Bottle from Willems en Zoon Grobbendonk. Color: Slightly hazy golden, white head. Aroma: Malty, smoke, subtle herbal and floral notes, hints of smoked meat. Taste: Malty, smoke, smoked ham, peat, floral and herbal hints and light yeasty hints. Just over medium body, average carbonation. Light sweetness, very light bitterness. As smoked / peated beer lover I actally like this, although there are better ones in this style.

Smoked Belgian ale from a 75 cl bottle, vintage of two years old. Very violent gusher: I lost about 1/3 of it even with careful opening, so be warned if you happen to stumble upon one of these... Thick and frothy, irregular, egg-white, coarse but stable head leaving thick ’papery’ lacing, lightly hazy ’old gold’ colour with lively sparkling, showing a warm, somewhat peachy hue which becomes a lot more opaque and ’muddy’ after the yeast sediment has been added. Aroma is heavily impaired by unpleasantly rusty, cooked chicken- and very old white wine-like oxidation, apart from hints of dried apricot, white currant, fermenting apples, lemon zest, cereals, banana peel, unripe nectarine, hay, honeysuckle, gin (the juniper berries!), green tea, minerals - during and after which indeed a sharpish smoky aspect shows up, smoked mackerel almost and something cigarette-like too, but not completely overpowering the rest, or at least not as strongly as the oxidation does. Fruity onset, lots of sourish gooseberry, raw pineapple and white currant along with sweetish notes of peach and banana, sharply carbonated, resulting in a somewhat coarse, yet fairly ’full’, somewhat oily mouthfeel. Grainy and cereally middle with a softer caramelly edge and ongoing fruity notes; meanwhile the smokiness builds, ending in a retronasal combo of smoked wood and rusty oxidation. Back in the mouth, a resinous, herbal, green tea-like hop bitter accent prevents this beer from becoming too boringly sweet, though admittedly the smoky factor has a lot to do with that as well; a glueish, gin-like, ethereal spiciness is mixed into the whole, clearly the juniper berries at work, but luckily not as ’destructive’ as in many newer juniper beers (I hope this is the last time Palm’s Hop(e)less Ginny comes up). Very bizarre beer - this kind of idiosyncratic spicy brews are the essence of the somewhat surreal Belgian ale history, I suppose, but clearly too old even if coming from a 75 cl bottle at only two years of age; the smoke has a cigarette tobacco-like quality which seems to clash a bit with the ordinary fruity, sweetish, malty character of the rest of this beer, and then there is the juniper factor - doubtlessly linked to the current gin craze - which I am unable to appreciate even in this more subtle dosage than I had to endure in several other gin-themed beers. The far-reaching oxidation and the fierce gushing bothered me more than anything else, but I can imagine having appreciated this beer in younger condition - something I will never get the chance to now. Unusual, but not undrinkable, in all.

Clear golden colour, white head. Smoky aroma, malts, smoky whisky notes. Light sweet, quite smoky flavour. Smoky finish, smoked malts and whisky. I love the smokiness of this beer.
(from 75cL bottle @ Leuven Innovation, Leuven 2015)

Haze blond body. White creamy head. Lightly smokey aroma. Smokey bitter flavour. Well balanced.

Sampled from bottle @ Leuven Innovation Beer Festival. Hazy yellowish color, small white head. Smell and taste malts, peat, herbs or spices and a hint of butter. Drinkable, but weird and not my thing at all.

Bottle sample @ Leuven Beer Innovation 2015, shared with the RB Belgian crew. Dorée, col blanc. Arôme est fumé, note de tourbe, fleuri noble en rétro nasal sur une base malt pils, pâle et de fumé qui reste l’élément dominant. Palais est fumé-tourbe, effervescence moyenne, dominance tourbe qui perdure et reste cependant assez monodimensionnelle. Pas mauvaise, mais manque de finition. Je ne retrouve rien indiquant les baies de genévriers.

Thanks for sharing! Sampled 750 ml. bottle @ Leuven Innovation Beer Festival. Pale orange,… Hazy citrus, little white head. Nose is odd plastic peated malt, butter, herbal, light cheese,… Taste is weird peated plastic, sugar, herbal, lightly butter feel & taste,… Not as bad as most of their other beers because the peat covers most of it.

Leicht trübes goldenes Bier mit einer geringen weißen schaumkrone. Geruch sehr torfig, rauchig. Geschmack rauchig, viel Torf, sehr malzig.