33cl bottle: BB 4th Dec 2021. Poured at home on 21st May 2021. Clear golden orange body, white/off-white head. Marmalade aroma and taste, so orange like in nature. Yeasty too, with a malty undertone, it's the wheat that is giving me the orange nose and flavours (I think).

330 ml bottle, bb 04.08.21 Orange, moderate hazy body, with a medium, dissipating, yellowish head. Aroma of dough, grass, flowers, bread, lemongrass, pepper, sweet fruits, some herbs. Tastes pretty similar. Medium, a bit creamy mouthfeel, with a lively carbonation. Finishes doughy, peppery, floral, a bit fruity, grassy, hoppy. Really nice. The name is a bit misleading, this isn't a Zwickel Lager, but a Belgian style ale. Yeast-forward, hoppy and fruity, with a nice, creamy body. Quaffable stuff. Score: 7 / 4 / 7 / 4 / 14

Bottle from Geers. Clear dark golden, thinning, off-white head. Aroma of apple, unripe pear, apricot, yeast, honey, bread crust, garden herbs, soap. Taste has sweetish red apple & apricot but hardly estery, supported by slick honey-bready maltiness, gently wheaty sour too with spicy accents. Grassy hoppy finish, spicy, yeasty, softly fruity still. Medium body, slick texture, fizzy carbonation. Enjoyable example of the classic style.

Flasche 0,33l (Kalea Bier-Adventskalender): Kräftiges Gold, Bernstein, deutliche Trübung, feinperlig, sehr kräftiger + sehr stabiler feinporiger Schaum; frische + fruchtige Nase, leicht würzig, kräftige Süße, Hopfennoten, leichte fruchtige Säure, Zitrusnoten, helle Früchte, kräftig Malz, Getreide, kräftig Karamell, belgische Ale-Hefearomen, Bananen, fruchtig-trockene Bitterkeit; sehr fruchtiger + leicht würziger Körper, malzig-fruchtige Süße, frische Hopfennoten, trockene Zitrusnoten, Limetten, leichte fruchtige Säure, kräftig Malz, Getreide, etwas Karamell, cremig, deutlich Kohlensäure, kräftige trockene Hefearomen, belgische Ale Hefen; fruchtig-trockener Nachgang

11/I/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 4/VIII/21 (2021-30)

Clear orange blond beer, small creamy off-white head, little stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: ripe banana, pretty malty, grains, bit of a sweet impression. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, grains, nice bitterness, ripe banana, some banana peel, fruity touch. Aftertaste: malty, more bitterness, some apples, grains, more ripe banana, nice classic style.

Small lightly yellowish head, fast gone over big-bubbled, faintly hazy orange beer. Bit of orange(peel), soap, laurel, hints at ginger, yeasty features. After a short time, stronger and stronger 1,4 guaiacol. Spicy flavour, coriander, ginger, but those not really reaching identification treshold. Bit other grains, wheat obvious. Again like the nose, after a bit warming up, more and more clearly 1,4 guaiacol (clove), making it more and more like a Weizen. Quite slick, bit oily, only medium carbonation. In the end, like a watered-down Weizen. Not really a success.

Eingetrübte goldene Farbe mit weißer Schaumkrone. Malziger, leicht getreidiger, leicht fruchtiger Geruch. Geschmacklich malzig, leicht getreidig, leicht hefig, leicht fruchtig. Mittlere Süße mit leichter Bitterkeit, mittlerer Körper mit spürbarer Kohlensäure.

Bottle at home, golden beer, small head. Aroma is malt, yeast, fruity, light grain. Taste is the same, Bitter, sweet, not bad.

Poured into Schlagl glass from vienna. Piekna spora piana, trwala, bardzo trwala, jasny zolta barwa lekko mglista, w smakum chleb ziarnisy, treściwe drozdzowe piwo.Autentyczne i uczciwe podejście do stylu kellerbier. Zwizckl niemal perfekcyjny.

Zwickelbier, basically 'Kellerbier light' to put it reductively, from an unexpected source: the trappist monks of Stift Engelszell in Austria. Even trappist beers are not immune to the global beer revolution we are still experiencing in full force these days, the mere fact by itself that many trappist monasteries have taken up brewing in recent times is already a testimony of that - and the best of them seek connection with their local beer culture rather than copying the Belgian ale standards (think Tynt Meadow or the Spencer IPAs, for instance). This one follows that same path and ends up with the old Zwickelbier - the first with a trappist logo, though not the first trappist lager (that 'honour' goes to Spencer's Feierabendbier, even if the older La Trappe Puur from the Netherlands is often mistakenly interpreted as a lager). Very curious about this one. Medium thick, egg-white, mousy, uneven-bubbled but well-structured and stable head on a clear peach blonde beer with deeper amberish-orange hue and many strings of fierce sparkling rushing upwards; turns a bit deeper orangey and lightly misty with sediment added (fortunately - being unfiltered is one of the key features of any Zwickelbier...). Aroma of hard caramel but without much of the sweetness, soggy peanuts, rusk, dried bitter herbs, camomile, dry bread crust, minerals, unripe apricot, hints of cream, very old dried orange peel that has lost most of its scent, rosemary leaves. Spritzy onset, sharp and even somewhat numbing (over)carbonation, very minerally but admittedly adding body and liveliness, no esters but there is a certain unripe peach-like fruitiness to the malts, which otherwise behave like very lightly toasted bread, a pinch of ground peanuts and rusk, with a deeper caramelly core - yet again, without most of its sweetness, so in a dry, nutty way. Pleasant 'German style' hop nobility in the finish, floral and leafy, hinting at dandelion, dried rosemary and very light wormwood, accentuating an inherent toasty bitterishness of the malts; the yeast finally does add a bit of fruitiness and breadiness, but lightly so. Slick, lean but pleasantly malty beer, one to chug down by the gallons if the pious monks would approve of it; indeed a Zwickelbier in its light yeastiness (lighter than your typical Kellerbier would have), elegance, lightness and smoothness, though perhaps a bit overcarbonated for the style. Classically styled and straightforward, in all, but well made and enjoyable for what it is.