A second collaboration of two young brewing operations in Ghent, executed in that trusted powerhouse of Belgian sours near Kortrijk, Brouwerij Alvinne. At Brouwbar. Egg-white, mousy, irregularly shaped, slowly opening and eventually strongly thinning head on a cloudy peach blonde beer with pale 'dirty-orangey' hue. Very recognisable Alvinne nose of yellow gooseberries, sour grapes, sourdough, kiwi, crumbled biscuit, raw cucumber, lemonbalm, lemon juice, rhubarb, overripe peach, rainwater. Very fruity, estery onset, ripe gooseberries, overripe peach again and yellow plums as well as green apple and raw cucumber aspects, strong and deeply stretching lactic sourness with a crisp, refreshing character matching well with this estery fruitiness; this sleek, pungent yet not overly harsh sourness is partially balanced by this ripe fruit-like sweetness, even a tad honeyish at some point, in a way that shouts 'Alvinne' all the way through... Bready core with some minerally aspects, lots of fruity sourness filling the finish even in the absence of actual fruit, with mild tannic woodiness and a lemony edge. The Brett remains very understated here, even if a slight funkiness is certainly noticeable here and there, but I'm sure this element will become more pronounced with some ageing. Feels, tastes and looks like a basic Alvinne sour - which is basically what it is, but I love those, so this makes it almost 'automatically' good to me; what is more, this basic sour will apparently be used as a base for several fruit beers, so Brouwbar will be seeing a lot more of me in the coming weeks...

7/VIII/20 - on tap @ Brouwbar (Gent), BB: n/a (2020-734)

Pretty cloudy amber to rusty orange beer, big creamy off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: nice and funky, brett notes, some vinegar, smells like an Oud Bruin, bit fruity, wood notes, dusty touch. MF: practically no carbon, medium to full body. Taste: pretty acidic, citrus notes, some vinegar, bit fruity, quite a lot of tannins, peaches with skin, bitter notes, fruity. Aftertaste: still pretty fruity, peaches and nectarines (with skin!), some ripe banana, vinegar touch, banana peel, dry finish, more tannins.

Bottle. Pours clear, dark pinkred. Scent is blackberry up front, raspberry is in the far back. relatively dry (compared to American counterparts ) but with a nice fruity aroma nevertheless. Taste is full, a small zip of carbonation is present. Berries up front, bit 'green' though (herbal) Not as thick as I would have expected. More to the sweet side . Bit too much on the blackberries, to little on the raspberry for me. Certainly a nice debut, but there's some room for improvement, still. Curious to how the meads of future releases will develop.

2/IV/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: IX/2021 (2020-298)

Clear blond gold beer, big solid creamy off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: somewhat soapy, some tropical fruits, citrus, grapefruit, malty touch. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice bitterness, good bitter start, citrus notes, refreshing, bit grassy, bit watery. Aftertaste: grapefruit, good bitterness, tropical fruits, mango, little resinous, good one!

The second beer by a small Ghent-based company dedicated to not beer, but mead (of which I tasted a few that were very interesting - not sure if any of them has made it to the commercial circuit so far, though); I guess the revenue of these beers, and at least the first one (Grizzly) proved successful in and around Ghent, serves to fund the mead-making, which is fine with me of course. An organic Indian pale lager according to the label so bottom-fermented at least in theory... Creamy, thick, mousy, tightly paper-lacing, bit irregular, eggshell-white, slowly breaking head on a misty straw blonde beer with warm 'old gold' hue and some lonely bubbles rising up here and there. Aroma of dried lime peel, lemon candy, unripe green mango, banana peel, straw bales, bread crust, starfruit, hints of dust, pear, minerals, faint soap note, dried apricots, camomile, linseed, dried rosemary. Crisp onset, fruity but in a cleanish way, hinting at sweet pear and apricot, halfripe banana and a dash of green apple with a very light sourish edge, lively carbonation but nowhere harshly stinging yet still adding a lot of minerality which in this case is very welcoming; supple body, smooth and lean with a still mineral-laced bread crumb-like maltiness, cereally as well, soon coloured yellow and green by quite expressive, even subtly tropical (green mango, starfruit) hoppiness, floral, spicy and crisp, depositing a medium long bitterness to the root of the tongue. The mineral effects are maintained even in the final stage, greatly contributing to the overall very quenching character of this beer. Feels lighter than 6% ABV even, I can imagine drinking one after the other of it in some outdoors café in Ghent on a summer afternoon. Elegant, more light-bodied than Grizzly and arguably 'cleaner', though the fruity and spicy effects of the saison yeast are clearly present; the hop aromatics are bright enough without becoming NEIPA-like tropical, with a very pleasant, drying bitterness more Belgian blondes should exhibit. Technically well done, though the combination of 'lager' and 'saison yeast' keeps puzzling me - I do not think of a saison yeast strain as bottom-fermented, so I assume the 'lager' part of this beer refers merely to a prolonged period of lagering, which does not technically make it an IPL (with all due respect for brewer's intent); and if this is the case, it feels like a bit of a pity to 'muffle' the features of a saison yeast by lagering the beer at low temperatures. Then again, if this is the choice that was made, who am I to argue with the brewer - so cheers Jorre, this is a fine and highly sessionable beer regardless of what it is!

Well done Jorre!