6.8

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

Draught at the brewery, 4/8/17.
Good clarity, light glassiness, in this deep peachy-auburn-bodied beer. Beige head atop is small and shows moderate to moderately-low retention.
Crystal malt adds iced tea, light fruits and spiced bread to the nose as fruity esters perk up and work to try to brighten things. Definite pepper phenols with no clove or banana and only a touch of bubble gum. Definite candied lemon character with more fresh herb and spice from the hops keeps thing interesting and no alcohol or flaw is noted.
Lightly malty, though with some light graininess/huskiness from the crystal malt and Belgian candi sugar artifically increasing the abv. Just a touch of warmth and tons of pepper; really not a big fan of candi sugar and I don’t think it adds anything to most Belgian beers, actual Belgian beers included. It just adds more alcohol and strong phenols without the accompanying maltiness that a beer needs to balance the resultant increase in alcohol. So this one comes off a bit thin, but I do like the hops and the ester/phenol profile. No alcohol or flaw.