Baladin Wayan

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Rerate, 330 ml bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 5.8%. Pale yellow colour, slightly hazy. Small white head of poor retention. Aroma of spicy saison yeast, also citrus rind and various spices. Citric mouthfeel, light bodied. The flavour has citrus and various spices. Nice to drink. A slight spicy burn in the aftertaste. Original rating: 750 ml corked and waxed bottle, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken. Probably 2 y.o. when consumed. ABV is 5.8%. Golden colour, lightly hazy. White head goes rapidly from moderate to none. Aroma of saison yeast, but also less pleasant notes of over-ripe and decaying fruits, moldy wet grain, compost and solvent. Fairly refreshing flavour, medium dry, a little fruit, not very complex but nice enough to drink. Less spicy than expected. Might sample again from a fresher bottle, hopefully the aroma will be better then.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours clearish topaz with minimal head. Aroma presents tart and sour tropical and pomme with a citrus hint. Flavor delivers tart and sour fruit plus a little fresh malt. Texture features good body and perky fizz. A good edition.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Opaque golden yellow with small white foam ring. Aroma is little like sour green apple. Tastes nice, little sour, some carbonation. Aftertaste is little short. (Milano 201403)

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

750 ml capped bottle. Poured in the original Baladin tasting glass a hazy amber-orange coloured ale with a generous two fingers slight beige foamy head that had a mid-sized retention and tons of micro bubbles. Active carbonation. Good lacing. Many floating sediments. The aroma is sweety malts, yeasty, sourish riped fruits, apples, citrus, mild herbal hops. The flavour is sweety malts, fruity, citrus, apples, pears and a bunch of tropical fruits, spicy, faint white pepper, coriander, orange peels, ginger and a touch of honey. The mouthfeel is fizzy, prickling, sparkling and fulled. This medium bodied ale has a sweety malty and fruity finish. A rather successful sweety/sourish combination, very tasting and refreshing. I simply like it.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle: poured a light cloudy light copper color ale with a large pure white foamy head with good retention but minimal lacing. Aroma of coriander and zesty refreshing and overall dry hops is very enticing. Taste is a nice mix between some nice Belgian malt, some coriander and a hoppy dry finish that is very well balanced. Body is quite full with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Well balanced between malt, hops and spices with some interesting esters.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pours with a just barely hazy, lightly orange tinged, full gold color. It is topped by a frothy, initially three finger thick, meringue like, barely off white colored head. The beer is quite well carbonated, with mad streaming rivulets of carbonation bubbles rushing to the surface of the beer. Quite a distinct aroma of fresh apple cider emanates from my glass, even as I am pouring it. Upon closer inspection pale-malted barely notes are noticeable with aromas of toasted soda crackers and pale biscuits. There is quite a bit of spiciness here as well; I did not notice it at first, but now that I have it is quite noticeable. Aromatic spice notes of black pepper, resinous pine or better yet rosemary, something that I imagine as dried lichen, and some flower notes reminiscent of lavender, perhaps a touch of rose and even chamomile. The up front fruit note is certainly not the dominant note (I am not sure any one note is), but does still play a role throughout; besides the apple there is also some pear like notes, but the apple is the most distinct. This has a very interesting, very complex aroma to it. I really like how the distinct notes of fruit, malt and spice interweave here; all are quite distinct and noticeable at various points, yet none totally dominate the others.

Lightly sweet up front, with a touch of acidity to it, both of these notes accentuate the apple notes in the flavor. The beer immediately froths up on my tongue, but somehow manages to remain fairly soft & creamy feeling, without the usual carbonic bite that one usually gets from a beer this well carbonated. This is actually fairly tart, though I would not characterize this as a sour beer. It is a very soft acidity though and is akin to the type of acidity found in ripe fruit. Flavors of apple, star-fruit and lemon round out the fruity notes. The complex spices from the aroma are much muted in the flavor, which is actually a good thing. Instead they form a subtle backdrop, which adds notes of white pepper, ginger, earthy coriander, hints of some turpene notes (reminiscent of tongue numbing nutmeg), orange blossoms and lavender.

By the second pour the pear notes have become much more apparent in the aroma, even more so than the apple. A touch of yeasty / bready aromatics has also been added to the aroma, as there was some sediment from the bottom of the 750ml bottle poured in. Along with the second pour flavor notes of orange peel (creamsicle with the creamy mouthfeel), and the fruity tartness become more apparent.

This is a really nice beer, and more importantly it is thoroughly enjoyable. It is really complex, almost challenging in the nose, yet is so smooth and drinkable, because of both the soft creamy mouth feel, yet light body and the smooth, well integrated flavors; this is almost a perfect combination as a bunch of complex spice notes in the flavor would have made this too cluttered.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

A lemon and vinegar aroma. A murky yellow appearance with a white head. The flavor consists of mostly lemons with some cloves present. The finish was quite sour. An easy drinker if not all that complex.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

hazy pale orange colour, the initial head quickly diminishes, very perfumy and bready nose, medium-bodied with a light fruity finish - quite artificial and without much character