Affligem Blond - Affligem Brouwerij, Opwijk

Always excited to try a new Belgian beer when it comes on the market, I was looking forward to getting a bottle of Affligem when it arrived earlier this year. It fell through the cracks as summer rolled by and fall beers hit the shelves... Before I knew it I'd had this bottle of Affligem Blond sitting in the basement for about five months. Not ideal, but at 6.7% ABV I'm hoping the beer held up alright. I decided to start with the Blond rather than going straight for the Tripel because I was feeling a little burnt out on Tripels at the time. Had I known the beer was going to sit around for so long, I would've grabbed the Tripel. Oh well...

The Affligem Blond pours a light yellow color and settles only slightly hazier than clear. You can see a steady stream of bubble rising from the bottom of the glass to join the head. There's a very active white head to this beer, though it dies down within a few minutes of sitting out in the open. The aroma of this beer is something that took me a while to warm up to. At first the Affligem Blond smelled like a dusty old attic... As I drank through this beer the aroma exposed some of its dank yeast and citrus but the old attic lingered in the back.

The flavor of this beer is generally what you'd expect from a Blonde Belgian beer, but there are some peculiarities... When you first take a sip of this beer you'll notice the citrusy orange, banana and clove but it all seems a little stale and tart in places where it aught not to be. There's a dehydrated banana quality to this beer that I found interesting, if a bit odd. The orange flavor seemed funky an a little moldy, while there is a twangy tart tangerine that helps keep thing interesting. All in all, I found the fruit flavors to be a little... off. There's a considerable pale malt flavor that help ground the interesting sweet, sour and tangy citrus. I found the pale malt to be a little too domineering at times.

Affligem Blond is a beer that is definitely more than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed drinking this beer quite a bit, it was only when I analyzed it's components that I started to find flaws in the beer. I also can't help but think some of the character of this beer can be attributed to it spending nearly six months in my basement, after having sat on the liquor store shelf for who knows how long...