Brouwerij De Molen Blikken En Blozen

This 'saison' ale is outstanding for being ... normal! Yes, you read that right, it's a good ol'-fashioned, honest beer with just water, malt, hops and yeast in it. No chemical nonsense, no preservatives... great! Blikken En Blozen ('Cans and Blush' in Dutch according to Googly translate, but maybe it's faulty) is strong at 8.5% and has a slightly fruity and spicy, yeasty flavour. In particular it has a very smooth mouth feel thanks to low carbonation from the bottle conditioning - which, by the way, also means it's on the lees as evidenced by the huge quantity of yeast which came out as I washed the bottle (yeast-ranching homebrewers take note). It's a rich amber colour and produces a thin head with excellent retention and a nice malty nose that has more than a hint of vanilla. The flavour is quite sweet with an excellent hop balance leaving no bitter aftertaste.

I've been hearing a lot about these brews imported from the Netherlands so I was determined to try one and I wasn't disappointed. Brouwerij De Molen have three or four more varieties which are on my to-sip list, but this particular example comes Highly Recommended!