(Bottle 33 cl) Pours a clear, pale, amber golden with a creamy, off-white head. Fruity, lightly exotic aroma - perhaps the ginseng? Good, full body with sweetish, malty accents and a spicy edge and a touch of yeast. Very Belgian and very decent. Courtesy of Beerole. 040307

Bottle, 7%. Sweetish aroma, a little aniseed. Almost clear grey/brown colour. Small creamy head. Malty, slightly peppery flavour with a little sherry. The pepper is nice and balances malt and sweetness.

11.12 oz bottle, best before 07/07/07, split with Tiggmtl on 8/27/06.
Good to see it’s still bottle conditioned. Massive, clumpy, beige/ginger-skin colored head is fiercely stubborn. Plenty of medium-sized bubbles cascade upwards in an earl-gray tea colored body with some lighter golden tints. Head is well-retained and sticks about everywhere to the glass.
Sweet nose seems underattenuated from the outset. But earthy, musty yeast spread about crunchy graham crackers helps break apart some of these thick, caramel sugars. Kind of reminds me of the D’ecaussines line of beers, with it’s heavily yeasty, hearty, robust, unrelenting cellar quality.
Spiciness, almost ginger-like, breaks open the palate, but filling in the holes seems to be more fatiguing caramel and heavy honey-like sugars. Doughy and at the same time fruity, with a strong tart-cherry/orange-rind note that must come from the spices. A bit more of the crusty breadiness and cracked grains emerges upon warming, but it’s certainly not getting any less sweet. All the while, the yeast chips at the palate (I really don’t like this yeast, despite really enjoying Val Dieu trippel, I certainly don’t remember that one being this musty/moldy).
The chain of sugars is unbreakable, leading to a thick, rich texture. Expressive, somewhat engaging carbonation works overtime to help keep it drinkable, but it can’t ultimately. Alcohol not noted in aroma or flavor.
Seems like a competent Belgian ale, but just WAY underattenuated and the spices are just confounding and brash. I’ll have what they’re having (Jeff and Ernest). Thanks anyway, Stephen. Maybe the blonde and Brune will prove better.

Bottle Clear, amber body. Rocky, off-white head on top of it. Uninteresting nose of overkilled and unbalanced beer: perfume, light malts, ... And the flavour proved my prejudices right. Moderately sweet, lightly bitter flavour.

Orange-amber beer, hazy; with a very creamy, off-white head, leaving lace. Very perfumed and leafy nose, smells of roasted malts, nutty as roasted peanuts. Again quite roasted, toast-like taste. Remarkably little bitterness (isn’t ginseng supposed to be bitter?). Retronasal some citrus, orange-like. Quite burning MF. Rather well bodied, and sweet aftertaste. I am under the impression that the original Vervifontaine beers were more spiced, characterised by the ginseng. This is rather sweet.

Bottled. Hazy light brown colour, beige mediumsized head. Aroma of malt and fruit. Sweet caramellish flavour with raspberry in aftertaste. Also some strange sweetness all the way through (=ginseng?).

Bottled (BBE 2009)
Hazy amber-nut brown color, foamy tanned head. Interesting nose: like mixture of Orval and De Dolles - horseblanket, lemon and sweet yeast. When beer warms up, it becames musty. Flavor is quite unique too: licorice, sugar, spices. Liquerish sweet palate. Hides 8% very well. Something not to drink in quantities.