Third bottle of Kombine. Braupakt was super (especially on draft) so there are high hopes for Kombine.

Fluffy head on a orange, hazy (unfiltered) body. Head retention isn’t the best, but the lace is good.

Yeasty, bready orange notes on the nose and the citrus notes run throughout the beer. The beer is really quite sweet, especially when one considers that this is supposed to be a Helles, and honestly, this feels a bit flabby for that particular designation. It drinks well and is somewhat tasty, but if you were seeking a pure Helles then I think you’d be disappointed. Of course, realizing that this is purposely unfiltered does mean that you shouldn’t be too surprised, but nevertheless …

More light orange down the beer and more sweetness. The mouthfeel evens out a bit over time and with warming. The more I drink this, the less it feels much like a Helles at all, and the less influence that Weihenstephan has had on the beer. The feels distinctly Belgian to me, and I’m a little confused by it. I mean I quite like it, but it’s a weird hybrid beer – I suppose that’s at least part of the point! Increasingly sweet as well.

I happened to come across it on-tap recently, and given my experience with Braupakt noted above, I would, under different circumstances, perhaps have reached for it. However, the bar in question had a sufficiently good selection, and Kombine had been such a relative disappointment, that I decided to pass. That says a LOT given my earlier Braupakt experience.

Here’s the commercial description.

Kombine 2025 is an unfiltered, full-bodied blond beer (6% ABV) with a subtle hoppy aroma. A first for St. Bernardus as we have never before brewed a bottom-fermented beer. Additionally, this beer does not undergo bottle fermentation, another first in our brewing tradition. And if that was not challenging enough, we also committed to brewing this according to the German Reinheitsgebot! We used Weihenstephan’s yeast and a blend of hops from both our own and Weihenstephan.