I think this is a really good beer, but it has an even better story.
Dating back to the 1700’s there was a general style of beer made by the many brewers of Antwerp called Seefbier. It was a cloudy blond ale, with barley, buckwheat, oats and wheat along with all Belgian hops and a special yeast.
This was the most popular beer of the region until a combination of the Industrial Revolution and WWI saw many of Antwerp’s small breweries fall into disuse and or pillaged for their equipment when the German’s occupied Belgium. The beer disappeared, and along with it a part of Antwerp’s history.
That was until an Antwerp local by the name of Johan Van Dyck decided to revive this beer style. His problem was that all the brewing records of the small breweries seemed to have been destroyed during the war. He spent three years researching all he could about Seefbier, then began visiting families that owned breweries before the war. He finally found a 90+ year old brewer who had kept his original recipe for the Seefbier. He now had a recipe but no historical yeast, until an old yeast strain was discovered in the Leuven University Yeast vaults. Through these efforts, this historical ale is once again brewed in the city of Antwerp.
The aroma and flavour are very yeast driven, with banana and other yellow fruits, malty and slightly spicy. The taste is a mix of grainy malts and rustic herbs and floral hops, finishing dry with a little spicy aftertaste.