Affligem Blond

Woohoo, yet another Belgian ale. It seems can't get enough of these (well, except for the tripels). Today's beer comes in a 330mL slender amber bottle with 6.8% alcohol/vol. It says it's from an abbey, but doesn't have the "authentic trappist" logo. So I'm thinking it's from a different type of abbey. I'm not terribly picky, as long as it tastes good. It has a best-before date of May 18, 2013; way in the future, so I should be in the clear. The label made me chuckle a bit: "Contains barley malt." Duh.

When opened, I smelled mostly malt and yeast. There was also a bit of fruitiness in there somewhere too. The beer poured a clear golden colour. The only thing I didn't like was the amount of sediment in the beer. There was tons of it.  I did not mispour the beer.  All the yeast was still in the bottle.  There was no head, and almost no bubbles.  The aroma after the pour was much milder.  Maybe I got a bad bottle?

The first sip: Didn't like it.  I was instantly reminded to Troubadour and Leffe, and remembered how much I disliked those beers.  I'll lump this type of beer with the tripels as something to avoid in the future.  It's not that this beer was particularly bad, insomuch as I just didn't find anything good with it.  The sediment of the beer was a visual turn-off.  There was almost no carbonation.  And it tasted like a strong domestic.  The only thing going for it was the subtle noble hop aftertaste.