Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

Imported from my RateBeer account as Galea Grand Cru (by Galea Craft Beers):
Aroma: 3/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 9/20, MyTotalScore: 2.4/5

6/VI/17 - 33cl bottle @ Youtube Tasting (home) - BB: 29/XII/18 (2017-794) Thanks to Erwin for sharing the bottle!

Clear blond to yellow beer, small irregular yellowish head, unstable, dissipates quickly. Aroma: very bad, lots of yeast, sourish, vegetables, pretty offensive. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: malty, sweet, some citrus, fruity, banana peel, yeast. Aftertaste: mainly yeast, sweet and sugary touch, bit fruity, some banana, all yeast in the finish as well.

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

New brewing project realized through Craeywinckelhof, under the name ’Galea Craft Beers’ and from a skittle-shaped bottle (wider than the iconic Orval bottle, the only thing I can think of right now to compare it with), made of clearly high quality glass and bearing a hangtag around the neck with all the required information - clearly a lot of thought, effort and cost went into packaging and naming, let’s hope the content is in keeping with the form. Egg-white, lightly lacing, ’finely structured’ head, slowly fading in the middle but well-retaining as a medium thick moussy rim, on top of a lightly hazy ’old gold’ coloured beer with slightly ochre-ish hue. Classic Belgian strong blonde aroma of banana (even slight bubblegum), lots of hard pear, dried camomile flowers, straw, dried apple peel, young ’jenever’, soap (clearly the wheat), bread crust, fainter hints of pineapple, old dusty coriander seed, dry breakfast cereals, dried ginger powder, jute bags, unripe peaches, melting powder sugar, calvados, rhubarb, vague fusel alcohol presence but nothing disturbing. Rounded onset in which the fruity elements from the nose return: green pear, banana, unripe peach, sweet red apple, with a sourish gooseberry edge providing balance though the classic ’tripel’ sweetness of residual sugars remains dominant; medium carbo, a tad spritzy on the tip of the tongue but certainly not overcarbonated for the style (at this point at least), with a mild minerally aspect. The fruity esters carry onwards over a soft, full, cereally and bready malt sweet body paired with a significant portion of ’wheat soapiness’ adding a very subtly souring touch; coriander soapiness is added in the end but not too strong, with a dash of hayish, floral hop bitterness underneath and some spicy phenols at the sides. The sweetness of both malts and banana ester keep ruling the finish, even when a firm, lightly wry ’jenever’-like alcohol effect comes lunging in. In all, a decently made tripel, because that is what this is, with no serious flaws or off-flavours other than the ’end alcohol’, which is too wry and tangible for me even in a 9.5% ABV beer. I did, however, expect something else than a classic, 20th-century style tripel when seeing the bottle and reading the "craft beer" part in the name of this beer company - clearly the international craft beer movement is still not widely understood in this country. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing technically wrong with this and I like the way it is bottled, but a beer like this will not help ’craft beer education’ in Belgium any further - if anything, it will create only more haziness and confusion concerning new developments in less ’geeky’ Belgian beer consumers than myself. For the style it represents, though: just fine, nothing more, nothing less.

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

Thanks to the brewer! Draft glass @ the launch at Beerlovers Bar. Very hazy orange, flirting with murky orange, creamy white head that doesn’t fully last. Nose is big on banna, sweet sugar, some soap, big on BE esters, carries a big BE classical profile, yeast,... Taste is big on soap, noticeable ABV, esters, white, low murky yeast, light green apple, white bread, banana, sweet big banana, white sugar, malt sweet, ABV shows a bit,... Body is substantial,... Overall a very classical BE brew but luckily apply made, bit rough around the edges, soap, green apple touch, some murky yeast in the finish,... I think a bit more time in the bottle should cure that. It is a very solid classical brew that boldly tries to actually compete with the classics instead of being just another BE blond brew. It aims at competition with the likes of "Tripel Karmeliet" which is no longer what it used to be, time will show us how things will come to pass.

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

Tap at the launch. Pours unclear blonde, small white head. Smell is yeasty, bit sweet. Taste is bit sweet, fruity, mild bitter touchm yeasty. Very decent, yet perhaps a bit safe. Well brewed beer though.