7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle from Beerdome. Aroma is tart dried fruits, barnyard funk, caramel malt, touch of wood, stewed prunes, tart berries. Flavour is tart with some sweetness and a medium sourness. Body is medium with barely any carbonation. Tasty Flemish Brown that could do with some age.

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

Bottled 1/2018. Slight gusher. Dark reddish brown, plenty of fluffy off-white head. Smell is sour, woody, some sweetness. Dry mouthfeel, after the first pucker kick pretty soft. Taste is pretty bitter in an oaky way, sour, dry. Some raisin, cherry. Nice!

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

7

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

Bottle thanks to Thom. Pours a cloudy brown with small beige head. The aroma is licorice, oak, dark fruit. Slick body, dark fruit, oak tannin, light tartness, good.

7

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

Bottle. Dark amber color. Soft sour aroma with hints of caramel, berries and soft bretty notes. Soft sour caramelly flavor with citrus and berries. Apple sourness. Still needs time to develop, but a well made beer.

7.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

375ml bottle. Clear, brown-ish, dark ruby colour with small to average, thick, frothy, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, dark beige head. Tart-ish, tangy, fruity aroma, notes of morello, black cherry, a minimally chocolately, dark malty touch. Taste is slightly dry, mildly tart, fruity, notes of cherry, morello, black cherry, a touch of plum, subtle, minimally sugary sweetness, a minimally chocolately, dark malty touch as well. Nice.

6.8

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

8

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Toon van den Broek has very pleasantly surprised me - 'astonished' is perhaps even a better word - with his take on geuze (Watergeus) so I was looking forward to try his attempt at 'oud bruin'; at least the production process described on his website seems authentic and true to style: mixed fermentation, long boil (even longer than the more 'commercial' examples), low hopping, blending of young with old beer... From a 37.5 cl bottle, just over a year old, with crown cap. Slow gusher, but manageable. Moussy, milky, pale yellowish beige, lightly lacing head, needing a bit of forcing to develop but remaining very stable after that in spite of opening here and there in the middle; initially clear, deep dark mahogany brown robe with reddish bay hue, only turning murky in the very end as the last centilitres are added from the bottle. Estery, lively nose of unripe brambleberries, beechnuts on a dry forest floor, dry earth, walnut shells, old brown bread crust, sour cherries, plum peel, balsamic vinegar, very dry sherry, wet leather, dried passionfruit seeds, sour grapes, caramel sweetness lurking from underneath and increasing a bit in strength as the beer warms up. Estery, sour onset, hinting at sour cherries, blackberries, crabapple and plum skin, softly carbonated; supple mouthfeel, dried quite intensely by the sourness, which develops a lemony and even somewhat vinegary character as it stretches over the palate. Very nutty malt base, nut shells and beechnuts, but instead of an inherent caramelly sweetness as I tend to expect from the style, a bitterish toasty edge develops in the end, mingling with the ongoing, quite astringent sourness. Ends therefore wry, earthy, bone dry but appetizing, with a more than average acid burn to it. Not quite what I expect from a beer inspired by the (admittedly original form of) Liefmans Goudenband; I do get the nod at Struise's Ypres for the presence of more roasted malt, but compared with the commercial standards in this often underestimated and misunderstood style, like Rodenbach or Duchesse de Bourgogne, this lacks smooth 'yoghurtiness' and sweet 'caramelliness' to counter the sourness. That said, those commercial standards are made the modern way, including sweetening and pasteurization to make them more palatable; this one seeks more 'pureness' and in that sense may come closer to what the style originally tasted like - a parallel with Verzet's interpretation of 'oud bruin' is easily drawn and indeed this northern Dutch version has more than one similarity with Verzet Oud Bruin. Style details aside, this is a very accomplished sour ale in the modern, less compromising 'craft beer' sense of the word, I sure enjoyed it a lot and would be happy to taste the first fruit variant that came out of it, even if it seems a bit less successful within its respective intended style than Watergeus is - in a style which seems technically even harder to master than 'oud bruin', no matter how difficult and delicate oud bruin is.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle at tasting. Aroma of cherry, malt, oak, vanilla and old hops. Taste has smooth sour cherry, oak, vanilla, ripe malt and funk. Good one.