Flaska från Etre. Disig ljusgul vätska nästan utan skum. Laktosyrlig, vinös odft med druvor, vitt vin, citrus. Inte mycket kolsyra. Frisk och syrlig, ek, fat, citrus, rejält ekad chardonnay, blommor, rönnbär, omogen aprikos. Ganska komplex och trevlig.

33cl bottle. A clear yellow golden beer with a white head. Aroma of yeasty pale malt, mild herbal malt. Taste of herbs, yeasty pale malt, grains.

750ml bottle. Vinous, floral and citrusy with some herbal notes, apricot and hints of oaky bretta notes. Okay.

Bière bue au bal à Lille. Jolie robe, bouche intéressante mais mériterait d'être retestée.

11/IX/21 - 75cl bottle @ BBGG Summer Edition (Klaas & Liesbeth's place), BB: VIII/2028, lot: 302-210920 (2021-1050) Thanks to kraddel for sharing the bottle!

Clear orange to blond beer, small creamy white head, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: spicy, yeasty, bit chemical, lemony, funky, meh. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very yeasty, bit soapy, herbal touch, bitter, funky. Aftertaste: more soapy bitterness, a bit weird, a bit unpleasant, very yeasty, bitter, rather soapy, not as well as we had hoped for.

Farmhouse ale from southern France, refermented with Brettanomyces and aged on white wine (Chardonnay) barrels; 75 cl bottles with crown cap, made especially for the BXL Beerfest of this year (even with the event itself having been cancelled). Medium thick, snow white, bit irregular and breaking but generally stable, dot-lacing head on a misty pale straw blonde beer with greenish tinge, deeper apricot blonde and hazy with sediment. Aroma of green apple, Conference pear, indeed Chardonnay as well as prosecco and just plain unfermented white grape impressions, bread crumbs, something chlorine-like, pumice, sweetclover, dried chamomile, some wood but very subtle, dried lime peel, sweat Brett note but also subtle. Crisp onset, spritzy carb, lots of green apple and unripe banana notes, pear, pale malt sweetish core with bread crumb-like edges, drying in the finish with a light touch of tannic wood and much more presence of Chardonnay – even adding an extra wine yeast breadiness, but eventually dominated by a leafy, quinine-like, wormwoody hop bitterness that lingers alongside the Chardonnay effect; some retronasal Brett funkiness is there, but still on the mild, subtle side. This will very likely increase over time so ageing one of these must prove very interesting; in this young form (less than two months), this is a very crisp, elegant, characterful quencher, worthy of a summer beer festival indeed. A lovely surprise.

Tasting @Luppolo Station (Rome). Nera, densa, impenetrabile, schiuma beige medio-leggera. Al naso note di malti tostati, cioccolato, leggera liquirizia, botte, vaniglia, frutta rossa, tabacco. In bocca ha una acidità leggera, con note di cioccolata e un leggero tocco di radice. Corpo pieno, carbonazione media. Interessante.

Every French department has its own craft breweries meanwhile, and while the French still have not found a connection with their wine heritage (which I insist would prove very interesting), their craft beer in general still fits the styles revived by the Americans in the late 20th century - like this non-flavoured imperial stout, a new one from Le Détour in the far south (Montpellier, near the Mediterranean Sea). Quite thick, dense, membrane-lacing, pale ruddy-beige, creamy and stable, regular head on a very dark mahogany brown beer - as good as black, but with a hazy burgundy hue still visible at the edges. Aroma of espresso, old coffee filters, furniture wax, hard caramel but less sweet, ground pecan nuts, extinguished bonfire and cigar ashes, burnt cardboard, gin, Ersatz chocolate, roasted chicory, dried thyme, hints of cola, damp earth and wet leather. Dried-fruity, spritzy onset, very minerally effervescence (too much so for this style, even), old raisins and dried prunes but ignoring the sweetness, hint of burnt black olive, light beef stock-ish umami effect, full and oily body but thinned a bit by said effervescence (or overcarbonation if you will); dryish middle, layers of burnt brown bread-, roasted pecan nut- and chicory-like maltiness, heavily roasted with little sweetness (though there certainly is a caramelly core to it) and strong ashiness, becoming all bitter black coffee-like in the end with a strong effect of, well, paper, cardboard or old wood ashes. Some spicy phenols pop up briefly, while an earthy note sets in underneath; the ashy effect is drying and even a bit astringent, as if actual paper ashes were used. Old coffee filter roastiness prevails, though, aided by a leafy hoppiness to provide a sheer ever-lasting, earthy bitterness, accentuated by 'jenever'-ish alcohol. Coffee grounds, ashes and alcohol remain stuck in the throat for a long time. I have argued often before in my reviews on this site that I miss the old school days, when American IPAs were invariably very hop-bitter and imperial stouts very roasted-bitter; well, this one feels like a blast from the past, but with added dramatic effects - it almost exaggerates its roastiness, ashiness and 'deeply situated' but in this case lingering sourishness accompanying heavily roasted malts or grains. I am convinced that most young beer geeks, accustomed to sweet imperial stouts that taste like boozy chocolate sauce, will be completely unable to appreciate this old-fashioned interpretation of the style, but I remember what strong stouts were like a couple of decades ago - and I thank this French brewery for bringing me back to those days for a brief moment. Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days, to quote the deceased American journalist Doug Larson.