7

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

29/II/24 - 25cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk), shared @ home, BB: 20/VII/22 (2024-122)

Clear dark red brown beer, small creamy beige head, a little stable, a bit adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma nice, lots of dried fruits, caramel, some chocolate, sweet impression. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: a bit watery, pretty bitter, gentle roast even, a little sweet, some chocolate notes, a touch of coffee, bitter hops. Aftertaste: more bitter hops, dried fruits, some caramel, a bit sweet, soft roast, bitter and dry finish, some coffee.

6.5

Tasting with tderoeck and marina

6

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

25cl bottle. A clear orange brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of red malt, caramel, bread. Taste of red malt, some melasse, red fruits, caramel.

6.3

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

Shortlived yellow-cream head, medium, over chestnut-brown beer. Liquorice, autumn leaves, bit syrupy aroma, if not over-sweet smelling; Liquorice, I drop /I sweet-ish. Finish has somethin cigarette ashes-like. Not much aftertaste, bit leafy. Light slickness, not very carbonated. OK, nothing more. Thanks to Stef!

6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Dark brown and clear with thin head. Aroma and flavour have a surprisingly high level of dark bittersweet malts. Little hints of bitter cacao.

7.2

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

One of the staple brews from this new brewery in Leuven, which actually tries to at least spiritually revive a local brewery of the same name that has existed there from the 17th century till the seventies; this 'special ass' (quote the brewery) attempts to revive the waning 'spéciale belge' genre and indeed the combination of the 25 cl bottle, the name and the colours of the label do remind one of Palm Spéciale, one of the classics in this old style of Belgian amber ales. Pale greyish white, strongly shred-lacing, medium thick, mousy, slowly breaking head over a clear (filtered), very deep and 'autumny' pure copper red beer with vermillion tinge - darker and more red than most actual 'spéciales belges' in fact. Aroma of hard caramel candy in a non-sweet way (paradoxically perhaps), ground pecan nuts and even walnut shells, dried cranberries, wet dark green tree leaves, clear (and unexpected) bath foam and lavender soap note, cloves, very subtle hints of halfripe banana and damp earth, even very vague liquorice-like phenols echoing in the background. Sweetish and sourish onset, quite crisp with lively, but for this genre perfectly aligned carbonation adding clear minerally effects; hints of medlar, apple peel, dried fig and dried cranberry with very vague notes of banana peel and rosehip, over a somewhat resinous, slender body; very pecan-nutty and hard-caramelly, but not sweet malt core with a toasty bitterish edge (if gently so), the latter reinforced a bit by a herbal, almost tea-ish, mildly peppery hop bitterness, while clove- and lavender-like spice effects linger on, with a vaguely soapy character - that however manages to remain undisturbing, to me at least. The sourish undercurrent remains till the end, more outspokenly so than is typically the case in a 'spéciale belge', but then the malt bitterness (and visual darkness in pure EBC values) is also more developed than in the classic spéciale belge, almost to the point where this has the malt profile of a German Alt from the Düsseldorf region. Still, in its top-fermented phenolic profile clearly a Belgian, or should I say Brabantian amber ale indeed, but one with a bit more 'malt power' and character than the 'larger' examples that still survive to this day; I think this specific substyle of Belgian ale still has some potential to be rediscovered and reinvented by the craft beer movement, like so many old European beer styles that have largely missed the American craft beer train. This one could be a good starting point for that; it tastes old-fashioned (something I guess you can only seriously assess if you have been drinking Belgian beer as long as I have), but it still has an own, distinct character to it. Very likeable, more so than I was expecting, to be honest.