Cuvée Modeste
Brouwerij De Koninck in Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Regular Out of Production|
Score
6.69
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Fruitsalad (2249) ticked Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 6 years ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 9 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Vintage bottle of about four years old, obtained from a private collector. Presented in 75 cl bottles with cork as a tribute to Modeste Van Den Bogaert, the late De Koninck brewer who can be held responsible for creating the modern, filtered, hoppier version of the famous Antwerp ’bolleke’ Koninck. Slow gushing but manageable. Medium thick, off-white, cobweb-lacing head, clear orangey amber colour with small flakes of proteins and yeast throughout. Aroma shows some ’rusty’ oxidation, but not overpowering other impressions of toasted bread, pistachios, honey, fried egg, hazelnuts, damp forest floor, old dried herbs (rosemary), canned peaches, old cookies, fainter hints of dry sherry (probably the oxidation again), dry earth, banana, dried field mushroom, cardboard, dried red berries, clove-like phenols, almond. Fruity onset but nothing overwhelmingly estery, rather ’clean’ for a Belgian ale, with sweetness of red apple, orange, banana and peach paired with redcurrant sourishness and balancing well with it; fizzy carbonation, tingling, minerally and even ’deafening’ a bit at first; smooth, supple, lean body, caramelly malt sweetness, nutty, quickly acquiring toasted bitterness but remaining primarily sweet, with the restrained fruitiness continuing but thinly so, as well as feeling a bit metallic and already a bit thinned out by age (?); finish is mostly a continuation of this malt sweetness with bittering edge, but also adds a late, herbal, floral, leafy, ’deep’ hop bitterness which dries the throat a bit; this hoppiness remains however subtle and does not show up before the very end. Caramel malt sweetness dominates till after swallowing, but still more or less paired with that earthy, still quite spicy hop flavor lending it a bit of pleasant drought. Alcohol does provide some warmth in the end but otherwise does not interfere. This reminds me a bit of Cuvée De Koninck, a stronger, more rounded and more full-bodied version of De Koninck which has been discontinued years ago; this one, though, is even stronger, less sweet (or better said: more dry) and a tad hoppier - but it has that same soft spiciness which seems to be typical of the old De Koninck yeast strain. Anyway: past its prime, obviously, but the remnants of the young beer are still clearly distinguishable and oxidation, though present, has added a layer of sherryish flavor to it without becoming too disturbing. I am certain that by itself, this was a technically very accomplished beer when it was made, with no obvious mistakes or off-flavors. That being said: I wonder if it truly honors ’mister Modeste’ to the extent that it could have... Perhaps a barrel-aged version of this, or a barley wine, or an IPA, or anything a little bit further removed from the classic Belgian ale world than this would have made people remember his name more vividly, especially those who are less familiar with the complicated history of 20th-century Belgian family breweries. Then again, his name does live on in the yearly beer festival at the brewery, of course...
Martin Lindström (24380) ticked Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 10 years ago
madmitch76 (40452) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 12 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
9th October 2012
Clear amber beer, small cream coloured head. Palate is light and dry and crispy. Little creamy malt. Minerals. Mild spices. Suppressed tangy fruits. Finishes semi dry. Nothing wrong with this but utlimately a bit dull.
Tinus (5080) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Hazy amber colour, small white head. Aroma of caramel, banana and bubblegum. Light hops and pepper. Sweet malty flavour, yeast, banana. Malty finish, caramel, yeast.
(From 75cL bottle @ RBBWG II, Wilrijk 2013. Courtesy of Bart. Thanks for sharing.)
Travlr (30173) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle courtesy of Bart, thank you! Hazy amber color, small white head. Aroma of peppery butterscotch. Taste is bittersweet straw and hay.
Sebletitje (15877) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
75cl bottle sample @ RBBWG 2013, courtesy of Bart. Cuivrée, col blanc. Arôme est houblonné, cara malt, typique belge. Retrouve là ce côté houblons nobles, citronné très caractéristique des bières belges. Palais propose un profil presque de houblonnage à cru, pointe d’amertume persistante en fin de bouche, palais sec, malt cara-pâle vraiment typique du style. Au final, rien de bien spécial assez monodimensionnelle et une bière qui reste en ligne avec un style très belge.
Benzai (24515) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Sampled from bottle @ RBBWG 2013. Clear orange color, medium sized white head. Smell malts, sweetness and slightly alcohol. Taste malts, some sweetness, lightly alcohol, slightly hoppy. Quite nice! Nice body and carbonation.
Kraddel (15844) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
tasted in may ( released in april) so very fresh.75 cl bottle in company with others ( such as delirium, tournee generale,dobbel palm, estrella inedit ,...) as a birthday treat tasting in hevig hoekske ( antwerp ) amber coloured, but more taste dan a normal ’bolleke’ . nothing realy special if you drink beer, but i can imagine if you stick to your beers of brewerie de koninck that this is the best. i’d have it again, but its not like i’d search for months. have 2 or 3 bottles left at home so who knows, maybe after a while they get better?
77ships (14506) reviewed Cuvée Modeste from Brouwerij De Koninck 13 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7
15 cl. sample from 75 cl. bottle @ Bierpassie Weekend XIII // appearance is a lightly hazy dark amber with a decent white head // aroma is soapy hops, plenty of sweeter malts, riding along, caramel, touch fruity // taste comes along, chunk of toast, caramel malts, decent amount of soapy hops (enjoyable soapiness), lightly soapy sweeter, lightly mushy dark fruits, dash nuts, nice blend & the hops are doing nicely their work // body is slick malts going down & eased up carb. // people were kind of trashing this beer, it is not incredible but I thought it was quite good & exceeded expectations // easily better than the other De Koninck stuff that I have had, you cannot really ask more of a “special” beer from a brewery than it should the best thing they ever made