Self-proclaimed beer sommelier Ben Vinken presents his second year of seasonals exclusively sold through the Delhaize supermarkets, the second one of this year being this ’spéciale belge’, or Belgian amber ale. The 75 cl bottle with hangtag has a cork stop which pops out under high pressure, but there is no gushing. Medium thick and completely closed, eggshell white, moussy head over an initially clear, very purely amber coloured beer with calm sparkling, misty with deposit. Surprisingly sweet, somewhat perfumed, lightly spicy aroma of mango, melon, persimmon, roasted walnut, strawberry, soap, hint of toasted bread, roses, dry cookies, butterscotch, ginger and faint hints of fried egg, minerals, freshly fermented farmland and even nail polish (phenols!). Restrainedly fruity onset, dried apricot, hint of banana, redcurrant, with strong, sharp carbonation, a bit much even; smooth and fruity malt sweetness ensues, caramelly and a bit toasted but softly so, evolving into a gently drying finish with some herbal hop bitterness but mostly the caramel malt sweetness continuing, though I get a certain amount of chemical wryness as well. I regard Ben Vinken’s overly commercial and chauvinistically Belgian approach to beer with a certain caution, but I can somehow appreciate the fact that he chose a spéciale belge in this series, as this style, which can roughly be described as Belgian pale ale (BPA?), has been steadily declining in the past years and is gradually becoming a fossil from a bygone era in Belgian beer history. Still, I think he would have done the style more good by making it more ’authentic’, instead of creating a kind of half-luxury version with too many phenols and too much alcohol (as the average spéciale belge does not normally exceed 6% ABV). In all, though, this is certainly not a bad beer per se, much like the others of both the 2014 and 2015 Ben’s series.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Delhaize Ben's Belgian Saison (Ben Vinken) (by Delhaize):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 2/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.7/5

23/VII/15 - 75cl bottle from Delhaize (Gent) @ Claudia's BBQ - BB: 13/III/17 (2015-963)

Little hazy blond beer, big aery white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very fruity, citrus, grapefruit, bit grassy, floral, soapy touch. MF: lots of carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty bitter start, citrus, floral, soapy, some grapefruit. Aftertaste: fruity, citrus, more grapefruit, pretty bitter, grassy, little spicy touch. By no means a saison, but it's a nice tasty beer, I have to admit. Too bad, cause I would've loved to crack down on this... :p

Bottle at Bierpassie . Pours dark, hazy amberbrown. OK white head. Smell is sweet, intense ambermalts. Taste is mildly bitter, thick, ambermalt sweetness. OK .

750 ml. bottle @ home. Purchased @ Delhaize. Very loud bang when opened. Deep hazy orange / amber, small solid off-white head. Nose is phenolic, leaves, mild forest floor, dull malts & light overripe fruits, rather bland as was to be expected. Taste is hugely soapy with plastic mixed with overripe fermenting dark fruits, overripe fruits, plastic overripe apple, something vaguely chemical, the whole is vastly over carbonated, plastic, washing powder, plenty of artificial like tasting notes mixed with some artificial overripe fruits,… Oddly artificial vaguely boozy plastic. Big carbonation sort of ruins it a bit. More like a macro boring Belgian brew than a Special Belge for me but I do agree the difference is vague even if existing. I expected this to be more about dull caramel-like malts, vague UK macro bitter notes & not much else with lower carbonation. Unnecessary, unsurprisingly so.

Pours hazy yellow. good white head. Smell is fresh , saison yeast. Taste is lightly bitter. Very fresh. Nice

Bottle from Delhaize. Golden colour, white foam. Medium carbonation. Sweet aroma of banana and citrus. Alcoholic. Not very well balanced.

Bottle from Delhaize. Brown colour, medium carbonation. Sweet with notes of caramel. Light roastiness. Easy drinkable. Ok.

Bottle from Delhaize. Reminds me to Postel Blond from the same brewery. Orange peel, citrus and banana. Light sweet, light bitter aftertaste. Decent.

Foam: nice white quick diminishing. Colour: a little hazy golden yellow. Aroma: very light, hops, malt, some like orange peels, a hints of alcohol and honey. Taste: sweet with slight hints of hops, malt, fruity, yeast, some banana, light spicy /cloves, coriander/ fruitiness also and some metal, medium carbonation and low to medium body, not bat Belgian triple but made for Delhaize chain supermarkets and this influence the quality I think.

Dry-hopped saison, the first one in the new 2015 series of beers ’developed’ by self-proclaimed beer sommelier Ben Vinken, the man to whom we owe the Beerpassion magazine and dito weekends in Antwerp. From a 75 cl bottle purchased at Delhaize. Thick, irregular, frothy, off-white head consisting of coarse bubbles and leaving a thick lacing on the edges; colour misty yellow blonde with narrow columns of sparkling here and there. Aroma of lime peel, mango, wet hay, the white underside of an orange peel, pine resin or even eucalyptus, chamomille and acacia honey, thyme, rosemary, green apple peel, sourdough, freshly cut nettles and other field plants, pear, young cheese, jute, sage. Taste begins crisp and restrainedly fruity, dried berries, apple peel and unripe plums, fairly strong carbo, minerally, leading to a sourish grainy character, bit astringent, softly bready and sweetish somewhere in the background; yeasty tones come up and gain strength towards the finish, where they are aided by quite a strong, earthy, leafy, lightly peppery but at the same time aromatic and floral hop bitterness, which lasts for some time, but also allows some bready malt sweetness to creep through, as it should be, certainly in this style. Is this a good saison? Being old school when it comes to Belgian traditions and still regarding Saison Dupont, Saison de Pipaix and even Saison d’Epéautre as the archetypes of the style, I’d argue this lacks some of the fruity sweetness as well as ’funky’ tartness of the grandfathers of the style plus I don’t think a saison has to be dry-hopped with American hops (au contraire!), as the label claims; still, in its overall aroma and flavour, this brew still manages to behave quite saison-like, in that it is very crisp and refreshing, yeasty and ’weedy’, even a bit ’barnyard’-like in some respects, and in that sense I reluctantly admit this is quite accomplished for its style. That being said, any peach blonde beer with a big head and even the slightest trace of ’barnyard’ aroma seems to be called a ’saison’ nowadays, and I have the feeling this style - or rather, loose historical ’group’ of beers - has difficulties to cristallize (provided that is what we want it to do; I’m even inclined to raise the question if Belgium is ready to have one of its ancient beer traditions being defined and ’dictated’ by American craft beer culture, which is exactly what seems to be happening nowadays; this is turning beer history upside down for me, but I probably should move to the forums for this). Anyway, I will keep track of the three other 2015 Delhaize Ben’s beers, but I’d be surprised if this series manages to maintain the same interest with a witbier, a Belgian amber and an oak aged version of that Ben’s Strong Dark... The latter not even belonging to an ’authentic’ Belgian tradition, in my opinion. Anyway: I expected way less from this one, that is for sure.