5.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

Every blond Belgian tripel sooner or later needs a dark counterpart, and this is Weldebrouck's version. Bottle from Pyl & Blommaert in Melsele. Medium thick, audibly crackling, moussy, hardly lacing, pale yellowish beige head, opening in the middle but otherwise well-retaining over a cloudy mahogany brown beer with ochre hue. Aroma overpoweringly spicy, very strong effect of cough syrup and eucalyptol, dried peppermint leaves but also actual peppermints, cloves, dried fig, butterscotch, spice bread, damp earth, medlar, straw, elderly ladies' hairspray, cold tea bags, baked banana, nutmeg, baker's yeast, raw beetroot juice, mud. Sweet onset, residual brown sugariness with raisin- and pear-like effects but underneath, suffering from an astringent sourishness clearly hauling from bacterial infection, harsh and unpleasant; sharpish carbonation, coarsening an otherwise rounded mouthfeel. Nut shell- and brown bread-like malt body with bittering toasty edges, soon drenched in extreme, ethereal, medicinal spiciness - no idea which spices went in here, as the label traditionally fails to mention this, but apparently the whole spice rack has been applied, with overpowering cloves, star anise, peppermint and dried eucalyptus leaves dominating an earthy, yeasty, dirty, infectuous finish, with lingering toasty malt bitterishness and herbal, eventually rooty hop bitterness unable to penetrate the spice dominance retronasally. Ends sour and sweet with a bitter edge, but the spicing keeps persisting, to the extent that it almost unclogs a congested nose; so does the astringency of the infection, alas. Earthy, notably powdery yeastiness remains. I was never a great fan of overly spiced Belgian ales, not even in Christmas time, and this one brings back bad memories of murky, dirty, medicinally tasting Saint-Monon and other Walloon concoctions. If you must add a dubbel to your range, because that is basically what this is from a technical point of view (and not so much an amber, not even in the Belgian sense of the word), then at least make it clean and malty. This beer suffers from souring, astringent infection, adding insult to injury by throwing in a truckload of ill-fated medicinal spiciness, perhaps as a remedy against the infection? Whatever the case, this clearly is a trainwreck of a beer, the kind of thing you get when every single average Joe wants to jump on the bandwagon and thinks he can brew. I was not impressed by their first (the tripel) to say the least, this is clearly even a step backwards from that. Wake up and smell the 21st century guys - and more importantly, start with making a technically correct brew of whatever (old Belgian) style before pumping in a bunch of dramatically ill-placed spices to try and cover up obvious flaws!

5.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Bottle @ home. Dark red to dark amber color, average sized beige head that lasts for quite a while. Smell and taste malts, heavy laurel and herbal / spices. Absolutely not my kind of beer but not so bad that it's a drainpour. Just really not my kind of flavor but even I can (and will) finish it. Wouldn't call this an amber ale at all through. Simple herbal / spiced Belgian Ale I'd say.

6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Thanks! Sampled bottled @ Modeste 2017. Dark brown, tanned head. Nose is weird cloying liquorice & extreme spice, cloves, cardamom, DE dark fruit syrup. Massively too carbonated with empty plastic extremely sticky cloves, cardamom, liquorice, herbal syrup in the finish. Baffling, far sweeter than others of its ilk but doesn’t help it that much. Too much definitely.

6.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Trübes dunkel orange goldenes Bier mit einer mittelgroßen leicht beigen Schaumkrone. Geruch nach roten Früchten, Karamell. Geschmack süß malzig, leicht karamellig, Vanille.

6.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

33 cl bottle. Pours hazy brown with a small off white head. Aroma is herbal, toasted malty and breadish, spiced. Toasted malty, breadish, light herbal. Dry, toasted and bitter. Dry finish.

6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Malziger, erhöht karbonisiert hefiger Antrunk. Spritzig bitter, rund malzig. 10/8/9/9//9

6.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Tasted at ’Bierweekend de lambiekstoempers’ 2015. Pours rather unclear amber. Small white head. Smell is spiced. Taste is bit bitter, spiced ( very citrussy )Not so great, but not bad either.

Geen slecht biertje maar minder mijn ding

5.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Imported from my RateBeer account as Weldebrouck Heindonker (by Weldebrouck):
Aroma: 4/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 10/20, MyTotalScore: 2.6/5

13/XII/14 - 33cl bottle @ Dijleschuimers Bierproeffestival (Kessel-Lo) - BBE: 2016 (2014-1500) Thanks to the Antwerp Zythos crew and others for sharing beers at the table!

Clear dark orange beer, creamy yellowish head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: soapy, offensive, rotting fruits, green banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: little sweet, banana, bit sourish. Aftertaste: soft bitterness, some banana, citrus, bit sugary, candy, bubble gum.