a self-proclaimed ‘band’ of hobby brewers now going commercial through Beerselect. This version is infused with vermouth and not just any vermouth, but a vermouth made locally in Berlare too (Donc Vermouth, named after the Overmere-Donk lake nearby). From a 75 cl bottle (bought at Bontinck in Zele) which had been opened several days prior to sampling – and apparently gushed upon opening; snow white, large-bubbled and loosely knit, bit irregular and open head, leaving a thin ring around the edge, over an initially clear pale straw-golden beer, turning misty and ochre-tinged ‘darker blonde’ further on. Aroma very clearly dominated by vermouth indeed (Martini Bianco!), ripe pear, apple slices, sugared celery, lots of vermouth-driven ‘herbaceousness’ and spiciness shifting between anise, clove, allspice, tarragon and of course absinthe wormwood, spice bread, ‘kruidenjenever’, banana peel, dried orange peel. Sweet onset with fruity notes of primarily strong pear, less strong apple and light banana, soft carb (most of the carbonation having moved out of the bottle by now), orange peel note, supple body; thinly brioche-bready maltiness under very strong vermouth flavour, bringing the whole carrousel of spiciness and herbaceousness back (absinthe, actual clove, star anise, allspice, tarragon) paired with residual sugariness like in an old and ‘maderized’ bottle of Martini Bianco or even sweet white wine. This combo, together with the warming alcohol effect, creates a very liqueurish ending, more reminiscent of some classic vermouth-containing cocktail (like a Manhattan) than beer – but then a background glimpse of floral hoppiness and an after effect of something bread-crumb-like feebly bring the beer back to the foreground, albeit continuously soaked in vermouth. The vermouth by itself, though I am by no means a connoisseur, seems like a fine example of its genre, and this concoction offers ample introduction to it, as the beer is literally drowned in vermouth; there is a clear oxidation effect, but as said the bottle had been opened (and then of course closed again) several days before I got the chance to taste a sample so it is difficult to tell whether this effect comes from the beer having been exposed to oxygen in the time between opening and sampling, or from the vermouth having been (deliberately or not) oxidized before it went into the beer – I assume the first option is the most realistic one. In any case, in the form in which I tasted this ‘blend’, it is admittedly original, but the beer-liquor ratio is not for me – I am naturally skeptic about these ‘infused’ beers anyway and this one simply goes over the top. That said, once I altered my mindset and began treating this as a kind of liqueur or fortified wine-based aperitif rather than a strong beer, I must admit it was kind of tasty, and inviting to get to know the Donc vermouth it showcases – a difficult one to rate, so benefit of the doubt with an extra point for sparking my interest in vermouth, which completely overwhelms the beer here.

5/VI/22 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Akke’s place, BB: n/a (2022-661)

Pretty cloudy yellowish beige beer, big fluffy off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: marijuana notes coming up from the bottle, very spicy in the glass, lots of coriander, malty, cookies, weird, nauseous smell. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: weird, grains, malty, very spicy, a bit lemony, lots of coriander. Aftertaste: weird, bitter, coriander, spicy, meh, some cookie dough, a bit sweet, don’t like...