6.5

Bottle @ Dr. Beer. Unclear brown body under a tan head. Caramel malt, dry fruit, spicy yeast. Reminds a bit of a Belgium dubbel. Decent.

7

Bottle, at Dr. Beer. Spiced, with a touch of piney hops. Dark dried fruit, toffee and hints of milk chocolate. Brownie. Unusual but nice. 747414 251108

5.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Brown colour with quick fading head. Aroma and flavour are dominated by sweet spices. Very much like a spiced cake with some clove, ginger and cinnamon. Lots of bready yeast.

6.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 7

Boskal’s Christmas beer, steini bottle from De Caigny. Very thick and very frothy, pale yellowish beige, dense and foamy head leaving behind a thick ’cement’ of lacing, crowning an initially clear, translucently copper-coloured beer with almost fuchsia-like hue, quite attractive really. Aroma of hand soap, fresh fig, caramel, coriander, liquorish candy but not too obtrusively so, honey-glazed beetroot, banana, dry earth, violets, almond, subtler hints of dish water, marmelade, cloves, ’can’ iron even if this comes from a bottle, rosewater, butterscotch, sticky toffee apples, tea, cloth, jute. Sweet onset, lots of pear, banana and nectarine but in a ’cleanish’ kind of way, medium carbonated in spite of the impressive head formation and -retention, with a full, notably soapy, resiny and very slightly metallic (silvery?) mouthfeel, built on a tall underground of utterly caramelly and slightly nutty malt sweetness which carries the residual sugars onwards - a bit cloyingly even - to a sweet-and-spicy finish of ongoing resiny malt sweetness, lingering residual sugary ’cloyingness’ though not overdone for a classic Belgian Christmas ale, a ’shot’ of briefly lived, earthy hop bitterishness and some warming, port-like alcohol which, all things considered, remains well masked; on top of this all, a spiciness lingers reminiscent of very soapy coriander in the first place but something notably liquorish-like as well. Uniquely spiced, Boskal says, but I doubt if the spices used here are really that unique; my bet is on a combination of coriander and liquorish. I am naturally weary about spices added to beer - I may have experienced too many of them in all those years especially in this country - and this one doesn’t help: though I did have more exaggeratedly spiced beers than this, this is still too resiny and perfumey for my personal taste. That said, it is technically very well executed and probably achieves what it set out to be - an accomplishment in itself, in certain ways, so let’s not be too harsh on it. I always wonder why these new Belgian breweries that prove they are capable of technical finesse like this one, still seem to get stuck in the 20th-century Belgian clichés including a Scotch-ish spiced winter ale - I assume revenue and ’safety’ as a consequence are the main motors behind this. I’d like to see this micro brewery make a big stout, barleywine or DIPA, actually!

6.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Donkerbruin bier met schuim. Smaak is kruidig, licht bitter hoppig en licht zoet, met iets van drop en anijs. Best een goed bier maar komt voor een kerstbier net iets te kort wat mij betreft.

5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

At Kerstbierfestival 2016. Thnx for sharing ! Pours unclear amberbrown. Good white head; Smell is sharp, bit bitter, overripe vegetables. Taste is sharp, bitter, vegetables. Mild grainy, perfumy. OK at best.

6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Bottle sampled at Essen Winterbier festival 2015. Appears light hazy orange brown with a medium cream head. Aroma of yeast, herbs, toffee, caramel and veggies. Flavour is moderate to heavy sweet and light moderate bitter. Above medium bodied with soft carbonation.

5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4

Thank you! Sampled 330 ml. bottle @ Kerstbierfestival Essen 2015. Dark reddish amber, some off-white head. Nose is metallic, hugely, herbal, fish guts, sugar,… Taste is empty fizzy with nasty mold, fizzy mold, dull herbs, spoiled fruit, fish guts,… Fizzy & moldy body. Really not enjoyable, worst thing that I tried at the festival.

6.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Sampled @ Kerstbierfestival Essen 2015. Clear amber color, medium sized beige head. Smell and taste malts, sweetish, slightly caramel, brown candy sugar. Pretty standard Christmas beer, but decent though.

6.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle at the Essen Winter Beer Festival, 2015. Poured a crystal clear dark amber with a thin broken off white head. The aroma is sweet malt, metallic hop. The flavour is moderate bitter light sweet with a sweet malt, caramel, hop bitter palate. Medium to light bodied with average carbonation.