F: average white, not long lasting. C: yellow to gold, hazy. A: malt, some fruits, orange peels, hops, spice, green pepper. T: medium body, lively carbonation, quite sweet, orange/citrusy, banana, a lot of yeast, some hoppy grassy tones on the palate, but all together tasty, 0,75l bottle from beer fest in Zottegem.

10/10/2015 - 33cl bottle @ Bles Beerhappeninng, Zottegem. Clear golden with quickly fading small head, medium carbonation, wheat, light fruits, light bitter. Definetly a nice thirstquencker but a bit thin compared to Jessenhofke RGLR.

Dark brown colored with a ruby hue, some floaters, small creamy tan head, after a while only a ring. Aroma is of toffee, candy sugar, some toasted notes and Belgian yeast. Taste is medium+ sweet brewing sugar and toffee, some toast and bit of nuts, dark fruits and low spicy notes, Belgian yeast again. Sweetish finish with some accompanying roastiness. Medium bodied and carbonation.

Bottle @ home. Some rust on the bottomside of the bottlecap and on the bottle, which shouldn’t happen. Dark brown colour with a small off-white head. Smells alcohol, almond, sweet, quadruple, raisins. Smells slightly bread, sweet, almond, raisins. Full body, soft carbo. Expected way worse after seeing the cap.

The follow-up to Vicardin since 2012. The original version was a blend of Vicaris Tripel with the filtered, white-label Girardin Gueuze (at least that is what the brewer told me at the time, when he had just launched it and won a prize with it from a Zythos Beer Festival), but the cooperation with Girardin stopped and this ’new’ version is blent with lambiek by Boon. This concept is not as new as it may seem: lambic has long been used in Belgium to blend with other beers in order to get a sourish ’versnijbier’ and this is an application of the same principle, though these old ’versnijbieren’ were usually not tripel-based. This one has a very stable, medium sized, off-white head laying a thick lacing on the glass and overlying a bright, deep ’old gold’ coloured beer with vivid sparkling, cloudy with deposit. Aroma, as promised, indeed shows both tripel maltiness and geuze tartness, with impressions of raw rhubarb, green apple peel, clear gooseberries, white bread, crushed sorrel, dried weeds, straw, peach, dust, earth, powder sugar, kiwi and a faint banana ester hint; also a bit of cardboard, although the bottle is still long before its expiry date, but it does not really bother me; there is a horseblanket funkiness and even a vague woodiness somewhere too, but I think it is not much use trying to search for the pure lambic characteristics here, this concoction will be more rewarding if simply enjoyed the way it is. Crisp and spritzy in the mouth, high but refined effervesce with a somewhat ’champagne-like’ mouthfeel as in a decent geuze, softly sourish, lots of green fruits, apple, berries, unripe plums, lime accent with very refreshing effect, minerals, hint of soapy wheat but mostly bready, soft barley sweetishness, ending in lingering sourness but still very gently so, paired with the continuing bready malts and a deep, late but unmistakable, earthy hop bitterishness, providing only background bitterness but little aroma, which is probably best in a beer mixed with geuze. I have been skeptical about this since it was still Vicardin, but in re-tasting it now, I have to admit the combination works; this is indeed a very refreshing, spritzy, appetizing apéritif kind of beer, which I would recommend, not just for what it is, but perhaps also as a stepping stone to the different ’real’ sour beer styles to people who have not ventured beyond the familiar Belgian ales yet. Nice, and of about the same quality level as its predecessor - there is a somewhat other nose to it due to the change in lambic, but in this concept, this does not make much difference, I believe. A side by side tasting of this with a vintage bottle of the original Vicardin would prove interesting in order to determine this, but from sheer memory, I cannot really pinpoint the difference.

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33cl Bottle from Prik&Tik Baelus. 2014 version. Brown colour, beige head. Aroma of spices, gale, coriander seed, alcohol, brown sugar, some liquorice, sweet dark malts. Flavour is sweet, malty, spicy, gale, liquorice, coriander seed, alcohol, laurel, hint of butterscotch, tiny bit of coffee, bitter finish. Medium bodied. Nice.