L'Esprit de Noël

Dark pour. Spices, chocolate, dark malts, a bit earthy. The spices get toned down by the rich malt. Medium body. Thought this one was quite nice.

On tap at Het Lagerhuys [as l'Esprit de l'Ete]. Pours dark brown with a beige head. Roasted malts, a touch coffee, some cinnamon and allspice. Flavour has light roast, stale bread, coffee, light winter spices. Pretty run-of-the-mill winter beer.

#winter

Kerstbier Festival. Hazy dark brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of herbal and spicy dark malt, anis. Taste of herbal dark brown malt, caramel, anis, cardamon.

12/II/23 - 75cl bottle as a gift, shared @ home, BB: VIII/2023 (2023-161) Thanks to Erwin for the bottle!

Clear red brown beer, aery irregular beige head, unstable, dissipates quickly. Aroma: very Christmassy all right! Caramel, some incense, honey, a bit oxidized. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: wow, very spicy, very intense, a bit earthy, slightly sourish, a bit chemical. Aftertaste: pretty bitter, quite some alcohol, a bit soapy, nice, very unique, very special, a bit oxidized, some honey. Decent, but a little too spicy for me.

Bottle shared. Dark brown. Resinous, grapefruit zest, oak, sweet malts, caramel, tobacco, floral. Very outspoken strong resinous and herbal, with a deep and complex base beer. It’s also a little bit smoky and earthy. Medium sweet and quite bitter. Slightly dry finish. It’s very unique and complex, but it’s not something to drink quickly, it’s a nice beer to savour and share.

Good off-white head over veiled honey-coloured, Armagnac-like beer. Floral (wisteria), straw, X-mas spice, resin, fusels. Sharpish, resiny, dry-woody flavour, pine, heather. And indeed myrrh - rather than myrtle. Full bodied, warming, chewy, with a dry aftertaste. Interesting - but the beer is the opposite of easy drinkable, and that @ 3/4 l... Txs to Stef!

The "bière de Noël" presented by Dochter van de Korenaar this year, a blend of four of their familiar beers, spiced with heather flowers and myrrh (!). Big thanks to Meeki for the bottle, consumed on - of course - Christmas Eve. Medium thick, pale yellowish beige, opening and eventually dissolving head on a misty mahogany brown beer with vermillion-red tinge. Aroma of fresh bayleaf, nutmeg, dried grapefruit peel, 'speculoos', thyme (could be the myrrh), black peppercorns, something vaguely smoky (probably the myrrh), dried cranberries, toasted brown bread, chervil soup (weirdly but consistently - may have something to do with the heather), pecan nuts, pipe tobacco, old 'jenever', rum, brownies, faint whiff of liquorice (probably just that myrrh again). Dried-fruity onset, fig, prunes, medium carb, full and smooth mouthfeel; rounded brown-bready maltiness with toasty bitter edge (the Charbon speaking - and loudly so) which only grows stronger in the finish, becoming a bit coffeeish, flavoured with lots of herbal and spicy notes varying between bayleaf, nutmeg, thyme, liquorice and clove with indeed this 'warm', almost smoky note of myrrh returning - but most of these herbal aspects are probably caused by the myrrh... Leafy, roasty bitter finish, complex and warming, yet nowhere harsh, always keeping up an elegant, well-restrained manner. The result of throwing all these beers together and spicing them indeed approaches the old Belgian Christmas ale tradition - as 'spiced Scotch ale', so this blend is clearly well thought out, with the refinement and class one tends to expect from this brewery. Great winter warmer.