7/I/22 - 75cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Wim VL’s place, BB: n/a (2022-42)

GUSHER ALERT!
Little cloudy orange beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: oxidized, orange peel, fruity touch. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: bit sweet, bitter, orange peel, oxidized, more oranges, some Campari, malty, alcohol. Aftertaste: bitter, dry, yeasty, bit spicy, herbal, disappointing.

Strong ale by Huisbrouwerij Den Tseut, aged on oak chips - and raisins. Comes from a 75 cl bottle with crown cap and neckfoil, bought at De Hopduvel in Ghent. Slow gusher, but manageable. Eggshell-white, bit irregular, frothy and pillowy, tightly papery lacing head on a lightly hazy deep orangey-amber beer with enthusiastic sparkling throughout, turning into a misty, slightly brownish-tinged amber with sediment. Aroma of toasted peanuts, dried rosemary, dried apple peel, brandy, indeed old oak wood, orange peel, brown soap, young 'jenever', bitter tree leaves, subtle hints of pan-fried potatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds, roasted carrots, persimmon, multi-grain bread crust, wood glue, black radish peel, plastic. Fruity, spritzy onset, lively carbonated with minerally effects, hints of peach, red apple, persimmon and some slight bubblegummy banana; full, soft mouthfeel, a bit vinous from the considerable alcohol level. Soggy toast-, rusk- and bread crust-like maltiness with a peanutty edge as well as a light streak of caramel but not much residual sweetness, rather dryish in fact, with a phenolic spicy effect in the end distracting a bit from the oak chips and the raisins (the latter only being noticeable in a very 'distorted' way that I would never recognize as such - they do not even add sweetness, only a rather frugal dried fruit accent). A somewhat wry yeast bitterness is highlighted less by the oak effect (though woody tannins are present) and more by a heating, strong, 'jenever'- to brandy-like alcohol effect in the end, with rather wry impressions of old potato peel, nutmeg, dried bitter herbs and even plastic lingering, distracting from the nevertheless elegant vanilla-like scent provided retronasally by the oak chips. Rather crude, boozy and unrefined, clearly an attempt at a more 'up-market' luxury beer, but in need of a lot of finetuning, if e.g. recent editions of Dolle's Stille Nacht Special Reserva or even Bush Prestige are to be seen as leading examples in this particular segment of 'wood-aged' Belgian style barleywines. Honorable attempt, but not worth its price tag - yet.