Pours a dark, unclear amberbrown. Small white head. Scent is smoked cheese / Smokes sausage. Medium intense. Not very complex. Taste is sharp, intenser on the smoke here. Mildly sweet backbone, bit sticky body as well. Some caramel, yet remains light and vibrant. Works as a balanced beer, to my surprise, yet... Strong mild ale ???

‘Smoked mild ale’ (another seemingly pointless hybridization of traditions) by this Amsterdam brewer, bottled in 75 cl bottles for this year’s BXL Beerfest pack. Foamy, pale greyish beige, stable head lacing in shreds over a clear, deep dark amber-glowing caramel brown beer with visible sparkling. Aroma of burnt wood and bonfire, caramel, bubblegum, red apple, unsalted peanuts, green pear, medlar, soggy toast, old cotton cloth. Sweet-and-sourish fruitiness in the mouth, red apple and fresh blueberry notes but fairly clean, medium carbonated with slick, smooth body; a subtle sourish fruitiness continues along a caramelly and clearly wheat-sourish maltiness, which reprises the smokiness in the end, albeit it not in a dominant way, rather as an added layer of aroma to the whole. Lingering apple-ish fruitiness meets a toasty bitterish note in the end, while this underlying wheat sourishness remains strong. There is literally nothing in this beer (not ABV, not yeast or malt profile, not flavour) that reminds me of an English mild ale: if anything, this is more a smoked Dunkelweizen of sorts – but that too, perhaps, is a pointless blending of traditions… In all: enjoyable for what it is, but drop the mild ale association please, clearly this beer has absolutely nothing to do with that and you know it.

75cl bottle from Etre Gourmet web shop. F: big, tanned, creamy, good retention. C: dark brown, hazy. A: smoky, caramel, bready, apples peels, mellow fruity, toast touch. T: medium malty base, light bready, caramel, smoky tones, toast, apples, quite dry on the palate, soft carbonation, I like smoked beer so very nice for me.