Cornet Oaked Smoked

Redelijk helder goud met dikke witte kraag. Zoet graan, mout, stro, beukenhout en bacon. Vrij zoet en redelijk bitter. Rond mondgevoel, schuimig en sponzig. --- Beer merged from original tick of CORNET Smoked (2020) on 27 Mar 2021 at 20:05 - Score: 7. Original review text: Redelijk helder goud met dikke witte kraag. Zoet graan, mout, stro, beukenhout en bacon. Vrij zoet en redelijk bitter. Rond mondgevoel, schuimig en sponzig.

Redelijk helder goud met dikke witte kraag. Zoet graan, mout, stro, beukenhout en bacon. Vrij zoet en redelijk bitter. Rond mondgevoel, schuimig en sponzig. | [2021-03-27 20:05:31] - Locatie: SjogroWorld™ - Score: 3.6 - Comment: Redelijk helder goud met dikke witte kraag. Zoet graan, mout, stro, beukenhout en bacon. Vrij zoet en redelijk bitter. Rond mondgevoel, schuimig en sponzig.

Niet heel verschillend van de gewone variant, waarbij de oak chips het karakter vormen. Alleen nu zijn die oak chipa gerookt. Tja, het is idd subtiel. Smoked schept misschien wat verkeerde verwachtingen. Het is best ok

33 cl. bottle @ home, bought @ van Rooij, Culemborg. Light hazy golden with a big white head. Smoke aroma with yeasty fruitiness. Sweet taste with some oak and smoke. sweet finish. Thin body. Bit of a gimmick beer which doesn't entirely convince.

Bottled 330ml (AIH128)
Golden colour, big cloudy white head and lace. Wet wood smoke in the nose, also some Belgian yeast apple fruityness. Medium-bodied. Very sweet fruity, Belgian yeasty flavour. Well, smokeyness in the flavour is very faint. Has a bit more character than its normal version from tap.

More and more 'smoky' elements seem to very slowly creep into Belgian beer culture lately (see Gouden Carolus' latest Indulgence or Eutropius' Claudette, for example) and even if the Palm brand is now owned by Dutch Bavaria, its range is still very Belgian in its overall feel and consumer base, so I think this one can be seen as another 'smoked' beer carefully taking its first steps on the Belgian market, where the average consumer has no clue that smokiness can indeed be used as an element of flavour in beer (and has been used as such for many generations in the Rauchbier of German Bamberg). Interesting... Some 'gun smoke' indeed rises up from the bottle neck immediately after opening, let's hope this is a good sign. Quite thick, mousy, eggshell-white, irregularly but very tightly lacing, stable, more or less even head on a crystal clear, 'metallic' golden blonde beer with vaguely greenish tinge and very active sparkling, becoming very lightly hazed with sediment. Rather weak aroma of banana-flavoured bubblegum and even banana milkshake, melting granulated sugar, apple juice, plaster, vanilla-ish oak wood but subtly so, clove, ripe pear, wet paper, industrially made white bread, plastic, whiffs of honey and grass and only in the end, when the head opens and the beer has warmed up, the advertized smokiness appears, as a vague background note of ashiness (burning green tree leaves or something alike). Sweet onset, teeming with isoamylacetate (banana ester), hints of candy apple, pear and ripe pineapple but all in a rather muted, dull way; lively, minerally carbonation, as in artificially carbonated mineral water. Slick, bubblegummy effect, smooth mouthfeel, more white candi syrup slickness than actual maltiness, white bread-pulp-like but lacking volume and depth especially at this ABV; meanwhile residual 'white' sweetness and banana esteriness remain dominant factors. A plastic-like 'chemical' note lurks at the back, revealing Bavaria's industrial ways, while again the smoky element they promised is long overdue and appears only briefly and very faintly as a background touch of burnt cardboard - but you have to be really alert, otherwise you'll miss it in the blink of an eye. A grassy hop touch (though hardly bitter) and vanilla-ish oak (chip) effects are a bit more prominent, though less so than in the regular Cornet when it was still made by Palm without Bavaria (at least from what I remember); and of course, badly hidden, 'white', wodka-like alcohol couldn't fail to come, adding a touch of wryness in the very end - late enough not to bother me too much, I admit. The residual sugariness and banana effects, however, linger around till the very last moment. A bubblegummy, glue-like and wry-alcoholic feel remains after swallowing, and whatever smokiness was in here, is long forgotten by then. Look, I get that the average Belgian consumer may be shocked by smoky elements in his beer, but what is the point of advertizing this thing as a smoked beer when it really isn't? I had to go find that faint smoky accent with a magnifying glass, but then I like Rauchbier a lot, so I may be biased - but come on: this is not a smoked beer, this is just another candi syrup-fuelled industrial Belgian strong beer! I hate this kind of travesty, and I hate Bavaria for promising smokiness that does not deliver (where is the smoked bacon effect?), but then I doubt if Palm would have done it any better when they were still independent, with that Arthur's Legacy series still at the back of my mind. I would rather have had the opposite: smokiness interpreted the wrong way but at least in full blown form, as is the case with the abovementioned Gouden Carolus Indulgence Funken... This is the opposite and even less smoky than the also abovementioned Claudette, which was enough of a disappointment. Just another sweet and 'empty' crowd pleaser, my expectations were low enough to begin with but this is even worse; the only good thing about it, is that I paid only peanuts for it at Dranken De Wilde in Zele (less than 2 € from what I recall). Boo Bavaria!

Rather clear blond colour, white foam. Nose of sweet malts, some fruitiness, smoky finish. Lots of carbonation, a bit metallic, smoke. Not bad, not very good either, clearly a macro smoked beer.

27/X/20 - 33cl bottle from one of my Syntra students, shared @ home, BB: 8/III/22 (2020-1009)

Clear pale blond to yellow beer, small creamy dense white head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: malty, banana, grains, bit fruity, ripe pears, sweet and sugary impression, smoky, yeast, banana. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet start, pretty smoky, bit sourish, lots of ripe banana, very malty, grains, cow fodder, pretty dry. Aftertaste: bitter touch, more ripe banana, sweet, dry finish, very malty, grains, hay, smoky touch, not bad, not great, way too sweet.

Pours clear, light pale yellow. Medium bog white head, relatively stable, much visible carbonation rising to sustain it's lifespan. Scent is subtile, mild hops, grassy, and a hint of smoke perhaps. All very subtile, even elegant. Taste is sharp, fleshy smoke, metallic-like sharp bitter punch, quickly overtaken by sweetness (meat, smoke). The bitterness hardly seems natural. The lingering aftertaste is sticky, sweet , medium intense smoke, milder vaniline than I remember the regular cornet to be, but a pronounced, unnatural sweetness. Sure, the smoke might enhance that here, but why is it there in the first place? Thin body, high carbo. At least they're trying, some people will taste this as their first ever smoked beer and might love it. for that, I applaud it's existance. A big brewery, doing an attempt to something new. However, whether or not I think the attempt is a succes, is a very different question.