Royal
Boerenerf

2022 vintage generously shared. what a wonderful and special beverage, as good as it gets really, and so clever, apparently a blend of spontaneous mead and lambic then packed with black currants and allowed to meld, its just stunning, lively, fruity, honey forward, funky beyond just the lambic character, really mature now, spendy but worth it, hard to not be super super impressed with this, maybe the best beer ive had from this impressive operation, which is saying a lot as they have all been stellar, but this is epic. the first half of the bottle is a deep pink to light violet purple color and light and airy looking, bottle conditioned and effervescent to me, holding some wispy off white head and having a bit of apparent body, the second half is more sedimented and heavy, less bright but still well carbonated, pretty color on this, must have been a ton of currants. the nose is wild to me, green glass funk, old lambic leaning brett not bacteria, light lemon, medicinal fruitiness from the currants combine with raw honey character from the mead part, and the ferment on that adds a lot it seems, black pepper, blackberry, dry straw, wet animal, massively interesting, just a bit sweet with fruit and honey together, enough grain here to stay beery but its not a huge factor. the flavor is similar, and its so cohesive, the ferment is elite and the acidity is actually surprisingly low, no sign of its strength at all either here, the fruit is magic, identifiable and strong in this, lightly tannic and just a little sweet with the honey cutting into its usual tartness in a beautiful way, the honey is floral and organic to me, very earthen and it adds a neat wrinkle to this, although i smell it a bit more than i taste it, some wheat character in play, wild yeast all through it, and it warms up amazingly well, somewhat vinous, the mead is so unique, would love to try that thread on its own. decent body here, lively carbonation, large bubble size, pretty insane complexity overall here, some bitterness on the finish maybe from the fruit, plenty of oak, and its so interesting its almost addicting, i cant stop smelling it. one of the more exotic and delicious beers ive had this year!