27/IX/25 - 33cl can @ Gents, no, Kwatrechts Bierfestival (Heilig Hart Brouwerij, Kwatrecht), BB: VI/2027 (2025-963)

Clear orange blond beer, small creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: very bready, yeast, metallic touch, a little lemony, slightly floral, some red wine notes. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: fruity start, vinous, red forest fruits, some dark cherries, spicy, a bit earthy, dry. Aftertaste: more fruity, a hint of red wine, berries, gentle acidity, some tannins, decent one!

27/IX/25 - 33cl can @ Gents, no, Kwatrechts Bierfestival (Heilig Hart Brouwerij, Kwatrecht), BB: VI/2027 (2025-962)

Clear pale gold blond beer, small creamy white head, unstable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: very fruity, some floral notes, chamomile, sulphur touch, some white grapes. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: lots of sulphur up front, a gentle acidity, a bit soapy, floral notes, nice! Aftertaste: refreshing, a bit lemony, bitter touch, floral, a little fruity, more sulphur in the finish. Not a fan of the abundance of sulphur in this beer.

30 August 2025. At 7de Bier van Olier (Sijsele). Cheers to Anke, mom & dad!

Ice Tea, peach, passion fruit. Sweetish Ice Tea, bitter herbs. Herbal hops, dry tea leaves, peach. Hmm, odd, maybe I had completely wrong expectations so might try again.

30 August 2025. At 7de Bier van Olier (Sijsele). Cheers to Anke, mom & dad!

Dough, lime, papaya, white peach. Sweetish peach, citrus pith, bread crust & dough. Dry, crisp, floral hops, citrus. Fluffy texture. Very clean, nice!

Can courtesy of Leander- many thanks!
A: clear golden, small, foamy, off-white head.
A: orange zest, apricot, green apple, sherry, damp herbs.
T: sour orange, apricot & plum; wheat, sourdough; white tea.
F: tart citrus, grape and woody sherry.
P: medium body, slick texture, average carbonation.
Clean & refreshing; pushing the boundary of the Sour IPA but managing to stay within the style. Very good!

12 September 2024. At 1ste Kwatrechts Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke, Tim and the GBV crew!

Thanks to Leander for sharing the can! Bread crust, wheat, grape skin, rusk. Sourish grape & plum, wheat, bread & yeast. Softly tart finish of white grape, quite a lot of bread & oak retronasally. Quite enjoyable as an apéritif!

Clear yellow appearance with quick fading head. Very floral aroma and taste. Has a vinous and slightly yeasty dryness.

One of a budding series of very limited variations on Emmer, a flowery sour session IPA of sorts developed as an ‘apéritif’ beer by Leander Vertenten, a young zythologist based in Beveren, Eastern Flanders. His production now takes place at Verzet and I have only tasted the Gistgeest version of Emmer so far, perhaps I need to revisit that one. Anyway, this special edition is a blend of Emmer with mead from the Blacksmith’s Meadery in Schilde near Antwerp, ‘de facto’ resulting in a bragot (curiously spelled with only one ‘g’ but according to the brewer both options are historically correct); only 350 bottles in total were made. Loose and quickly disintegrated, open, snow white ring of bubbles, quickly gone into nothing; hazy apricot blonde robe. Aroma of apricot jam, lots of real honey, ripe Durondeau pear, demi-sec wine, hint banana, sweet white grapes, vanilla somewhere, pineapple and cake dough hints. Very sweet onset, notably honey-dominated with this ripe pear, sweet white grape and light banana all returning quickly, flat body (no carbonation) with rather vinous, but also sweet-sticky mouthfeel; smooth doughy core somewhere but the beer remains very hard to find, so that in the end, the mead dominates completely, carrying on these sweet ripe yellow-fruity notes along with an aspect reminiscent of vanilla sugar. There is hardly anything ‘beery’ to be found here so had I not know, I would probably have identified this as a true mead rather than a braggot (mead-beer blend), especially in the finish where cloying honey sweetness prevails. In all, quite a tasty honey drink for sure and highly enjoyable, but it needs more outspoken beery flavours to fully qualify as a braggot – perhaps using a stronger and maltier beer than the frail Emmer could hit the intended goal a bit more accurately next time?

Mortselarij/Gistgeest version Draught Medium, very stable off-white head over clear copper beer 8. Rosewater, rosepetals (probably the hibiscus), coloured malts, parsley, brown herbs, bit bready. 6.5 Light sourish, lactic, with again this rosewater/rosehips-like flavour, spoiling nothing. Hint of rhubarb. 7.5 Lipsmacking acidity, bit slick, almost tart. Light body, not very carbonated.7 Nice! Ideal summerbeer, I'd say.7 7.1/10

't Verzet Version Very good light-yellowish, dense head; orangey yellow beer, veiled and finely carbonated. Some lace. Quite aromatic, exotic fruit, lunaria, but also a tad dusty nose. Quite sourish, not sharp. Again a backthroat faint dusty feel. Light sourish fruit or vegetables (sourish cucumber?), citrus. Quite spritzy, tittilating MF, light body, refreshing. I wouldn't have guessed hibiscus, but quite plausible. Different from the Mortselarij version?

Sour ale – fermented with Lachancea and therefore technically a Philly sour – commissioned by The BeerSteward from Gistgeest in Antwerp; presenting itself as the world’s first “apero beer” (which is commercial nonsense of course), this beer is brewed with emmer wheat, one of our cultivated wheat’s wild ancestors and admittedly a rarity in brewing today, and flavoured with hibiscus. Snow white, moussy, open and thinnish head, clean pale orange blonde robe with vaguely salmon-pinkish tinge. Aroma of unripe nectarine, gooseberry, plum, bergamot, stale lime juice, green apple, sourdough. Tart onset, more so than expected, hints of lime, sorrel and Granny Smith apple, softly carbonated (almost flat even); lactic, kefir-like tartness continues round a sourdoughy, bit grainy and indeed wheaty core, paired with lingering green apple, gooseberry and sour grape impressions, towards a dryingly tart, bit vinous, fruity but relatively short finish, in which I find very little of the promised citrusy hoppiness. More hops could save the day here, but in itself an elegant little sour alright.