Krab

Near white, fluffy, creamy head stayed well on a hazy honey coloured body. Stone fruit, malt & spice aroma. Thin to medium body. Soft on the palate. Prickly on the back. Bitter stone fruits & malt flavours followed by a slightly sweeter back with caramel. Not much to this one. Probably too low ABV for the style.

Donkergeel bier met mooie schuimkraag. Smaak is licht bitter hoppig en licht zoet met iets van citrus en vanille. Goed biertje!

Tap at Delirium. Very raw worty flavour. Thin bodied, metallic, unpleasant bitterness etc etc. Not very good.

One of the newer Scheldebrouwerij beers, a Belgian amber ale with ’papery’ lacing, off-white, moussy head slowly dissipating in the middle and clear pale orange colour with vivid fizz, hazy and more amberish with yeast sediment added. Aroma of unripe peach, banana, soap, pineapple, light caramel, unripe gooseberry, very light biscuit, raw cauliflower, honey, coriander seed, slight hazelnut, raw cane sugar, lavender, old cloves. Sweet onset, very fruity with hints of apricot, gooseberry and some light banana, spritzy carbo, supple and light mouthfeel, lightly caramelly and even very faintly nutty malt middle with ongoing esters but not overly so, some spicy yeast effects (phenols), dryish finish thanks to a dash of herbal, grassy and floral hoppiness, soapy coriander accent, but the juicy, caramelly malt core gets the last word. Straightforward Belgian amber, seemingly seeking connection with the ’spéciale belge’ tradition which has become all but obsolete now. Pointless indeed, as some of my colleagues below have noticed - quenching for sure, on the other hand. Sadly this brewery is largely failing to connect with international craft beer trends - and this goes for a lot of Belgian breweries - because this type of beer will neither attract the casual beer drinker nor the beer geek, technically correct as it may be. The resounding word ’hoppy’ should be used with more care in this day and age, I think... Nevertheless: correct, quenching and not bad at all, as old school as it is.

Quite good, very fine & dense, lightly yellowish head, receding over clear golden beer. Spicy nose, dried herbs. Bit sourish aroma - citrus, rhubarb, pickles; Again quite spicy, hervs, dry; with a markedly sourish finish (citrus, pickles,...) As to the "bittertje"??? Rather creamy MF, despite spritzy carbonation. Light to medium bodied, bit oily-slick feel. Oer Bier? I prefer the first named one.

Sampled draft @ B TASTE in Bruges. Hazy citrus, creamy white head. Nose is sweet spoiled esters, bad lemon, excessive white sugar sweetness. Taste is sweet white sugar esters, excessive, big bland slab of sugar, esters & bad lemon, fizzy body, white sugar & bad lemon. Excessive white sugar & uninteresting fizzy esters. Pointless at best, not a fan of this hollow brew.