Bottle from Intermarche, Nr Boulogne, France. Gold with a lasting white head. Curious musty, yeasty, citric aroma. Taste begins quite sour, and is followed by a delicious, impossible to describe mixture of dust, malt, yeast, spice and compost that reminds me of everything I love about rural France. And I also love this beer.

750ml. Haven’t tasted anything as strangely dank as this since the 1978 bottle of Super Baf Pale ale I had In Kulminator a couple of years ago. The first glass was so soupily sedimented and overpowered by unhealthily musty, wet earth flavours it got plugholed. I put this down to the fact I’d made the schoolboyish error of temporarily storing it upright, and tried again. The second pour is hazyish red-orange, capped with well-retained swirling white froth. Dank, rooty, soil-like, musty cellar flavours still predominate, followed by an incidental note of smoothly smoky malt. Possibly some stale papery spice that’s meant to be cinnamon. Utterly dumbfounded by this one, to be honest. Either a tainted bottle or a very, very acquired taste. In the same way that slug marinaded in canalwater is an acquired taste.

Golden brown and slightly spicey.Poured with a large head which took time to disolve. Unusual and distinctive taste. Very complex with lots of interesting flavoirs surfacing over time. Different and pleasant.

75cl bottle from Auchan, Calais. Deep amber colour with lasting off white head. Cinnamon dominated aroma with some toffee. Cinnamon and spice are good in mouth but there is still this beer styles tendency towards the boiled sweet candy sugar flavours. Finish has more cinnamon and some hop. I mean I love cinnamon, but this is just a bit empty without it. Nice though, because of the spice.

[Bottled] Hazy pale orange colour. Juniperry nose, with hints of caramel and dried fruits. Dry-ish mouthfeel, caramelly backbone, medium body. Notes of juniper in flavour, low hop profile. Very tasty, yet not all true to style?