330ml bottle. Cloudy, darkest brown colour with small to average, creamy, moderately lasting and lacing, beige head. Dark malty, vinous fruity and mildly bretty, yeasty funky as well as spicy aroma, hints of allspice, aniseed. Taste is spicy and dark malty, notes of allspice, aniseed, some liquorice.
Creamy to viscous texture, smooth and soft, silky, minimally cloying palate, fine, dense, soft, creamy carbonation.
Well balanced, good mouthfeel, not overly complex - pretty good.

Fast gone white head over hazed copperish golden beer. Vinous, noble rot grapes, Bourbon or other booze, truffle & raisins. Sweet, Bourbon, and, yes indeed, grape syrup from concentrated juice, which makes the finish rather plain & dullish sweet. Chewy, boozy, low carbonation, alcoholheat, lame finish. The nose hinted at Paradise, but the end proved to be Purgatory. Txs to Stef!

Blonde ale brewed by De Meester for the ballooning scene of Sint-Niklaas, the self-proclaimed capital of the Waasland region where ballooning is cherished as a local tradition (officially since 1948 - allow me to add that ballooning as such has its roots already in the 18th century and was already performed in Ghent before Sint-Niklaas got involved, though they do seem to come in second in Belgium historically speaking). Having been born in Sint-Niklaas and having gone to school there in a now distant past, I see why this beer is called "Ballong" instead of simply "Ballon" - the local pronunciation of course, and apparently it is the Hemelrijk pub, which I used to frequent two and a half decades ago, that came up with the idea. Egg-white, medium thick, slowly thinning but generally very stable, wall-lacing head on an initially clear, warm old golden beer with pale orangey glow and some loose visible bubbles in the middle, turning misty (and deeper orange) with sediment. Aroma of ripe red apple, banana but not overwhelming, pineapple candy, brioche bread or croissants, coriander seed, sweetclover, very old and dried out orange peel note, wet grass, clove or very old dried juniper berries, damp strawbales, cooked turnip, raw parsnip, old dried thyme, cold vegetable soup especially when the sediment is added. Fruity onset but not too sweet, slight banana mingling with persimmon, red apple and green pear notes but fairly low in esters for this genre; medium carb, on the softish side but still adequately 'bringing the beer to life' with minerally sparkles. Slick core, cereally and a tad bready, soft, with coriander seed surfing on top - clearly this ingredient was, unfortunately, not forgotten - until it meets clove-like phenols and a vegetable soup-ish effect retronasally, the latter probably related to onsetting oxidation. Powdery coriander seed spiciness, phenols and light cereally effects linger as the hops add a gentle, floral, hayish bitterness, which nevertheless extends quite long into the finish, albeit in a subtle way. De Meester has succeeded in brewing a commissioned Belgian blonde, the most ubiquitous Belgian ale genre along with tripel which is basically the same but stronger, in a perfectly stereotypical way; I am not sure if I should applaud them for this... I have only very rarely been impressed by this De Meester brewery (Filicious was a recent exception) and I dare say that even though I was born there, I am even less impressed by Sint-Niklaas, so my expectations of this were low - I guess this blonde manages to be just as boring as the city it was dedicated to. It has, however, been executed correctly, even packing a bit more extended hop bitterness than I was expecting, so I guess in a final conclusion I have to say that it could have been much worse.

Bottle picked up from Craftbeershop Parchim and consumed at home Monday 27th July 2026 in the company of Mum and Keith, we're listening to Four Tet - Three. We have Meatballs with Orzo and Feta for tea. Pours hazy yellow/gold, with a large white head. Spiciness, soft mouthfeel, some sweetness, a little vanilla, this is very nice, drinks very easy for an 8.5% beer. Score: 7.4

A dark red beer, a head is medium and pink. Aroma has cherries, sourness, cherry stones. Taste has sournwss, cherries, some earthyness. Medium bodied. Quite harsh.

Bottle from Delhaize Dok Noord.
A: hazy dark brown, stable, foamy, beige head.
A: prune, fig, hazelnut, toast, mocha.
T: sweetish prune & banana, bitter mocha, toasted nuts.
F: earthy hops, toast, liquorice, warming brandy-like alcohol.
P: medium body, oily texture, average carbonation.
Good enough in my book.

330 ml bottle. Pours a hazy dark brown with moderate head and lots of carbonation. Aromas of oaky whiskey, raisins, and toasted malts. Flavors of fruity whiskey, dark fruit leaning towards raisins, a bit of candi sugar and toasted malts. Clean. A bit sweet. Overall good stuff.

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Tastes like slightly tart chocolate cherry liqueur. Some roast, Schwarzwalder Kirsch. Light tart and a bit sweet. Body could be a bit more full. Very nice.

Creamy off-white good mostly lasting head. DArk red amber colour. Moderate malty and hoppy and yeasty aroma. Moderate bitter flavor. Long moderate bitter finish. Oily palate.

Gushing to good cream-coloured head over totally opaque brown beer. Bourbon, flavour I associate with bison grass, vanilla, boozy. Sweet-Bourbon-vanilla, roast and hazelnuts. There's a light (stout?) sourishness that doesn't spoil anything. Full bodied, chewy, warming to alcoholheat, well-carbonated. Not bad at all, but again one in the long list of "been there, done that".