10 April 2022. At 14de Brugs Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke & Pieter!

Hazy dark brown, thin, tan head. Aroma of old bacon & ham, BBQ herbs, tobacco, beetroot, toast, old dish cloth and oddly something that reminds me of the butcher shop's ventilation. Taste has sweetish prune, umami bacon, brown-bready & toasty maltiness and a vegetably butternut aspect. Herbal hoppy finish with dried fruit, smoke, old tobacco and spices. Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Unpleasant in aroma, generally feels very old. Perhaps a bad batch, and better luck next time.

Halloween beer - which has been a thing for several years now even in Belgium - by Oude Maalderij, flavoured with smoked butternut squash and French chili peppers (the famed and expensive Piment d'Espelette), inspired by the American pumpkin ales I imagine, but structurally a Belgian dubbel. Medium thick, yellowish off-beige, mousy, rather 'loose' head quickly thinning yet leaving a ring of beige foam around the edge and thin veils in the middle, over a hazy dark chocolate brown robe with burgundy edges. Aroma of soaking wet toast, smoked prunes, cigars, dried chilies, apple peel tobacco, pear, caramel, hints of chewing gum, nutmeg, medlar, damp tree leaves and earth. Fruity onset, pear, fig, apple, but rather subdued in sweetness with a slight sourish undertone to it (dried blackberries), medium to rather softish in carbonation, with slick mouthfeel; smooth brown-bready malts with a hard-caramelly core, altogether dryish, developing a very soft toasty bitterish edge but more flavoured by the smoked butternut squash, which adds little fruitiness but some lightly cigar-like smokiness to the whole without overpowering. The toasty aspect of the malts, though soft and mellow, blends with a light chili heat from the Espelette peppers, in themselves connecting with the smoked butternut; a herbal, tea-ish hop bitter note further accentuates the dryness of the finish, but also its spiciness. Dryish, spicy beer but well-balanced, offering enough soft maltiness to carry even more smoked butternut and Piment d'Espelette than actually went in here, I think; nevertheless, at this degree of smokiness and spiciness, things have been kept accessible and highly drinkable, which I assume was the intention. Cheers Jef, this is another well-constructed, technically flawless ale, and sorry for drinking it in the aftermath of New Year's eve rather than on Halloween...