7.3

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

Regular Dutch ‘herfstbok’ from a client brewer in Sneek in Frisia (northern Netherlands), from a 75 cl bottle, many thanks to Hinke for this gift! Moussey, membrane-lacing, pale beige off-white, opening head, misty caramel brown robe with rusty-red coppery glow. Aroma of dry caramel, brown bread crust, roasted cauliflower, wet toast, tea, nutmeg, autumn leaves, cooked kale (DMS), walnut, diluted coffee, cloves. Clean, subduedly fruity onset, some dried prune and apple peel, fizzy carbonation, smooth and somewhat resiny mouthfeel; dry-caramelly dark maltiness, sweetish but restrainedly so, with a very softly bittering toasty edge. Some clove and nutmeg phenols towards the end, along with a bit more (brown) breadiness and a leafy hop bitter touch, adding supplementary bitterness to the toasty element, which at this point even shows very subtle coffee-like traits. Something vaguely metallic lingers too, but in a ‘natural’ kind of way; tea-, toast- and caramel-like flavours constitute the finish. Decent Dutch bock, not entirely flawless but passable – and fitting the mould of the style perfectly.