Venerable craft brewer New Belgium releases this Belgian farmhouse-style offering at the end of summer, as fall approaches, to celebrate the idea of pulling up a chair to a long table with many friends (after the harvest work is completed, of course).  Very bucolic, and all that, but what of the suds?

This 12oz bottle pours a slightly hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, densely foamy, and increasingly creamy off-white head, which leaves some chunky snow mass lace around the glass as it slowly melts away.

It smells of grainy pale malt, a doughy breadiness, soft earthy yeast, a touch of lemon/lime citrus, some middling Belgian candy sugars, banana chips, and a tame coriander and white/black pepper spiciness. The taste is quite consistent, with the sharp, grainy pale malt, a further white bread sweetness, indistinct pome fruit esters, more heady coriander and rainbow peppercorn dusty spice, banana-flavoured cotton candy, and a twinge of demi-sec white wine booziness. The carbonation is quite light and engaging in its lilting frothiness, the body a sturdy middleweight, and fairly smooth, the yeast the only interloper, and it came in hands-up, and so very non-threatening. It finishes on the sweet side, but just, as the pastry-adjacent malt takes in the wan citrus, and other attendant sugars to put on the finishing touches.

A very agreeable, solid, and yet easy-going version of the style, with an extra soupcon of hop and alcohol to remind us all that autumn’s cool winds are but a few sad, reflective weeks hence. Worthy of a go now, then, and anytime you’re in the mood for a well-rounded and well-made farmhouse ale.