Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Light hazy blond, white foam. Rather lively carbonation. Light herbal, a bit citrussy, rather weak and watery.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Rubbens Blond from Stokerij - Brouwerij Rubbens 3 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
The name Rubbens looked very familiar when I spotted this one on the shelves of the AD Delhaize of Zwijnaarde (Ghent): Rubbens is one of Belgium's best known distilleries, originating in the town of Zele in 1817 but moving to a large plant in Wichelen in 2009. Since last month, they have apparently taken up brewing beer as well, probably noticing the popularity of beer far exceeding that of 'jenever' these days (it was once the other way around in this country); at first I thought they simply commissioned a beer from an existing brewery, much like Radermacher in the Liège area did, but it appears that they have actually gone through the trouble of installing their own brewing equipment and hiring the son of the founder of the Vagebond brewery in Merksplas as a brewing engineer, a man named Michael Schoofs. His first creation is this completely predictable blonde, but let us hope he has enough awareness of the postmodern craft beer movement to come up with more exhilarating creations later on... In any case I am glad to have stumbled upon this one for being so brand new alone - a 'primeur' from a brewery erected only weeks ago. Steinie bottle with the old Rubbens logo (a horse) on the crown cap. Snow white, thick and foamy, plaster-lacing, uneven-bubbled yet dense and stable head on a hazy peach blonde beer with straw-yellow edges. Aroma of ripe banana, clear allspice (effectively used), coriander seed, peach jam, soggy white bread, a weird side note of dish soap (impossibly coming from the glass - I have been using it for other beers in the same session) probably related to the used juniper berry, roses, dried lavender, hints of old biscuit, honey, dried lemon zest, apple cake, minerals. Fruity onset, sweetish but not too much so, hinting at peach, apple slices and light banana (less so than expected based on the nose), medium to rather softish carb, rounded and lean mouthfeel with a slight metallic 'zing' here and there; bready maltiness with a cake-like core but still not exaggerated in sweetness, carrying the fruity esters and clove-like phenols to a spicy finish in which juniper berry adds a certain 'jenever'-like aroma as well as very mild astringency (less so than I am used to from this ingredient), before dried orange peel with zesty but drying effect and ethereal allspice take over. Still, the spice combo, already a bit over the top for a spice-sensitive person like myself, behaves rather well, and still leaves some room for a floral hop bitterishness to evolve, even though the latter remains subdued and the spices provide more bitterness (or indeed wryness - I blame juniper berry) than the hops. Some residual sugars and fruity esters keep things relatively well balanced, though, and the whole ends notably spicy, but drinkable enough. The Vagebond style is not far away indeed, but I would rather have had a spiceless, simple but exceptionally well-brewed Belgian ale than this spice rack concoction - which is more than I can take after that Chouffe birthday beer with sage, but that is just me. Not my personal cup of tea, but technically decent and credible enough for a first try - I am sure many less educated, old school Belgian ale consumers will rave about it. Cheers to Rubbens, if more because the company originated in my girlfriend's home town than for this beer...