Pours straw yellow with bags of natural carbonation and a crisp white head. Strong lemon zest, coriander and spicy hop nose. The beer is a delicate mix of hop flavours, with just enough malt to balance it out. Initial floral notes include lemon, orange, watermelon and elderflower and grass. These fade to a bittersweet, slightly soapy witbier-like finish in which an assertive sugar malt sweetness caresses the front of the tongue whilst an impressive hop bitterness stings at the back; its a paradoxical but pleasant sensation. The mouthfeel is light and airy and the beer is massively drinkable, particularly at 4.5% ABV, astonishingly low for a Belgian pale.
Described as an "extra hoppy ale", Taras Boulba is a product of a recent, slow growing trend by Belgian brewers to move away from malt-accented, candy sugar-fuelled strong ales in the direction of hop-accented, sessionable ones. Taras Boulba is a Russian novel published in 1835 by Nicolai Gogol about the Polish-Russian (cossack) social divide and resultant warring.
De la Senne use the name to quip about the (more good natured) Flemish-Wallonian divide within Belgium. This is amusingly depicted on the label... The word "Smeirlap" means fool. You'd be one too if you failed pay this interesting beer some attention.
- HOPS: ?
- IBU: ?
- ABV: 4.5%`
- BOTTLE-CONDITIONED, unfermented, unpasteurised
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