clear golden colour, medium sized, creamy white head; aroma of floral notes, honey, grass and grainy notes; taste of a typical belgian ale with minimal hop dominance

Bottle. Frothy White good mostly lasting head. Yellow colour. Moderate bitter flavor. Average moderate bitter finish. Oily palate.

Bottle, 330 ml from Svijet Piva. Pours golden with small white head. Malts, yeast, light fruit, sweetish, bit spicy. Expected more hoppy bitterness which can be detected in only traces.

New ’Kasteelbier’ with medium thick, dense, off-white head and orange blonde ’old gold’ colour, clear with very little fizz. Weakish aroma of rather subtle hops, pink grapefruit, grass, pineapple slices in syrup, the sulphuric smell of cooked Brussels sprouts, chicory, green apple, gin and something phenolic not unlike burnt rubber. Taste begins with a restrained, peachy and applish fruitiness, minerally, something sugary as well, soft with low carbonation, pale malt sweetishness, bit thin mouthfeel, straightforwardly leading to a grassy and herbal hop bitterness which lasts medium long. I suspect that after the discontinuation of their Brigand IPA, Van Honsebrouck was still dreaming of getting some benefit out of the new ’hops forward’ movement in Belgium and decided to try it again but under the commercially much more successful Kasteel brand. But like Brigand IPA, a half-hearted attempt at making something IPA-like and at the same time trying not to shock the palate of the average Belgian consumer adds nothing to our beer culture. The hoppiness remains shy, the residual sugariness from its bigger brothers is still there and there is no malt backbone to speak of. Redundant and a waste of time and effort. Just another ordinary Belgian blonde so do not be mislead by the ’Belgian pale ale’ characterization on the label - ’Belgian pale ale’, if anything, refers to something totally different anyway.

Medium offwhite head. Clear yellow body with light carbonation. Spicy fruity aroma with mealy notes. Dry oily spicy taste with metal notes. Mid-bodied. Mild mouthfeel. Dryish resiny fruity aftertaste with spicy notes. Boring. (0.33l bottle at Heeren van Liedekercke, Belgium.)

Bottle, small creamy head, quite clear gold colour, aroma of vanila and herbs with some yeasty notes, sweet candy flavour with some honey and fruit and a bit coarse medium almondy rubbery bitterness. Drinkable but pretty boring.

BOTTLE 33CL.

Look: clear golden-amber, smallish off-white frothy head with below average retention.
Aroma: sweet-and-sour fruit liquor, esters, alcohol, glue, stale grains.
Taste: string lager-style fruitiness, cardboard, rubber, moderate but harsh phenolic bitterness, some astringency.

Pretty rough. Feels like a bad string lager.

33 cl bottle @ hotel room, Amsterdam. BBE 02/2015
Aroma is sweet and soapy with apricot. Flavour has toffee candy, alcohol, some toffee typical to Belgian ales and grassy hops in the background. Reminds me of boozy Kasteel Tripel – this isn’t just that boozy. Not as hoppy as one would expect.

Bottle from trade with Douberd, many thanks. Clear golden color with medium white head. Malt, green tea, herbs, light hops in aroma. Strong malty taste with green tea, herbs, grassy hops. Well, this wasn’t really hoppy.