Found at Brewery Creek. Dark amber, opaque with yeast. Big, billowy head. The aroma is big yeasty like a dusty attic. There’s actually no beer character to the aroma. On the palate, it’s got a lot of honey/date sweetness, some more of that dusty yeast. Soft body. The finish is mainly date-sweet malts and a touch of yeasty acidity. Kind of boring for this brewery.

Deep amber,large lasting beige head.Intense small bead. Yeasty,lightly musty malt nose.Slightly tart, yeasty,light malt,fruity overtones. Gassy and fizzy

2004 bottle consumed on 8/11/06. Fabulous appearance, as always, from Blaugies, with a rich, tangerine-skin-orange flecked medium-dark beige head that is, of course, perfectly well-retained, slow to recede even an inch and fully coats the glass with lacing. With a deep inhale, I come away overwhelmed by a thoroughly complex nose. Yeasty, for sure, with plenty of musty notes, hard minerals, damp wood and on the very end, a slightly vegetal, or just extremely corky/musty note that dosent quite sit well with my nose. Whatever it is, it seems quite organic (as opposed to chemical/medicinal) and though I could guess for hours, perhaps it is even a large amount of Special B malt, I really have no idea what it is. Suffice to say it is old, damp, somewhat limpid and I don’t think the near-vegetal nature of it complements the saison style well. Adding to this, and helping to alleviate it somewhat, though not fully, is a plethora of phenol activity, redolent of cinnamon, black pepper, clove, etc...While this certainly helps dry out some of the aforementioned quality, it comes to dominate the finish, and leave a dry, phenolic and rather quick finish to the nose. Malt sweetness shows a mix of raisins, prunes, caramel and medium-dry toffee. Hints of vanilla-flavored cream add a balancing sweetness, but the soggy, old, musty qualities seem to set in too much so from the start, nor does the sweet malt enliven things. The musty, old, cellar-like yeastiness is heavy in the flavor, with an old, mushy raisin quality, hints of cocoa, cinnamon and caramel and vanilla sugars. While the texture certainly provides an engaging carbonation, the body has a slight slickness to it, with more astringent-like phenols on the finish. The odd yeast meatiness, whatever the hell it is, hangs on and battles with the ample maltiness, but the result is just muddled. Some very slight warmth from the alcohol contributes to dryness, while a tartness begins to grow on the palate from the beginning and builds. But it’s almost a grapey-tartness and further muddles things, IMHO. I don’t know, I’ve now had three bottles and while I certainly see great qualities, and believe there are perfect/near-perfect bottles out there, I can’t seem to find one. They’ve been either too sweet, too phenolic or too old/musty/vinous. So I’ll keep searching, lord knows Blaugies is phenomenal stuff. 7/5/6/3/13 Original U.S. importation bottle, 750mL, drunk on 12/9/2006 I think these older bottles, with the much more basic labels (pictured at left), are 2002 or 2003 vintages. Anywho, wow, what a difference! The disappointing newer vintages, rather muddled and overly sweet and caramelly share very little in common with this bottle. Tart and quite acidic in the nose, with less gummy, tacky, sweet dark fruits and more dry malt and dry yeast character. Except for some strong fusel apparency on the finish, this flavor is explosive, with powerful wild yeasts that are difficult to define (not any clear brett or lacto flavors) adding tartness and lots of acidity. Some dark fruits are present, but the malts really help keep things dry as well, and yet add lots of chewy, nearly bready qualities. None of the mushy caramel, as I just mentioned, and a very, very strong, tight carbonation. Vanilla and black pepper phenols combine with a strong earthiness on the finish. Without the fusels and probably with about 2 years less age on this, I can definitely see where Ernest picked up his 5.0 rating. As is, it’s still extremely enjoyable, but for the heavy fusel content. 8/5/7/4/15 Code on the cage says U2 06:21 Winter. Purchased from warm shelf at Parker Pie, August 2022, drunk 12/17/22. This shouldnt be this oxidized, wtf. I like the mineral and the yeast signature but there is a lot of gross caramel and oxidation. Hard to drink. Worse than any iteration I've had previously. 7/4/6/4/12

Hazy orange-red body with much suspended sediment, medium tan head. Floral, sweet, petaly aroma, with sweet breads and caramel. Sharp, somewhat tart body, earthy, toasty, and caramely, big on the yeast esters. Spicy. A bit tea-llike, with appropriate bitterness to balance the breads and caramels. No real sweetness. Herbal, balanced, and tasty.

Bottled vintage 2004 37,5cl
Pink-orange color, lively CO2, good off-white head. Earthy nose with mould, licorice and fruits. Also flavor is earthy: wood, tannins. I can even imagine cow webs there. Some grapes are to balance.Dry, oaky and a bit spicey aftertaste. Certainly "biere artisanale"!

Corked bottle
Beautiful copper color; huge head. Very nice aroma, dry, malty, mature apples and red grapes. Good body, some malt, a peculiar woody astringency. Correct final.
Below my expectations…

Bottle. Strange aroma and flavour. slightly sour flavour with OK bitterness.

Very high, fluffy head, reasonably stable; dark orange-amber, fully hazy. Bit smoky nose, leather, ironoxide, verbena, higher alcohols? Spicey, iron-y taste, bit cheesy and again leather. Fusels and esters, farmyard flavours, and there’s a set of spruce on the farm, piney tastes coming up retronasal, softly acidic. Well-bodied, reasonably warming, light burning sensation. Very good winterbeer. The exact "golden middle" between spicey X-mas, and spicey-refreshing Walloon beer. Good!

The cork explodes from the bottle as soon as the cage is loosened - surprisingly small head considering the explosive opening - aroma of damp vegitation, hints of pear and apple - light bodied, but not what I would call thin - spicy and herbal up front, with slight hops - apple peach and plum flavors come in - some grain in the finish - not all that flavorful for a winter ale, and, as others have noted, this, coupled with the light body, make it more appropriate for warmer weather - save it for the spring and it will work well.