7.3/10
—
Appearance 7
Aroma 7.5
Flavor 7
Texture 7
Overall 7.5
Belgian blonde 'session ale' (which as such does not really mean anything other than it being not too strong) brewed at Jandrain-Jandrenouille for Bières de Court, a client brewer in Court-Saint-Etienne in the Brabant wallon province. Gusher, so be ware when opening. Huge and foamy, egg-white, densely pillowy, rocky, firm and stable head on a hazy apricot blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma a bit lightstruck at first (oddly, seen the brown bottle) but when this fades, offering impressions of young wormwood leaves, halfripe banana, dried grapefruit peel, white pepper, dry straw, black radish peel, old bread crust, dry earth, fodder beet, dandelions, minerals, unripe peach, bitterroot. Fruity onset, some sweetishness of unripe peach, hard pear and green banana but generally dryish, with a slight sourish undertone accentuated by lively carbonation, adding lots of minerality to a smooth core; bread-crusty, dry-cereally middle, very low in residual sweetness and a bit grainy yet quite full-bodied for its strength. From the middle onwards, an earthy, rooty, peppery and wormwoody hop bitterness creeps in, further accentuating the dryness and pushing up aromas of dried lemonbalm, mugwort and grapefruit pith; there is a certain juiciness to it, but this rooty dryness and bitterness prevails, along with spicy phenolic accents (clove) and tingling (over)carbonation. A bit too enthusiastically carbonated - and gushing as a result - but generally better than I was expecting, with relatively full body and quite bold and daring hop bitterness. Could easily be sold as a saison, if the current fashion trends in Belgian beerland were to be followed - nobody (including myself) would object.
Tried
on 27 Jan 2024
at 00:35