HOF TEN DORMAAL BARREL-AGED PROJECT
BLOND ALE AGED IN CIDER BARRELS
(edition 2016)
After seeing that beer during the Modeste Festival,
we simply couldn’t resist. I love beer experiments and my wife loves ciders.
Can you mix the two worlds?
The result of the experiment smells like a proper
good cider, strong aroma of green apples, light flower notes. Interestingly it
pours like the barrel aging would fully deplete the CO2 content, almost like a
tap water. Rather foggy, unfiltered, but the color is really nice, yellow to
light amber. What is really strikes is that the taste is on the cider side. If
I would taste it blindly, I would certainly decide it is a very high quality cider.
Hints on yeast aroma are almost undetectable, the fact that this brew can have
any hop-related bitterness is very well hidden as well.
At this moment I need to sat, that the outcome of
cider barrel aging is not exactly a surprise for me. In my personal opinion,
blonde is one of the most boring and tasteless types of beer. It has almost no
aroma and a very low taste, if fact it’s a lager equivalent of top fermented
beers. I really mean it. If you look on the beer market – people are barrel
aging strong, aromatic beers (with some exceptions like the Schell’s Stage
series) and there is a reason why the do that. Do you barrel age your mineral
water?
On the other, more positive side – this is one of
the most exciting ciders I have ever tried. Original, dry, something that
really deserves to be served with a classy meal.
Totally agree! Very nice cider ;)
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