My French isn’t brilliant and as I scribble this down, I’m not in a position to Google, so I’m guessing that, “Bière Blonde Houblonnée,” means something along the lines of, “Blond Beer with a shed load of hops in it.”
Etoile Du Nord is a lovely blonde beer with a feisty head and a smell that’s airy and yeasty and pungent with resinous hoppy flowers.
There’s a good malt that’s all honey and water biscuits, caramel, popcorn and nougat stickiness.
And then there’s this big fat hoppy juiciness that’s thick and resinous, packed with lime leaves, apples, hedgerow greenery, balsa wood shavings and lemon pips.
This all makes for a finish that’s stingingly long and bitter and delicious.