750ml ’champagne’ style bottle from Beers of Europe. Pours a slightly hazy light golden colour with a medium sized off white head. Aroma of hops, apple, banana, caramel and honey. Medium sweetness, light bitterness, with a light sourness too. Medium body, texture is sticky, average carbonation. Decent enough if unspectacular.

Pours golden with rocky head. Aroma is very low: biscuit, spearmint, corn flakes. Mouth-covering, medium body. Not very long-lasting.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Brigand Belgian Ale (by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 11/20, MyTotalScore: 2.9/5

14/V/15 - 75cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent) @ home - BB: 10/VII/16 (2015-610)

Clear dark blond beer, big creamy off-white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of banana, yeast, sweet, touch of honey, spicy notes. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, spicy, lots of yeast, banana peel, some almonds. Aftertaste: bitter touch, yeast, grassy, banana, dry, some coriander, bit metallic.

330ml bottle from Beers of Europe. Pours clear straw gold, massive head, high carbonation. Aromas of pear drops, bread, light coriander seeds. Taste is hot, more pears and breadsticks. Slightly sweet and boozy finish. Not great.

*Old Rating, 33cl, best before 04-2009. Süß und dickflüssig. Würzige Kräuteraromen, süßlich-hefig, frisch, mild, gelbe Früchte.

Review based on the BJCP2008 guidelines (style 18D). Bottle 33 cl - Batch BRBR0319C 04:06. AROMA: light fruits aromas (pears), mixed with peppery and anise notes. slight solventy background. very faint perfumy aroma. APPEARANCE: light amber color and clear. average off-white head with good retention. some lacing. TASTE: flavour similar to the aroma, with light pears notes and slight solventy background. low bitterness with a sweet finish. PALATE: high carbonation with medium-light body. slight solventy character. OVERALL: an average belgian strong ale with some solventy aromas and flavours.

Bottle @ Bierpaleis, Brugge. Copper-gold with a large carbonation and a thick bubbly-frothy head. Strong tasting but maintaining its distinctively Belgian nose that has yeasts and vanilla evident too. Nice and smooth in the palate.

Classic Van Honsebrouck ale, in existence since many years, used to be sweeter and, if I am not mistaken, somewhat darker, but this rating concerns the current version. Very thick, rocky but eventually collapsing and opening, snow-white, crackling foam over a deep golden blonde (’old gold’) beer with quiet sparkling. Yeasty aroma with impressions of green apple, lemon zest, soap, freshly cut grass, banana peel, hay, gin, unripe pear, also some plastic-like solvents and vegetable-like DMS. Adding the yeast deposit leads to more sweet fruitiness and bread-like aromas, as well as an equally misty robe. Taste begins with unripe fruits and citrus peel, strong, mineral-like carbonation, dry, yeasty, slender maltiness, bit thin mouthfeel for a beer this strong, spicy notes, finishing with grassy hoppiness, long, but unfortunately also a bit phenolic and, more than anything, a strong presence of rather astringent, wodka-like alcohol. I’m guessing they tried to evolve in a Duvel-like direction like so many others have attempted and if my memory doesn’t fail me, the older batches (twenty years ago) were softer, sweeter and more interesting, with less astringent alcohol.