Affligem Blonde

Brewed by Brouwerij Affligem / De Smedt (Heineken)
Style: Belgian Ale
Opwijk, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Pours with a big puffy head and a light golden, lemon hue. A bit of lacing. Some yeasty and fruity notes on the nose. Eases into the mouth with a gentle palate and a somewhat sweet finish with touches of honey and banana.

Serving: 330 ml. bottle from Wegmans Leesburg. It pours a light gold color with a large but delicate stark white head. The nose is a bit fruity with some notes of grain and belgian candy sugar. The flavor has a very grainy taste with a metallic note, some florals, and a bit of candy sugar sweetness. The alcohol helps dry things out on the back end. Light to medium bodied thanks in part to a copious amount of carbonation. The finish is dry and lingering. I would have liked a bit more complexity with this brew. For some reason it seems like the BMC of Belgium.

Bottle at the Lincoln Wine Bar. It’s fairly non-descript as far as abbeys go--malt up front, yeasty finish, good but nothing outrageous.

The Belgian blond seems to be the most popular and accessible style of Belgian beer, especially to western audiences. Affligem Blond is among the most popular mainstream brews of the style. I’ve never actually had it before, but had high hopes despite finding most beers of the style to be only good instead of great. The same is true this time around.

I poured a 12oz bottle into a Trappist chalice.

Appearance: Bright orange hue with extremely cloudy bottle, although massive yeast chunks are clearly visible. It forms a one-finger, white, soapy head which dissolves almost completely and doesn’t leave much lacing.

Smell: Fairly mild nose with lemon peel and white grape being the most noticeable scents.

Taste: The problem with reviewing so many beers is I find myself running out of creative ways to describe them since many would garner the same description. Affligem is no exception as it’s a close sibling of Duvel and the Trappist blonds. It’s a palate with energy to be sure, but the flavors are rather simple. White grape and lemon peel dominate the palate from start to finish with a touch of coriander to give it some zest. Not as peppery or spicy as many stronger Belgian pale ales tend to be, although there is a hint of fruity tartness as it finishes. There is a noticeable dry aftertaste of dough or chalk, but it doesn’t linger for very long.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a tingling effervescence, but not peppery and spicy.

Drinkability: Affligem is a beer that definitely has flavor to it, but not to any extreme lengths. It’s not a challenge to drink as far as palate, but the bottle-conditioning makes it extremely gassy. I can feel the CO2 literally caught in my throat. The 6.8% ABV seems quite high, as this drinks more like a traditional blond "Pater’s bier" rather than a strong pale ale. Not quite refreshing, but definitely not a sipper.

Overall, this is a good introductory beer for those looking to try something from Belgium.

Pours hazy yellow with a high head. Aroma is sweet malts and alcohol. Flavor is soft and full with malts, yeast and alcohol.

On tap at pavlov, the Hague. Blond. Decent white head. Nice enough blond

Bottle served in a tulip. Pours watery light gold with an easy head. Great retention and lacing. Yeasty aroma; mostly dough with a touch of pepper. Medium sweet and yeasty flavor. A little bland. Creamy medium body, finishes with some sticky weight. Neither crisp nor bitter, but quite nice.

Bottle. Pours a brassy color with fairly tall white head. The aroma is on the spicy phenolic side with touches of yeast and biscuit and little hints of lemon and banana. The flavor is a little bit tart with some mango and lemon and a slight yeasty edge. A bready malt backbone lingers behind all that. Fairly simple and not very complex, but fair enough beer.