Welcome back to the Abbey! I get almost giddy when I see a new Abbaye de Vauclair beer in Lidl, even when it is slightly out of season. This is the Spring edition, de Printemps. It's been around for a couple of years but this the first time I've noticed it.I expected pale and maybe a bit hazy, like a saison or maybe a Lentebock, so I was surprised when it poured out a clear amber shade. There's a decent though not excessive head, and an aroma of herbs and spices, featuring black pepper, rosemary and oregano: possibly verging on sickly, but promising a level of dry crispness also. Crispness is where the flavour opens -- very much a dry rasp of roasted grains -- and also where it finishes, with an almost pilsner-like herbal bite. The middle is more of a thumper, showing off the full 6.8% ABV as well as the inclusion of caramel and various syrups to bulk it out. There's gooey brown-banana effect, cut with ginger bread and aniseed.
This is a bit all over the place. Piling in the unfermentable sugars while also trying to make it dry and bitter doesn't really work. It's complex, for sure, but in a busy, unwieldy sort of way. "Interesting" is about the best I can say. I see it's landed in with a new batch of the IPA. Buy two bottles of that instead.
