29/X/22 - on tap, shared @ post-wedding drink (Ben & Cathy) - Afsnis (Ghent), BB: n/a (2022-1425)

Clear deep blond to orange beer, small creamy white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very malty, more malts, grains, hay, cow fodder, some caramel. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, a bit fruity, gentle bitterness, quite some Queens Forelle pears or Doyenné du Comice pears, dry, a little grassy. Aftertaste: bit of citrus, malty, grassy, more pears, some herbal touch, malty finish without being sweet, not bad but it gets boring rather quickly.

22/X/22 - on tap @ Stroom Brouwers (Gent), BB: n/a, first mislabeled as proof #2 on the chalkboard, 4.5% (2022-1412)

Pretty clear gold blond beer, small creamy white head, stable, a little adhesive, leaving no lacing in the glass. Aroma: nice, juicy and fruity, some mango, passion fruit, a little dank, a bit cheesy, hint of onions, sweet impression. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: nice bitterness up front, dry, a bit grassy, sourish touch, citrus notes, very hoppy. Aftertaste: resinous hops, fruity touch, some citrus, bitter grapefruit, grapefruit peel, a bit malty, somewhat yeasty, cheesy finish, nice stuff, I like the good hop bite!

22/X/22 - on tap @ Stroom Brouwers (Gent), BB: n/a (2022-1411)

Clear blond yellow beer, small creamy white head, unstable, falls down quickly, non adhesive. Aroma: very malty start, hay, grains, some cow fodder, yeasty, some ripe banana, pears. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter start, a bit fruity, sweet bubble gum, yeast, some banana, a bit grassy, some chlorophyll. Aftertaste: dry and grassy, a little metallic, malty, cow fodder, grains, not sweet, not bad, not great.

I guess even a progressive city brewery still needs an ordinary blonde in Belgium, and this is Stroom's interpretation of this worn-out 20th-century formula, adding lemon peel to lend it a bit of a twist. Thick and frothy, busily cobweb-lacing, closed and stable, moussy head on an initially crystal clear, pale orange-tinged 'old golden' beer with visible sparkling, misty with sediment. Aroma of banana milkshake or banana-flavoured bubblegum, lemon-scented hand soap, sugared lemon juice, Dutch sugar bread, honey, ripe Doyenné pear, pineapple jam, peach-flavoured cotton candy, subtle earthy tones of cooked turnip, petrichor and parsnip. Sweet, cleanish onset, strong isoamylacetate (banana-flavoured bubblegum) from the yeast, hints of pineapple and pear candy, sharp carbonation with somewhat numbing, very minerally effect; slick body, cereally and slick soapy-wheaty with a top layer of honeyish residual sweetness but drying a bit further on, especially when the lemon peel sets in, adding a retronasal whiff of lemon candy and lemon-scented soap but also - fortunately - adding a bit of citrus pith bitterness, connecting well with a floral hop bitter effect which stretches out over the finish, without blocking that annoying isoamylacetate aspect. Sweet Belgian blonde replacing the normally obligatory coriander with lemon peel and adding a bit more end bitterness than is usually the case in this genre, but in its very make-up and composition, still a sweet Belgian blonde of which there are way too many around as it is. I understand Stroom's ambition to do something new with this boring old formula, but this 'Boulet' (a very Flemish name indeed) does not go nearly as far as it should. Still too sweet, banana-estery and simplistic, but admittedly accessible blonde. A real bummer after that inspired coffee IPA from the same brewer...

IPA flavoured with coffee, one of the newer Stroom beers, brewed in Ghent. Egg-white, foamy, very thick and dense, creamy, tightly membrane-lacing head towering over an initially crystal clear, deep and pure 'old golden' coloured beer with strings of visible sparkling rising up from the middle, turning misty and a bit deeper orangey with sediment. Aroma of indeed clear coffee grounds amusingly mingled with impressions of orange zest, mandarin peel, lightly toasted peanuts, sesame seeds, nutmeg, Conference pear and minerals, with a metallic touch of haemoglobin somewhere. Cleanly fruity onset, sweetish with a crisp sourish edge, hinting at Jonagold apple and apricot, lively carbonated in a fine-bubbled but still somewhat stingy way, smooth and oily mouthfeel; pleasant slick peanutty and cereally maltiness with a slight toasty side, well-bittered by a leafy, peppery hoppiness, adding notes of dried orange peel and toasted onion - but the retronasal contributions of the hops are drowned in prominent coffee, which strangely blends in well. Ends dry and quenching, with a slightly astringent hop bitterness reinforced by the astringency of the infused coffee. Quite a powerful beer in terms of taste and aroma, a can packed with flavour indeed; I had a handful of coffee IPAs before (because what does not match with the IPA concept today, right?) but none of them were as convincing as this one. The coffee is strong here, but behaves like an extra spicing element rather than evoking those roasty-bitter 'black' associations one tends to make; I guess similar concepts could have been realized with other bitter spices, like curaçao or even wormwood. In this case, the coffee adds not only flavour, but warmth, personality, power and colour, in a way that matches the citrusy aspects of the hops much better than in any other coffee IPA I had before. May become tiresome after a while, but breathing through your nose after sipping this is pure morning coffee in a very elegant way - something I can certainly appreciate. Much better than expected - in fact, this to me is the best (and certainly most inventive) beer Stroom has produced so far, though I am the first to admit that it will not be anyone's beer. But then, many of the world's truly great beers are not anyone's beers, so who cares!

Pours a darker blonde. Unclear, malty, bit yellow fruity hops. Mild dankness. Taste is mildly bitter, bit grassy. Fairly sharp, due to the bitterness, but also quite creamy body. Not bad at all. Fresh feeling to it.

Donkerbruin tot zwart bier met schuim dat snel wegzakt. Smaak is bitterzoet met duidelijk iets van chocolade, wat koffie, hazelnoot en een vleugje vanille.

330ml. bottle. @Trollekelder, Gent (Belgium). 07/09/2022 [#5.395 Global - #231 Belgium - #1 Stroom (My Belgian brewery #98)] Pours clear golden with a white head. Aroma: lot of belgian yeast, citrus and spiced malts. Taste: belgiany yeast with lemon zest and coriander. Medium sweetness. Enjoyable. Next one please!

Pours a pinked amber , small white head. Scent is mild raspberry, lactic sour like complexity tartness. Taste is mild, raspberry comes across a bit jammy, ends on a fairly dry note. Sourness is uninspired, lactic acid without complexity. Very simplistic . Meh