Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5

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

The dubbel in a so far small series of ‘hobby’ brews gone commercial meanwhile, sold only in Zedelgem (Western Flanders, where this microbrewery is located) in limited quantities. From a swingtop bottle shared with Craftmember. Yellowish pale beige, moussey, shred-lacing, slowly receding head, over a cloudy caramel brown beer with rusty-ruddy hue. Aroma of dried medlar, pear peel, Oxo stock cubes, soup meat or beef broth even, fried tomato, Worcestershire sauce, dried apple slices, hard caramel, brown bread, hints of black tea, walnut, celery salt, white pepper. Restrainedly fruity onset, some dried prune, but the umami from the nose turns out to be the strongest factor initially, with again that Oxo-stock-like effect, even flanked by a vague saltiness (celery salt); dry-caramelly, brown-bready malts, remaining generally dry and acquiring some phenolic spiciness (nutmeg), but also maintaining this odd combination of umami and saltiness, which eventually creates a Worcestershire-like effect – a Bloody Mary poured into a brown ale of sorts… Earthy hop bitterishness and subtle underlying sourishness further complete the finish. Bizarre beer for a dubbel, with a dry, umami-forward profile – a contrast with the often sweet, candi-sugary flavours one more typically encounters in this range. I cannot believe this was intentional, but somehow it does work and sets this beer apart from its congeners – a very un-dubbel-like dubbel, so to speak. Odd but nevertheless enjoyable.