UPDATED: JAN 9, 2022 Dark orange colour with some haze from the yeast. It's certainly easy drinking and has some light fruity notes. The finish has a bitterness to it. Still, it's a bit simple and plain compared to regular full-fat Magma.

UPDATED: DEC 24, 2021 Bottle from Drinks Vanuxeem, Ploegsteert, Belgium. Pours a hazy orange colour with a large thick creamy off white head. Aromas of citrus orange with a little mango, bread and caramel. Taste has more of the same notes, is rather sweet with a little added peppery spice. Thinnish body with soft light fizz on the palate. Very light and easy drinking. Refreshing. Pretty good.

UPDATED: NOV 27, 2021 This year's special edition of the classic Troubadour Magma, now executed in New England style - I have been crossing my fingers ever since I first read about this new beer, especially with Musketeers' other recent beers in mind. Very thick, foamy, egg-white, dense and pillowy, very stable head resting on an equally hazy peach blonde beer with pale orangey tinge. Aroma rather restrained for the intended style (which is typically very exuberant), but nonetheless attractive enough with impressions of unripe mandarin, green melon, lime zest, bread crumbs, dry old cookies, sweetclover, apple, clove, some biscuit and vague exotic hints of orchids and lychees tucked away in the background - whereas these elements of course should be completely in the foreground for a NEIPA. Spritzy onset, lively carbonation, quite stingy and minerally especially for a NEIPA, fruity aspects of apple, unripe citrus and dried apricot, supple mouthfeel (feeling a tad thin even at this ABV); bread-crusty, bit grainy, somewhat rusk-like malts, quite pronounced, gently bittered by an admittedly elegant, yet powerful hoppiness, adding retronasal elements of dried orange peel and bitter herbs rather than the 'wave' of tropical fruitiness one expects in a NEIPA, even if references to lychee and even guava do shyly pop up here and there. The hops also provide more end bitterness than is custom in this style, with a leafy, even slightly rooty effect, quite long-lasting, well beyond the limited effects of the fruitiness. Well, I tried, and I especially tried to find as many NEIPA features in this beer as I could - but found virtually none, as I was already fearing. Do not get me wrong, though, in itself this is a well-constructed, expressive and very solid beer - which is why I am not being too harsh in scoring - but this is another Belgian IPA and has very little, if anything, to do with actual New England IPA. Sorry guys - I keep repeating this, but some of their earliest special editions of Troubadour Magma, beautiful and memorable as they were, actually came closer to 'true' IPA of whatever kind than this hopped-up Belgian blonde. But, as said, ignore the label and treat this as a Belgian IPA, and you will not be disappointed. Otherwise...

UPDATED: NOV 13, 2021 Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is exotic fruits with mango, melon, orange peel, yeasty notes, malt, some candied stone fruit. Flavour is medium bitter with a little sweetness. Body is medium. Nicely fruity Belgian yeasty IPA, tropical, fruit peel.

UPDATED: NOV 6, 2021 Bottle from Dranken Verheyen in Poppel, Belgium. The beer is hazy orange colored with a stable white foam. Carbonation is very good. The aroma is malts, citrus, grass, flowers, pines, tropical fruits, mango and spices. The taste is medium bodied, light sweet and fruity with caramel, malts and goes to hoppy and bitter with notes and tropical fruits from the aroma. The finish is refreshing, dry and light bitter.

UPDATED: NOV 3, 2021 Color naranja oscuro, muy turbia, translúcida. Espuma blanca de casi dos dedos de espesor y media retención. Aroma intenso, mango, melocotón maduro, mandarina y notas de pino. Sabor intenso, pomelo, naranja, melocotón, frutas de hueso un tanto pasadas, ligero pino y notas de piel de naranja amarga, final medio largo de dulzor frutal medio y amargor entre cítrico y resinoso medio, posgusto levemente amargo, alcohol bien integrado. Textura sedosa. Carbonatación baja. Grata sorpresa al servirla y olerla y pequeña decepción por los tonos amargos en boca y garganta. El precio hace que sea fácil perdonárselo.

UPDATED: OCT 22, 2021 Bottle at home. Hazy orange golden, big foamy offwhite head. Orange, mango fruity, quite dry and cleanly malted, medium bitterness. Light body, medium carbonation.

UPDATED: OCT 18, 2021 I Draught /I Huge yellowish head over veiled but bright orange beer with textbook lace. Beautiful orange-like, citrussy nose; lots of yeasty features, almost bready. Bitter, orangepeel, resiny, spices with bitterish but not harsh flavour. Chewy, nowhere lean and medium body, medium carbonation. Ah guys, again a bulls' eye.

UPDATED: OCT 16, 2021 Troebel goudkleurig, mooie kraag Ruikt lekker citrusfruitig. Smaakt idem, bitterzoet, goed te drinken.

UPDATED: OCT 12, 2021 Pours hazy golden blonde with white head. Nice nose on grapefruit, citrus and piney. Same on palate, really.a little sweet and a little bitter in the finish. Very nice exotic IPA.