The De Ranke house yeast exudes its rubber cork and basement must rusticity… aromatic malt is toasted grains, baked seed bread, fall leaves; hops are green, apricots, flowers, orange. Carbonation is lush and fine, rich and savory and lip-smacking maltiness contested by bitter and sticky and green hops, wrapped up in the yeast character that defines De Ranke. From draft at The Sovereign in DC. No doubt this is the fresh 2016 batch, but it’s unknown if the base malt profile is still the same year-to-year (it used to vary between Père Noël, Saison de Dottignies, and XX Bitter). The last few releases seem to have a consistent malt base.