Fumo van Chile
Brouwerij Alvinne in Moen, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Collab with: Cervecería GranizoTraditional Beer - Lichtenhainer Special
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Score
6.90
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Alengrin (11675) reviewed Fumo van Chile from Brouwerij Alvinne 3 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Alvinne (and Granizo) ale presented as an “imperial Lichtenhainer” with added salt, coriander and smoked chili pepper flavouring… Bottle from Geers shared with tderoeck and Erwin Plancke. Snow white, medium sized, dense, membrane-lacing head, hazy orangey-tinged peach blonde robe with numerous translucent protein dots floating throughout. Aroma of smoked bacon, prominent coriander powder, smoked paprika powder which I assume refers to the Merkén, peach, halfripe banana, white bread dough, bread crust. Fruity onset, peachy notes with hints at pear and banana, medium to rather softish carb, smooth and bit ‘fluffy’ mouthfeel; bready and somewhat doughy core with a light soapy wheatiness underneath, quickly superseded by a clear smokiness, seemingly coming more from the smoked chilies than from smoked malts (even though a ‘smoked bacon’ effect suggesting Rauchmalz is certainly there), with even a slight capsaicin heat. Meanwhile that pinch of salt accentuates the chili as well as the coriander; the smoked bacon note and chili spiciness continue into a multi-faceted, pungent finish. In itself an interesting beer for sure, but how is this a Lichtenhainer? I get the ‘imperial’ part, considering this is about twice as strong as the traditional Lichtenhainer (though even then, one would associate ‘imperial’ with even higher ABVs than this), but the ‘Lichtenhainer’ part in my view is far less justified: granted, there is the smoked malt part, but where is the mixed fermentation? Where are the lactic bacteria? And why have salt and coriander, typical ingredients for Gose but not Lichtenhainer, been added? Has Alvinne erroneously confused Lichtenhainer with Gose? Granted, one could state that, as has been a fixed theme in craft beer since its American beginnings in the seventies and eighties, a historical and traditional European beer style has been explored, altered and modified here – after all we would not have pastry stouts today if milk stout and imperial stout had not been ‘elaborated’, or not even New England IPA without the other preceding American IPAs being soaked in New World hoppiness – but if you want to alter a tradition, then at least there has to be a tradition in the first place, and Lichtenhainer is just a bit too narrow, too recently revived and too unknown for that kind of treatment. I think it would be wiser to try and recreate more ‘real’, historically faithful Lichtenhainers first before trying to tinker with a style only few people know the background and properties of – now it just comes off as a beer totally missing the point, at least for me. But having said all that: interesting and tasty beer for sure, so in spite of not managing to convey the essence of the genre, I will give it the benefit of the doubt. Would not mind revisiting this one either!
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Fumo van Chile from Brouwerij Alvinne 3 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
20/I/23 - 33cl bottle @ Wim’s place, BB: VI/2025, L21.1222 (2023-81) Thanks to Alengrin for sharing the bottle!
Clear orange blond beer, big solid creamy off-white to almost light beige head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: pretty smoky, sweet impression, very spicy, lots and lots of coriander, earthy impression, ripe banana, a little fruity. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: oh my, lots and lots of coriander, very spicy, ripe banana, bread yeast, bit sourish, smoky indeed, little weird. Aftertaste: smoky touch, banana, sweet notes, ok, but still a little weird, very bitter, spicy, bit malty, not a big fan.
Sebletitje (15913) reviewed Fumo van Chile from Brouwerij Alvinne 3 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Bouteille 33cl partagée avec Willy, BB 06/2025.
Dorée, col blanc fin crémeux.
Arôme est parfumé avec une belle présence de fumé - le tout est délicat, ne tirant pas trop sur l'épicé - le salin est là et perce délicatement en rétro-nasal.
Palais présente une belle teneur de fumé sans être surfait avec ce côté piment aji, mélange d'épice au saveurs fumées typiquement du Chili - cela tombe bien, la collab est avec Granizo que j'avais découvert au Leuven Innovation.
Le tout garde une base belge mais sans avoir le caractère marqué Alvinne càd avec cette levure Morpheus - retrouve un effet fruité pêche blanche, fumé en retrait avec un ajout discret de sel qui confère un côté salin modéré. L'apport de graines de coriandre est bien présent sans devenir surfait et donne une sensation de fraicheur en fin de bouche. Belle idée d'en faire une Lichetnauer revisitée.
Maakun (16718) reviewed Fumo van Chile from Brouwerij Alvinne 3 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Very clear golden. Coriander, smoke, sweet malts, plums, soft sweet berries. I don’t get much pepper, but it is quite smoky. Medium sweet, light salty and bitter. Not really my thing, though it’s interesting.
Bierridder (4353) ticked Fumo van Chile from Brouwerij Alvinne 3 years ago