De Leite Ma Mère Speciale

Brewed by De Leite
Style: Belgian Ale
Oostkamp - Ruddervoorde, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle from Asahiya. Lemon zest, honey, some funk, earthiness, and grassy hops in the nose. Hazy but bright golden straw, with a fat frothy head and good lace. Initial hits of lemon rind and some honey / mid brings spiciness, mild bittering, and a little carb burn / finish is malty with hop traces. Has a long finish for the style. Good stuff. Very interesting take on the blonde style. Like a really rude messed-up pils blended with a take-it-or-leave-it saison.

Bottle from Asao. Great grassy hop nose, tart, barnyard, citrus, light lactic acid. Slightly wild. Very intriguing. Deep gold with tons of little bubbles and a fine, high head. Sweet, bready malts to start, moving into hoppy bitterness and slightly funky dryness. Oranges, hay, dust, crackers. This is good stuff. Again, this brewery impresses me with a barnyard style that is “Belgian-American.” Puckery grapefruit hop finish. I want to visit this brewery!

New generation spéciale belge with a more forward earthy-floral UK and shy citrus hop profile than the usual caramalt suspects (Palm, De Koninck). Hope this is part of a trend of less sugary, sessionable Belgian light(er) amber ales. Yeast orchestrating interesting secondary off-tastes in the background. Somewhat unhappily, the pleasant fruit and grass hop aromas are only set free after a good gulping in the taste, as a chalky foam layer covers them under a gyprock blanket. strange.
Always happy to encounter consistently punned beers and beer puns: "ma mère=amère=onverbitterbaar"(Joyce’s defunct liver is hopping in approval)="indépassable" (the Belgian pun trains stops here, predictably, after recrossing the language barrier once too often). Pleasure, brewery listed!

Nice crisp deep amber coloured body with some lighter copper glow and a thin, half centimetre tall tan head. Aroma of fresh hops, light alcohol, some grassiness, a hint of yeast and some light sugars. Medium-bodied; Assertive effervescence with a very bubbly mouthful; Strong malt flavour with some yeast definitely noticeable, a hint of grass, some light hops and a bit of sugars at the tail end. Aftertaste is very bland with only the malt and yeast sparkling through - not much of anything else, perhaps a bit of barnyardie funk, like a biere de garde or almost like a saison, but not much else. Overall, a decent belgie, but there are much better out there of course. Still - worth the space in my suitcase for this one, and definitely, well worth sampling here! I sampled this 33 cL bottle purchased from Beer Mania in Bruxelles, Belgium on 30-June-2012 for €3,50 sampled at home in Washington on the other side of the pond after a great Detroit Red Wings victory on 22-March-2013.

Bottle from Sugaya. Slightly cloudy light amber colour, big bubbly off-white head. Aroma is citrus, bit soapy, slightly herbal, bit of funkiness, bit creamy too and lots of hoppy bitterness. Taste is light and belgian. Lots of citrus bitterness, biscuity malt but with touch of spiciness. Slightly chalky and much sweeter and quite fruity with yeast added. Like an XX Bitter but with more maltiness and a bit herbal. Pretty nice and very easy drinking.

Bouteille de 33cl. Couleur blonde légèrement orangée et trouble. Aromes légers d’agrumes mais surtout une amertume saisissante, très végétale et agréable. La carbonnation est moyenne, la longueur correcte. Trouvée a Roby-Menin.

33cl bottle from Geers, BB 02/05/2014. Dorée trouble, col épais blanc collant au verre. Arôme est bizarre tout en étant bon mais me rappelle le reste d’eau de cuisson, le tout avec des plantes, ail et origan voire ortie et une fine citronnelle. Palais est herbacé, malt pils, grains et le tout est sec et houblonné rappelant un peu le thé vert.

33cl bottle. Hazy orange with big snowy white head. Nose : soap, wet laundry, some esters, dairy, strong citrus notes. Sip : good carbonation, medium body with creamy texture. Moderatly sweet with flavors of hay, citrus and cream. It develops delicate bitterness, fruity one, like a zest. Overall it’s a nice typical Belgian ale. Well balanced and refreshing.

Bottle from Beer Planet, Brussels
Hazy blond color; medium sized head. Peculiar aroma, country fields, animals, some yeast. Spicy malt flavor, the mouthfeel is quite round, it has a light trace of vegetables, decent bitterness; salty too.
Good.