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

One of five new beers centered around the historical figure of Judocus (or Joost) Vijd, the nobleman who commissioned the famous Lam Gods painting by Jan Van Eyck, the pinnacle of late Gothic painting art. Ghent, where the Lam Gods painting is kept, has declared 2020 the year of Van Eyck and Beveren sought to bask in its glory by declaring a year of Vijd - since indeed this Judocus Vijd was born in Beveren. Bier Verenigt, the guild of microbrewers of Beveren, joined in to create five beers celebrating the opportunity and this is Domein Reynaert's contribution, brewed at Stanium with grains of paradise, a spice that used to be very popular in brewing but has been waning in the past decades. Thick and frothy, pale yellowish beige, stable head on a lightly hazy, deep caramel brown beer with burgundy hue. Spicy and malty nose of hard caramel, old cocoa powder, aniseed and black peppercorn representing the grains of paradise, straw, old raisins, pear, liquorice, brown bread. Sweetish, medium fruity onset, red apple, pear and baked banana aspects, medium carbonated with supple, smooth, bit resinous mouthfeel; rounded caramelly and thinly brown-bready maltiness indeed spiced by these grains of paradise, again somewhat intermediate between black pepper, anise and liquorice, in any case quite outspoken but remaining bearable, while brown-bready and caramelly notes pass by, developing a toasty bitterish edge. Hop bitterness remains basic and a bit leafy but does not last as long as the spice effect. Spicy for sure, but not to the point where it becomes overly wry or otherwise dominant; quite cleanish and well-finished, and in that sense remarkably better than the other beers I had by this 'bierfirma' - which in itself is not a surprise, as they are brewed in different breweries...