6

33cl bottle. A clear deep golden beer with a white head. Aroma of mid sweet strong pale malt, some yeast. Taste of belgian yeast, strong pale malt, straw.

5.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

33cl bottle. A clear golden beer with a big white head. Aroma of metallic bitter hops and grainy malt. Taste of mild juicy hops, yellow fruits, mirabelles, sweet pale malt.

6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5

Next to a tripel, this new beer company in the ‘Oost-Kantons’, the small part of eastern Belgium that speaks German, also has this ‘strong pale ale’ – one can wonder why. Also sampled at the Big Easy in Sankt-Vith, thanks Hinke for sharing. Medium thick, off-white, thinning but generally stable, regular head, misty orangey peach blonde robe. Aroma unfortunately marred by unmistakable H2S (sewer water, even rotting egg), next to old bread, peach, dried orange peel, very old honey, coriander seed, old cheese rind, clove, raw beetroot. Fruity onset but not too sweet, very strongly overcarbonated with harshly stinging carbon dioxide, slick cereally malt core with a touch of caramel at its sides, phenolic (clove) and ‘coriandery’ spiciness in the finish combined with floral hop bitterness, while residual honeyish sweetness lingers – making this beer end sweeter than the Tripel in this series, which was much more firmly hopped. Too bad for that awful H2S returning retronasally – and rendering it undrinkable to some of my companions, but given the general structure of this beer, I reckon it cannot be an impossible task to get rid of it and end up with, well, another tripel…

6.1

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 4.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5

Nova Villa ale hopped with Mosaic, a New World hop and therefore almost by definition associated with the IPA world – though atypically perhaps, the word ‘IPA’ is not mentioned on the label, so I guess this beer is to be interpreted as a Belgian blonde ‘infused’ with a dash of global craft beer culture. At Big Easy in Sankt-Vith, close to where it is brewed; thanks Craftmember for sharing. Medium thick, off-white, opening but largely retaining head on a hazy straw blonde beer with somewhat ‘murky’ beige hue. Aroma of old dried lemongrass, old cheese rind, stale lime juice, kiwi, bread crumbs, very old white soap, withering jasmin flowers, honey, moist cardboard. Fruity onset, hints of pear and red apple with some green kiwi, fizzy carb, supple body; cereally, bit powdery middle, bready maltiness, sweetish but moderately bittered by grassy and subtly citrusy hops, adding retronasal aromas of lime and very faint mango, but also old cheese and dusty cardboard. The colourfulness and freshness Mosaic or any other New World hop can bring, is sadly absent here – so the spirit of Mosaic is all but lost, apart from lone traces of it here and there. Too bad: this is a well-constructed and well-balanced beer in its basic structure, but it seems the combination of old hops and probably far from optimal storing conditions turned out fatal for its final quality. I am, however, certainly willing to give this one a retry when fresh - so for now, benefit of the doubt.

7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Tripel in a small series of very small-scale new Belgian beers, found near its home in the southern end of the German-speaking part of Belgium, in a café named The Big Easy located in the town of Sankt-Vith. Egg-white, thick and frothy, large-bubbled but dense and only slowly opening head, misty ‘old gold’ robe with warm peachy hue. Aroma of unripe peach, coriander powder, minerals, grass, dried apricot, orange peel, crackers, old abbey cheese rind, ‘jenever’, potato peel. Crisp onset with very sharp and numbing (over)carbonation even for a tripel, then slowly unveiling fruity aspects of dried peach and apple peel but very little banana ester; sweetish continuation but not overly so, slick cereally and cracker-like maltiness with very light caramelly accent. Coriander seed and some old dried orange peel spiciness in the end, overruled by a long, leafy, earthy hop bitterness, managing to dominate the spice, earthiness and warming ‘jenever’-like alcohol playing at the sides. Stereotypical tripel, typically ‘Walloon’ (though this is technically not Wallonia) in being drier and hoppier than most Flemish examples; likeable as such, and by far the best of the three Nova Villa beers sampled that day.