6

A clear deep amber beer with a beige head. Aroma of strong caramelized malt, nuts, some spices. Taste of caramelized malt, nuts, herbs, ginger, molasses.

6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Kräutriger, wenig holziger Beginn. Wenig bitter, röstig, moderate Herbe, weich. Die starke Kräuternote irritiert mich, langer Abgang. OK, komisch. 9/8/9/8/8/8

7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Fles op vakantie gekocht, geprobeerd met LiekevdV. Het is een donkerbruin bier met een volle schuimkraag. Het heeft een kruidige en houtige geur. De smaak is houtig, anijs en drop achtig met een kruidige afdronk.

6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Wood-aged Christmas ale by this pioneer of the Dutch beer revival, located in traditionally not very beery Friesland all the way up north. Thanks to Craftmember. Thick and frothy, closed, pale yellowish beige, membranous-lacing head over an initially clear, warm mahogany brown robe with copper red hue and lively sparkling, hazy and deeper brown with sediment. Aroma dominated by clear added spicing, cough syrup-like, reminiscent of eucalyptus, cloves and lavender, next to hints of caramel, diluted coffee grounds, dried banana, fig, whisky (even a tad solventy), rosewood. Sweet onset but nothing annoyingly cloying, fig and raisin hints, some residual brown sugariness merging with a slick, rounded caramelly malt body, softish in carbonation, with a thin toasty bitterish edge towards the end but only mildly so; woody notes in the finish but quite subtly so, with that cough syrup-like, ethereal, perfumey spiciness strongly rising up retronasally and pushing aside more subtle aromatic qualities – and, on top of that, adding an extra astringency that only magnifies the already quite astringent, whisky-like booziness of the alcohol. Enjoyable but still below my expectations, I’m afraid: a bit too ‘hot’ and unrefined in the booze, too subtle in the wood aging and, most importantly, the spicing is too much for me, I had my fair share of overspiced Belgian style Christmas beers I guess... Then again, this beer does show that Us Heit clearly belongs to that first generation of revivalist Dutch brewers, who based themselves upon Belgian traditions rather than American craft beer. That came later (with De Molen) but apparently Us Heit, rather unlike several others including 't IJ, forgot to evolve along with that new elan and got a bit stuck in the 20th century, it seems...

7.3

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

schenkt zwart zonder kraag, koolzuur tijdens het inschenken is wat prikkelend, aroma is zoet, alcohol, graan, donkere mouten, caramel, rozijn, whisky, erg zoet, zacht, iets van cognac, ok., smaken in de basis is het niet al te dik qua textuur, zacht bitter, chocolade, caramel, donker fruit, (rozijn), ;t lijkt mij vrij veel op de isala, wellicht iets minder zoet, ok