Heller, spritzig malziger Antrunk. Leicht herb, deutlich steigende Hefigkeit. Würzig, noch zu süß, etwas herb. Nett. 10/8/9/8/8/8

Pours unclear amber, good to small white head. Smell is rather sweet, bit ambermalty, some yeast as well; Taste is rather full ambermalts. Creamy mouthfeel and foam. Not bad. As usual with this brewery, the beer is decent, but not shocking. Unlike his shocking negative appereance on Belgian TV, bitchin’ about ratebeer while clearly having no single clue what he’s talking about. Look it up, it’s probalby somewhere on the internet. yes, I do hold a grudge for that towards this ***** , but he’s beers are Always, well, decent.

F: average, off-white, good retention. C: amber, hazy, non-transparent. A: sweet malty, fruity, banana, yeasty, honey, caramel, some spicy, light DMS. T: malty, toast, red apples peels, banana, soapy, caramel, honey, lack of bitterness, some grassy, yeasty, medium body, average carbonation, I personally don’t´ have big expectations from contracted beer and this is a slight above average, 0,75l bottle from Delhaize in Brussels.

One of three beers sold by Delhaize these days in limited quantities, highlighting three character-filled Belgian micro brewers - so why am I not surprised to see Jef Van Den Steen’s weathered, austere face on this bottle... Apparently not brewed by his own brewery, but commissioned at Proefbrouwerij, with slight deviations from his own recipe. From a 75 cl bottle with plastic cork. Lacing, medium thick, egg-white, regular head over a hazy orangey amber coloured beer, hazy almost from the start. Aroma of dried walnuts, dry grass, cardboard, old dried flowers, toasted white bread, red apple peel, redcurrant, dried orange peel, straw, soap, some DMS (cooked red cabbage), and this vague but still disturbing hint of plastic - a feature I’ve experienced in too many Proef beers made for local commissioners. Fruity onset with sweetish and sourish impressions nicely intermingled, restrained hints of red apple, unripe peach, dried banana and redcurrant, fizzy and minerally carbo as expected from this style, dryish nutty and eventually toasted malt body, smooth, leading to a gently drying finish of ongoing nutty malts (doubting between sweet and bitter) aided by peppery, herbal hop bitterness further on, drying the back of the mouth, after which a bready, almost powdery feeling remains, along with the earthy hop bitterness, more strongly so than is custom for this style. Jef Van Den Steen is an old school Belgian chauvinist, brewing old school Belgian ales, and he does this well; this one cannot contradict my view of him. I will not digress with the whole story of ’spéciale belge’, I can only establish that some of these Belgian chauvinists (see Ben’s Spéciale Belge) are desperately trying to save the Belgian equivalent to the ’historical’ EPA from extinction, and I have nothing against that. But the two most influential brewers of the style, Palm and De Koninck, have not been doing all too well in recent years, so one could wonder if it is any use at all trying to save the style; commercial considerations like that aside, this is a very typical, cliché interpretation of it, admittedly hoppier than its more ’popular’ brethren, but suffering from DMS and in that sense not really helping its own cause. I have grown very sensitive to DMS throughout the years and this feature kept bothering me all the way. As much as I’d like to see more of these smaller Belgian breweries appear in supermarkets with a big audience like Delhaize, I would have opted for something else than this. This is way too safe, if not boring, and not even flawless. Sorry Jef.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Delhaize Famous Belgian Brewers Speciale Belge Ale (by Delhaize):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.4/5

14/II/16 - 75cl bottle from Delhaize Brusselsesteenweg (Ledeberg) @ Akke's Place - BB: 2/XII/17 (2016-150)

Little cloudy amber to red brown beer, creamy irregular off-white head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: lots of banana, yeast, bit sweet, spicy touch. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: banana, bit sweet, caramel, little metallic, bitter hops. Aftertaste: pretty hoppy, grassy notes, malts, some caramel, quite some banana, yeasty.

750 ml. bottle from Delhaize sampled @ home. BBF 02/12/17. I suppose that it makes sense that a guy who has been so vocally against the USA beer scene, USA styles & inspired beer as well as the RB scene choose a style as antiquated & irrelevant (it not being listed on RB probably says something) as Special Belge. Hazy amber with a creamy off-white head. Nose is dull honey esters, industrial, light fizzy & fish guts. Taste is dull lightly metallic fizzy fish guts, empty industrial honey, dough, esters, bland, brown sugar affair, fizzy, bland,… Meh bland over-processed affair in my opinion, irrelevant & out of touch. Honestly I expected more & better since I do like De Glazen Toren beers.