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The snow was thick on the ground as I sauntered down Chausée d'Ixelles in Brussels, one crisp clear day last January. I stopped in at a familiar convenience store to pick up eight cans of Rodenbach. "These will do for outdoor drinking when it gets warmer" I thought.

Today, there's still a bit of a chill in the air but the sun has been shining warmly all day. It has been a long and arduous one for me, so I've come out back to celebrate my blog's fourth birthday with the first of the summer Rodenbachs, a beer I've not tasted in the years I've been writing this.

And it's still brilliant. It has a power to refresh and revitalise like no other beer I know. The lightness of touch is sublime: a fizzy cleanness that maintains the refreshment quotient, just enough sour woody flavours to keep the palate awake and interested, plus a dryness that leaves it begging for more. Cold from the fridge, Rodenbach is the supreme lawnmower beer.