Hazy pale yellow pour with a stable white head. Aromas of pineapple, coconut, white bread, citrus. Taste is tropical fruits, citrus, some malt and herbs for decent, lightly bitter finish. Quite nice, despite the lower ABV.

Fresh! Pretty good. Maybe lacking depth.

Christmas beer (or intended as such) created on behalf of a bakery and using its leftover bread as part of the malt bill; flavoured with clementine purée (hybrid of mandarin and orange). Fluffy, moussey, egg-white, thick but slowly opening head on an opaque apricot blonde robe with beige tinge. Aroma dominated by the clementine purée, with Minute Maid orange juice or another form of sweet processed citrus upfront, melon, oatmeal porridge, breakfast cereals, leftover dough or leftover bread indeed (literally in this case), chalky touch, something very distantly herbal which I assume is the added sage. Juicy onset, sweet but less so than feared, a more or less natural sweetness from the clementine linked to indeed a citrusy ‘fraîcheur’ – but less brightly so than expected, so indeed the citrus fruit is very noticeably processed into purée here rather than fresh; side notes of pear and melon perhaps, lively carbonation, soft and fluffy mouthfeel, even a tad ‘milky’, but not in a thick way. Clearly the purée forms a big part of this beverage, but soggy-cereally, white-bready maltiness is certainly still present as well. A clear leftover bread flavour – even a bit stale – lingers at the back, not entirely ‘masked’ by the clementine purée, which continues to bring a fresh sweetness to the whole. A soft, ‘noble’ floral hop bitter note graces the finish, but part of this bitterness could be due to the citrus ingredient too; in any case this bitterness remains very mild. Quite an odd concoction, allegedly just a ‘pils’ flavoured with this clementine purée, but the net effect is of course one very reminiscent of NEIPA, in both looks and flavour, though in a thinner, far less bright and complex way – like some hobby brewer’s first attempt at it. Original, but not necessarily subtle or sophisticated, and frankly not my thing to be honest. I am also wandering how this can be profiled as a Christmas beer, as is apparently the case…

(Can, Bia Mara, Brussels, 19 Oct 2024) Pale golden colour with frothy, white head. Malty nose with notes of bread, citrus, honey and hay. Malty taste with bread, cereal, hay, citrus and a mild grassy bitterness in the finish. Medium body, with a slight sweetness. Pretty generic pale lager. Quite enjoyable.