Bottle, 6%. Nutty aroma with soy, dark malts, malt syrup. Clear brown colour. Small frothy head. The flavour starts off a little sweet and has a yeasty touch. Ok spicy sugar notes, but not as complex as expected of a Trappist. Late clean bitterness. A little sugary for the style, but not bad, of course.

Bottle. Pours nearly clear copper brown with airy off-white head. Clear aroma of malt, caramel, and yeast, with touches of hops. Sweetish flavour of caramel malt and Belgian yeast, with mild fruity notes and bitter, roasty and hoppy touches. Bitter and estery aftertaste with malty touches. Decent.

The new Cardeña ‘semi-trappist’, commissioned by a Spanish trappist monastery but not brewed within the walls of their monastery; at Tournée Trappiste, thanks tderoeck for sharing. Pale greyish white, moussy, medium thick, opening head, near-clear caramel brown robe with rusty-reddish glow. Aroma of gingerbread crumbs, nutmeg, dried fig, strawberry jam, lightly toasted brown bread, rainwater, pear, dry bayleaf, chewing gum. Cleanish onset, hints of dried peach and fig, minerally carbonation with slick but somewhat thin body even for a dubbel; caramelly and brown-bready malt core, touch of Ersatz chocolate and crumbled old cookies, adorned with candied fruit (even strawberry candy, as tderoeck justly remarked) and spicy (bayleaf, clove) associations before ending mildly toasty-bitterish with lingering bread crumb effect. Pleasant enough, sweet, fruity and bready aroma, inviting as such, but then falling a bit short in flavour, lacking body and complexity. Passes, but, like its blonde predecessor in its first months, in need of finetuning and ‘filling’. Interesting to have this one in ‘avant-première’, in any case; I suppose we can already start looking forward to a blonde now…

11/VI/22 - 33cl bottle @ Tournée Trappiste (Oostvleteren), BB: n/a (2022-685) Thanks to Alengrin for sharing today’s beers!

Clear amber to red brown beer, small aery irregular white head, pretty stable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: strawberry flavoured candy, some caramel, toasted malts, dried fruits, dates and figs. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: rather watery, soft malty start, some caramel but not sweet, a bit nutty, earthy. Aftertaste: cow fodder, grains, hay, bitter and dry finish.