Chapeau Banana

Brewed by Brouwerij De Troch
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Ternat-Wambeek, Belgium

This is one helluva’n interesting (beer). The pour is the color of a Golden Delicious apple, hazy and dulled. A thin white ring of bubbles forms and rapidly diminishes. The body appears thick and tumultuous. The aroma is of banana in many interesting incarnations: banana creme pie, banana peels, overripe inner flesh(gooey, turning into sugars), banana pudding, the possibilities for dessert pairings seems endless. Also noted in the aroma are a light lambic tartness and very mild barnyard funk, hay notes, seared wheat, unrefined sugars, maple syrup, honey and undefined nuts. The flavor is solely focused on the banana, though that’s odd since the overall intensity of the banana flavor is not even half of what it was in the aroma. Sweetness is high, bitterness nil, acidity very low. The syrup and honey notes build with each sip. The finish is cloying but remains drinkable, light lambic notes surrendering to the banana syrup proliferation, acidic imbued nectar unsuccessfully wrestling for position. The mouthfeel is lightly carbonated, sticky, syrupy and thick. Sugary, check; overly sweet, check; odd and not remotely like a traditional lambic, check. Why the decent score? This is obviously not intended to be revered and is definitely a product for whimsical fun, for the masses. If I were to rate this based solely on its merits as a fruit lambic it would surely suffer the consequences of its distance in quality and consistency from the traditional aspects of the style. I rate this beer, however, as I do all beers - an interlude about what qualities are enjoyable or loathsome, or anywhere in between. This is a fun and quaffable fruit beer and nothing more, and I’m okay with that. Enjoyable despite rampant flaws.

LCBO bottle tasting-Pours sparkling light yellow with a thin fizzy white head that diminishes quickly. Funky banana aroma, barnyard, mixed tropical fruits and a touch of yeast. The flavour profile is pretty sweet banana, with some other fruity components, sugary syrup, yeasty funk and a touch of hoppy sharpness. FInishes fizzy and acidic, sweet as hell. One per week is my max.

250mL bottle from LCBO. Pours a pale light straw. No head. The first taste assaults the tongue with a profile like apple juice. There’s a bit of banana in the middle, but the sourness prevails. I’m actually happy this isn’t the light, bland experience I was expecting. I’m certainly drinking something - I’m just not sure it’s beer.

This is rated a 12? Wow, I guess I don’t know shit about lambics then b/c I thought it was pretty good. Drinkable and plenty of banana aroma and flavor. Could defintiely taste the wild yeast flavor but it wasn’t overpowering. Too tart for me though so I doubt I’ll drink it again, even though I enjoyed this bottle.

Ótima lambic, pelo que se propõe. Aroma intenso e doce, carbonatação no ponto. Final doce. Grande drinkability.

Bottle. Golden beer with a thick white head. The aroma is quite spritzy and cherry’ish. The flavour is very fruity and lightly tart with a cherry and banana body. Overall quite an unexpected reasonable beer.

250 mL bottle from LCBO in Brampton, served cold in a rocks glass.

App.: Medium golden, clear, no head. Aroma: Very pungent banana aroma (go figure!), an odd organic acid tang (lactic?) Palate: Medium body and carbonation. Flav.: Less banana that on the nose, but still plenty; lots of acidic tang, a little funk and wood; a tiny bit of bitterness and plenty of tang on swallowing, and a little sweet.

Gross. No thanks.

not fucken bad. drank some the other morning after choppin wood. fucken hell.