Reward claimed!

And so it was. As was posited in my post from April, the Éphémère Cassis turns out to be what could be called the kir royale of beer. Strongly aromatic with black currants, the actual taste is crisp and dry from the use of an almost tart wheat beer as a base, with none of that blechy sweetness most people associate with fruit beers (probably because compared to the assumedly pure and authentic Belgian fruit beers it's based on, this version doesn't have saccharine in it, a flavoring that the Europeans still seem to have the taste for and a type of sweetener that isn't fermentable by brewer's yeast). Worth grabbing, if you can find it before the weather turns...

Ommegang back to Belgium

Whereas I won't be making it to Belgium this month, as I'd initially hoped, the States' most authentic Belgian brewery has headed back to its roots in slightly ironic turn of events. Probably most famously known as the American brewery that imports all its ingredients apart from the water from Belgium in its mission to create truly authentic Belgian ales domestically, Brewery Ommegang has had to ask its (relatively new) parent brewery - Duvel Moortgat - to brew Ommegang abroad as its popularity has bested its domestic production capabilities. As it were, even more reason to travel abroad...