Taras Boulba De La Senne Hoppy Blonde

From the brewer:

54 IBUs

Mash at 45-62-72-78°C. Hop pellets rather than cones, 95% of the hops used are German or Slovenian. Yvan : "Tettnanger and Saaz stand for the bulk, and beyond them, we primarily use Savinjski Golding and Hallertau Hersbrucker".

Collect wort at 21-22°C; weak beers are allowed up to 26°C to encourage esters, strong beers up to 24°C to minimise fusels. 5-6 days in fermenter and 14-15 days in secondary at 23°C

It has a wholly unique flavor: a bright lemon stiffened by minerally hard water up front, then a slow evolution into a dry herbal finish....The beer may be hop-heavy (in addition to bittering additions, Senne dry-hops Taras Boulba)....“It’s a yeast we’ve chosen carefully for the subtle, mellow esters it gives. We enhance them using very flat fermenters we designed ourselves.” He points out that the bitterness comes from the hops, not phenolics, but I’d emphasize all the heavy lifting the yeast does in other ways. Esters up front accent the lemony hopping and create the spritz that buoys this beer. In Taras Boulba, the way those esters work with the bitterness, the way their aromas harmonize with the citrusy hops, are what tie the beer together.

From Northern Brewer on Homebrewtalk.com