Donau Lager
Humboldt en Gauss in Mariakerke, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.03
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336 bottles series
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Donau Lager from Humboldt en Gauss 6 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
This relatively 'shy' brewing project in Mariakerke, a village belonging to Ghent, has been producing interesting beers from the start and still maintains that momentum, this time (i.e. October last year to be precise) presenting us with a Vienna style lager ('Wiener') - a specific and classic 19th-century lager genre developed by Anton Dreher, still somewhat underexposed by the craft brewing revolution but interesting enough in basically being the bottom-fermented equivalent to the broader family of amber-coloured ales (Belgian amber or 'spéciale belge', German Alt, classic English-style pale ales, modern American amber ales...). Medium thick, yellowish egg-white, beautifully and very intricately 'Brugse kant'-like lacing, disparately opening but very firmly edge-retaining head, initially very lightly hazy, deep and very warm orange beer, amber of the purest kind, turning gently misty with sediment. Very purely malty aroma of fresh French toast, 'honey waffles', dry biscuit, rusk, carrot cake, lightly toasted peanuts, toasted white bread, dried orange zest, minerals and iron in a very natural way, hint of lavender and indeed bath foam, subtler accents of baked apple, fried pumpkin flesh, bitter honey, stewed parsnip. Crisp, clean, rounded onset, fruity notes (red apple, persimmon) but restrained in esteriness as is to be expected from a lager, more malt fruitiness in fact with a lovely smooth, (pea)nutty malt body with a soft and sweet caramelly and even very lightly honeyish side and an equally very lightly toasted bitterish tail, gently but adequately carbonated; soft minerally and slight soapy notes accompany this all-malt programme to a florally hopped finish, with mildly spicy bitterness which only accentuates the malts rather than distracting from them, but also with a quite colourful, perfumey, indeed lavender-like retronasal touch. When I sampled their first beer at Geus van Gent more than a year ago, I was immediately convinced that these young guys are very focused and have great technical skills in brewing. Ignoring that stout attempt which wasn't a stout, the odd one out so to speak, all of their beers have been consistently good so far, straightforward and streamlined, elegant and very soft-edged all at the same time - in other words, they have developed their own house style, and this Wiener fits right in. Even from mere style considerations, this is an astonishingly well-crafted example - of a relatively unfamiliar style only very few Belgian brewers have ever tackled. Wieners are rare so comparison is, by consequence, not that easy especially from a Belgian perspective, but this may well be the most interesting one I had to date. Humboldt & Gauss at their very best - so far...
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Donau Lager from Humboldt en Gauss 7 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Imported from my RateBeer account as Humboldt en Gauss Donau Lager (by Humboldt en Gauss):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.7/5
16/XI/18 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ home, BB: 19/IV/20 - (2018-1674)
Clear dark amber to red brown beer, small creamy light beige irregular head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, caramel, some banana, nice stuff! MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very malty, caramel, some dark chocolate, pretty bitter, dry, grain, nice stuff here! Aftertaste: more malts, some caramel, slightly sweet, grains, soft bitterness, good one!