This is another beer from the small East Flanders brewery De Ryck, and it is a beer for a cause.
The beer was produced in collaboration with Regionaal Landschap Vlaames Ardennen (RLVA) which is the regional authority tasked with looking after the natural landscape of the Flemish Ardennes. In 2009 it was decided to make this beer in support of preserving the natural habitat of the Little Owl; which funnily enough is the smallest owl in Flanders and the name of the beer!
We have a Belgian Pale Ale of 6.5% with the addition of three special herbs being sweet woodruff, angelica and blackthorn. These herbs grow in the Flemish Ardennes.
The result is a delicious blond coloured beer with a distinctly herbal character. With a good solid malt backbone, this beer kind of bridges the gap between a pale ale and a blond, and the herbs together with the hops give the beer a very nice herbal bitterness that lasts through the beer without being overwhelming.
It is such an easy drinking beer, but with enough interesting flavours that seem to keep changing the more sips you take. First produced in 2009, there is a reason why this beer is still produced regularly by De Ryck.