Gorgeous corked bottle from a random (but nice) food shop a short walk from Paris Gare du Nord. Drunk while watching the interminably tedious Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The beer is golden-amber with a white head and a pleasingly fine fizz. There's white pepper, white bread, some floral notes and the faintest hint of banana. The finish is dryish. The flavours seemed quite mild but reminded me more of a saison. Not the best beer (apart from the bottle!), but still far more enjoyable than the opening ceremony.

Dark yellow with a fine haze and lasting fluffy head. Very aromatic, lots of citrus 🍋. Subtle yeasty taste. Intense, floral and bitter.

Dorada casi limpia con un dedo de espuma que desaparece muy rapido, apenas retención. Aroma escaso, algo malteado. En boca malteado de tono dulce, floral, miel, que puede resultar algo empalagosa

330ml bottle [courtesy of the TVs - thanks a lot!]. Cloudy, amber colour with average to huge, frothy, slowly osteoporosing, minimally lacing, off-white head. Floral and minimally grassy, hoppy and minimally spicy and bready, malty aroma, yeasty fruity overtones, a touch of apricot, baked apricot. Taste is slightly spicy, minimally biscuity, pale and slightly caramel malty with some residual sweetness, floral and minimally grassy hoppy as well as slightly yeasty fruity, hints of apricot and mirabelle, a touch of petals. Watery texture, minimally dry palate, medium, prickly carbonation. Balanced, refreshing, a tad overcarbonated - very nice.

Can from a Costco European Beer 10 pack. Poured a clear yellow color, large white head. Aroma was sweet malts, bubblegum, spices. Flavor was coriander, grain, sweet.

Can from a Costco European Beer 10 pack. Poured a slightly hazy burnt orange color, with an off-white head. Aroma has a pleasant funky apricot character to it. Quite pleasant. Flavor is some doughy malt, has a bit of an unrefined taste but the sweetness of the malt is pretty tasty and the yeast is a touch charming.

Can from a Costco European Beer 10 pack. Poured a slightly opaque orange color, big fluffy head. Aroma was light bubblegum, sweet sugar. Sweet, but not overly sweet, light yeasty notes, fruity. Interesting. Alcohol well masked.

Tripel by this Normandic microbrewery, operated by two befriended brewers since 2012; thanks Hinke for the bottle! Egg-white, shred-like lacing, thickly moussy, foamy, stable head on an initially clear, warm orangey golden beer, turning peachy and misty with sediment, in the end even carrying protein flakes floating around. Aroma initially dominated by sharp carbon dioxide but once this effect is over, impressions appear of peach, gin, bread crust, chicken stock (no doubt linked to those proteins), cold vegetable soup even, cooked pumpkin, clove, apple peel, rubber. Sweetish onset with a slight sourish edge (enhanced by the rather sharp carbonation), light hints of pear, unripe peach and apple peel but relatively low in esters; bready, bit biscuity and wheaty-sourish core under growing yeastiness, adding strong clove- and even rubber-like phenols, before a leafy, long-stretched hop bitter element sets in, accentuating the generally dryish character of this ale. Alcohol is clearly noticeable in the end and should have been better hidden at this ABV, which is at the lower edge of what, in my view, still can be called ‘tripel’ rather than just ‘blonde’. Ordinary and probably over its peak already, this is yet another redundant tripel, albeit in northern France this time instead of Belgium.

Fruit beer by this to me hitherto unknown Normandic brewery, active since 2012; steinie bottle shared by Hinke, cheers! Plastery lacing, off-pinkish-white, foamy, thick head on an initially clear purple-tinged ruddy-bronze beer, turning hazy with sediment. Aroma of raspberry coulis and indeed actual ripe raspberries (in a sweet way but convincingly ‘real’ even though purée was used), cassis (the blackcurrant purée), red berry cookies, crumble, rosehip, raisins, caramel, bread crust, red apple. Prickly carbonation in the onset but not too harshly so, very fruity with more sweetness than sourness but still with a clear lively-sour fruity edge, ripe red raspberry and cassis both very recognisable; bready and lightly biscuity to caramelly malt core through which the fruitiness persists, like a crumble of dried berries. Some bitter tannic effects at the back as well as a late, light and brief hop bitter element; this restrained sweet-sourness from the fruit clings naturally to this bitter element, so that bitter, sweet and sour are tied together perfectly in the finish. I was dreading a ‘rouge’ or other sickly sweet ‘ladies’ beer’ (as Belgians tend to say), but what we got here, was quite a decent and ‘genuine’, credible ale drenched in fruit – purée rather than real fruit, but at least not extracts or added sugar. Much better than expected.