Kerel 'Pintje'
VBDCK Brewery in Tielrode, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Lager - Pilsener Regular|
Score
6.45
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We made a beer without centuries of history, without promising the world. It's refreshingly normal. That is what makes this beer special.
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tderoeck (22711) reviewed Kerel 'Pintje' from VBDCK Brewery 9 months ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
16/IV/25 - 33cl can from Albert Heijn supermarket (Oostakker), shared @ holiday in France, BB: 12/II/26, L4256B5? 10:02 (2025-362)
Clear light blond to yellow beer, big aery irregular white head, unstable, dissipates quickly. Aroma: malty, grains, hay, cow fodder. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: gentle bitterness, grains, a bit sourish, bitter hops, some sweet malts, grains, corn flakes. Aftertaste: sweet malts, grains, a bit yeasty, some banana. Weak excuse for a lager.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel 'Pintje' from VBDCK Brewery 1 year ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
The latest Kerel beer bij VBDCK in Tielrode is this 'Pintje', the standard term used in Flanders for standard pale lager (usually made by macro breweries) - so this one explicitly aims at the masses, in contrast with many of their first creations with catered for the more experienced beer drinker; I have followed their output even from before they officially got started and it seems that they have been evolving more and more into that direction of 'simple' mass market beers, with this one as the ending point of that evolution, because few beer styles are more mass-marketed and 'trivial' than a 'pintje' even in the Belgian "beer paradise". I guess this is their way of coping with the silently waning interest in more daring or challenging beers, a trend seen not only here but in other western countries as well... Can from - quod erat demonstrandum - an Albert Heijn supermarket. Frothy, quite thick, snow white, densely moussey, almost creamy, closed, membrane-lacing head on a clear yellow-golden blonde robe with lively sparkling throughout, sustaining the head. Aroma of freshly cut grass, halfripe banana (isoamylacetate - not a typical element in lagers!), green raw cereals, fresh white bread, dry straw, raw radish, bread crumbs, lemon zest, minerals, pumice, moist white pepper, chamomile and sweetclover. Rather sweet onset, banana clearly returning like in a Belgian style top-fermented blonde, hints of pear and red apple, lively carbonation with refreshing minerally effects but nowhere harshly stinging, smooth and supple, lean body; fresh-white-bready maltiness with a slick cereally edge, sweetish and maintaining this light bready aspect till the end, where it meets a slight soapiness and softly bitterish, floral hops which promise to become more peppery at first, but do not deliver on this promise and fade away gently - but not before adding retronasal effects of field flowers, dry straw and aloe. Indeed, a simple and unambitious beer for the masses, but technically flawless and rather delicate, with a pleasant (albeit thin) breadiness to it I always appreciate in an 'honest' malt-forward brew - but the single quotes used around the name and the whole flavour profile here (especially the isoamylacetate) betray its true nature: this is, if my tasting skills do not fail me, not a lager at all, but a very clean and 'basic' Belgian blonde ale posing as a lager, comparable with that Baron by Batteliek I had a few weeks ago. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I would have appreciated more 'honesty' from this brewery by admitting that it is, in fact, a top-fermented beer... Nevertheless, out of respect for brewer's intent, I added it here as a pale lager - just do not be fooled, and move on if you are looking for a 'true' lager.