A light blonde ale, with a soft bitterness and hop notes of grapefruit, passionfruit and mango. Light malt and biscuit flavours.
We are delighted to bring this beer back as a December special. The beer is a fusion of Belgian blonde ale and a UK or American IPA.
In terms of creating a new style out of two we wanted to take from a typically Belgian style ale – fruity, spicy, sweet flavours and bring into that the fruity, hoppy flavours of an IPA – but tempered a bit to be robust but not in your face.
Our Belgique gets the Belgian feel initially from the malt recipe, where we used a pilsner malt, blended with Vienna malt and oats as is typical in a lot of Belgian recipes. This will lend a soft, sweet malt flavour. Added to that will be a touch of heritage Chevalier malt – this will add further sweet biscuit tones. The malts will give the beer a lush, light-golden colour and a creamy white head.
As for the hops, we use a mix of American hops and also some of the newer UK varieties.
Then added to this the aroma hops are a blend of big American hops to give strong aroma and a hoppier bite than you would expect from a traditional Belgian IPA. Thought was given to these hops as well to give a Belgian feel and include – Citra (citrus, tropical ) Amarillo (floral, tropical, citrus).
We also wanted to give a platform to another newish UK hop Harlequin – which is bold enough to join in with its American cousins and brings to the beer more passion fruit and peach notes.
You loved it before and so enjoy it again this December.
Enjoy.