Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

The autumn one in a series of seasonal beers in the Pius X range, developed by a hobby brewer in the Muide quarter of Ghent (an old dock workers and labourers neighbourhood) operating in the kettles of his friend Wim Saeyens at De Graal; at a party in the local cultural centre celebrating the twenty years of existence of this very local brand. Medium thick, pale off-white, stable, moussy head on a clear copper red beer with amber-brown glow. Aroma of hard caramel, iron shavings (head stabilizer from a mile out), coriander seed, dried fig, stewed apple, wet autumn leaves, pear, damp earth, moist brown sugar. Sweet onset but not too cloying, estery notes of pear, fig and red apple, fizzily carbonated; slick but relatively ‘full’ mouthfeel, caramelly and brown-bready malts with some residual sugars as well as a very slight toasty edge, but also that added iron returning. Rather earthy finish with notes of damp tree leaves, tea and nutmeg as well as clear coriander spiciness; light earthy hop bitterness, residual sugars and lingering yeast effects dominate the finish. Decent enough for the local purposes it serves – so local, in fact, that I was actually surprised to find out that not only does this brand still exist after all those years, it is even thriving. Too bad the winter version was out of stock – but more interestingly perhaps, the brewer told me that he is working on a bourbon barrel aged version to up the ante, so I will be on the lookout for that one…