Clear copper beer under a huge, bit fluffy head, dirty-amberish, shards of lace. Caramelly nose, with grains, toasted malts, spices and parsley. BItterish, light spicy caramel flavour. Nitterish spices stronger in the finish. Dry, dried mushrooms. Coriander is there, but the bitterish-peppery flavour of ginger is more obvious. Light body, quite slick. The spices mentioned made me fear for the worst, but it turns out acceptable.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Bootjesbier (by Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.5/5

22/VII/15 - 33cl bottle from Willems @ home - BB: 12/X/16 (2015-951) Thanks to Beerlover_Ben for getting me the bottle!

Clear amber beer, creamy beige head, very solid, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very fruity, peaches, melons, some citrus, honey, sweet touch, caramel. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sweet, very fruity, yeasty touch, soft bitterness, bit dusty, spices, probably coriander. Aftertaste: sweet banana, bitter, fruity, very yeasty, some coriander. I'll be honest, this is way better than what I expected.

The follow-up to Seefbier, themed around the Red Star Line, a public transport line between Belgium and the U.S. which has been commemorated in Antwerp this year; this Bootjesbier tries to form a bridge between American craft beers (amber ale in this case) and the Belgian traditions. Makes me curious. Pours a beautiful and clear, deep coppery amber colour with low sparkling but with odd strains of colourless resin hanging around in it, as if someone has tried to dilute glue in it. Head is medium sized, off-white in colour and of medium retention. Perfumey, spicy, sweet and exotic aroma of gari (candied ginger), a lot of coriander seed, green apple peel, caramel, canned apricot, biscuit, mango chutney, candied lemon, sundried tomato, triple sec, toast and biscuit, very sweet honey, banana, hints of star aniseed, dried hay, buttermilk, bubblegum. Sweet taste, canned pineapple slices, peach, mango, with a citrus fraîcheur, medium carbo, not sugary but evolving into a very smooth, slick, butterscotch-like malt sweetness, a bit honeyish but primarily very caramelly with a biscuity touch, more toasted in the finish, with a lot of drying coriander spiciness, rendering it a resinous mouthfeel and probably explaining the visual resin effect; the ginger is also impossible to ignore, retronasally and in the form of an additional spiciness in the back of the mouth. A spicy, peppery hop bitterness provides some balance but the sticky, bittersweet spices keep dominating and the malt sweetness also persists. Interesting and less trivial than expected, but why a coriander soup again? Why not tilting this more to the American craft beer culture instead of emphasising the ineradicable Belgian error of using too much coriander?

Bottled@Oud Arsenaal, Antwerp. Amber colour, mediumsized foamy beige head. Aroma is fruity, floral, some mild wooden notes along with herbs and earth. Flavour is nectar, some floral and fruity notes along with mild alcohol as well as some mild grains. Very nice flavour actually.

33 cl bottle @ Oud Arsenaal
Aroma has apricot, fruit candy and grainy tones. Flavour has sruit candy, cereal, apricot and some odd malty twist. Sticky and sweet.

Amber to copper in appearance. Primarily a sweet, malty beer with the added complexity of spicy ginger.

Draft at gollem. Pours clear amber, small white head. Smell is spices, some ambermalts and caramel. Taste is malty, sweet, grainy ambermalts. Some hops, very soft. Not too bad. Slightly metallic in the back though

Thanks. Small draft sample @ Gollem. Dark amber, little white head. Nose is extract-like caramel, thick caramel syrup, malty with coriander, feels a bit hollow, sugar sweet,… Same type of caramel dominates the taste with lots of caramel extract like flavors, candy sugar, malts & coriander, not really getting USA hops, faintly metallic,… Hollow caramel body,… Okay but redundant. It is a bit like De Koninck on steroids with coriander & spices, if that sounds like something you have been missing out on, this is the beer you need. Also that name,… I find it hard to get positive associations when I hear the terms alcohol & boats in the same sentence.