33cl bottle from Carrefour Market Cours St. Michel in Brussels. F: huge, egg-white, good retention. C: murky amber, hazy, opaque. A: rich malty, honey, pears, banana, peach, yeasty touch. T: full malty base, pears, banana, bit vinous, bready, red apples, caramel, medium carbonation, vanilla touch, spicy, ok for the style but it could be more clean taste, enjoyed.

Clear yellow body. White fizzy head. Faint hoppy aroma mainly of grass, coriander, … not so floral as the name might indicate. Moderately bitter, quite watery flavour. Not very well balanced.

Strong brown ale (a 'massieve ale' as the old OBP would have put it) flavoured with quince, from this 'church brewery' in Namur. Yellowish pale beige, moussy, thick but opening head, lacing in shreds over a misty mahogany brown beer with copper-bronze glow. Aroma of caramel, maple syrup or indeed quince jam, sirop de Liège (again the quince effect speaking, I guess), ruby port, raspberry coulis, old hazelnuts, brown bread crust, prunes, something earthy in the background. Sweet onset, quince jam acting as ripe pear, plum, medlar and blackberry 'confituur' here instead of the wry 'green' apple-like effect I usually get from it - I guess the fruit was cooked in this case or indeed added as some kind of jam; candi sugar sweetness too, sticking a bit to the teeth. Lively carb, full body, bit resinous from the sugars; something 'blood'-like and metallic zings on the edges of a caramelly and mildly hazelnutty malt core; the residual 'dark' sugariness continues but gets more and more balanced by a toasty bitterish effect and a leafy hoppiness. Some warming, port-like alcohol appears in the tail. Sweet and almost syrupy dubbel (or quad - whatever), with the sweetness seemingly coming from sugared quince jam rather than raw quince; shows a certain degree of complexity, and even if it is a bit too sweet for my tooth, it is by no means unpleasant (and might even improve with a bit of cellaring on it). This Clocher brewery has not deeply disappointed me thus far.

New Clocher beer, described as a Church session IPA (because, like Heilig Hart in Flanders, this brewery is apparently installed in a church building) and hopped with Sabro; dedicated to the reopening of the catering businesses and pubs after the Covid-19 lockdown of the past autumn and winter. Snow white, cobweb-lacing, large-bubbled, very irregularly shaped head on a hazy golden blonde beer with peachy to ochre tinge, showing disparate sparkling. Aroma of old dried orange peel, jute bags, potato peel, straw bale, sweet turnip, old brioche bread, dried apple peel, clove. Fruity onset in a cleanish way, and nowhere sweet, some unripe peach and green banana, touch of Granny Smith apple, fizzily carbonated but not too harshly so; this carbonation adds freshness and liveliness to a white-bready pale malty middle with rusk-like edges, ending in a weedy, grassy hoppiness with moderate bitterness and medium duration. Clear clove-like phenolic notes and some yeast breadiness play a prominent role in the finishing stage as well, almost as much so as the hops, which fail to provide the desirable New World aromatics - let alone the tropical or coconut-like impressions associated with Sabro. At 4,5% ABV, I would say this is a bit strong for an ISA - while a meagre 12 IBU seems way too low for anything IPA-like as well. All these things taken together, I must once again conclude that the average Belgian brewer, 'artisanal' or not, still has no clue as to what 'new' IPA is about; this is a Walloon blonde and quite a typical one even, so apart from - failed - brewer's intent, there is literally nothing IPA about this beer. Only enjoyable if you can simply and completely ignore this term - then you will have a quenching, 'green' and weedy, nicely bittering summer blonde, Belgian style. I will rate it as such, but still deduct a point for promising a session IPA and being unable to deliver one.

@home poured into a tumbler. Murky amber brown colour (a bit like gueuze), small moussy off-white head, mostly diminishing, thin layer remains, light lacing. Bit sourish aroma grain, apricot, overripe apples, bready, dusty coriander. Taste light sweet and sourish, some bitterness. malty, grainy, apricot, apple, coriander. Medium body, watery texture, soft carbonation, aftertaste as in taste, citrus peel, spicy notes, rather sour for a witbier so I think this one was overdue (bbd 07/2021) or infected, still refreshing, okay.

@ 2018

@ 2018

@ december 2019