“A refreshing spiced Belgian style blonde. You’ll find star anise, plus fresh orange peel and champagne yeast.”
Served in a beer tulip. It pours a somewhat milky straw golden hue with a fizzy one finger cap. The head slowly reduces and settles to a fine film of micro-bubble that dispenses a subtle yet sticky lace as it ebbs. Quite a fresh and vibrant aroma here. It’s certainly amplified by a variety of different types of subcontinental spice – mainly clove, white pepper, aniseed and nutmeg. Strong herbaceous wafts of coriander and sage, zesty orange rind and vanilla also work in as yeasty hints of bubblegum and fresh pear fills it out. The use of champagne yeast offers that subtle sweetness and it’s a really clever touch. The mouth feel is light on and super smooth. Good Co2 as well as it appears to add a slight fizziness to the texture. 5.8% ABV is well contained. Just a nice all round easy drinker. Upfront the yeasty phenols and fruit esters are slightly more pronounced than they were on the nose. We taste subtle banana, pear and a clove-like spiciness that holds up as it flows across the mid palate. A mild tangy orange flavour picks up support in a fresh herbal note that delivers a dry, yeasty finish with reasonable length. Pretty damn fine interpretation of the style by these Victorian brewers. Nice strong traditional base of funky, estery yeast but modernized beautifully with the careful addition of various spice. Full flavoured and yet pretty sessional. A decent offering here.