The other day, in reviewing Wells Banana Bread Beer, I wrote: “I can’t say as I’ve had many banana beers (the only other one that comes immediately to mind is a homebrewed banana wheat years ago)”—and then I found my original review of Chapeau Banana Lambic from 2008.
It’s brewed by Belgian’s Brouwerij De Troch to 3.5% alcohol by volume.
Appearance: Pale yellow-orange—golden, almost—bubbly. White head was fizzy but didn’t last long.
Smell: Delicate notes of sweet banana, slightly clovey. There’s a musty, horsey tang of Brett yeast… very delicate.
Taste: Tart green apple thing going on with sweet, very ripe bananas playing the background. Crisp. Pretty tasty. I want to say “Jolly Rancher” but not in the annoying way that Lindemans Pomme is. Nice interplay of sweet and tart.
Mouthfeel: Light, but a tad puckery, leaves a bit of a cloying aftertaste behind, but very drinkable.
Overall: Yum! Unusual but I like it.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.38 out of 5, and is in their 15th overall percentile.