Bottle from Dranken Vandewoude and drunk at home. Dark brown black beer thick tan head. Roast chocolqte flavour. some dark chocolate a little blackcurrant flavour. decent competent beer.

Dunkler, herb schokoladiger Beginn. Milder, fast wässriger Hintergrund, trocken würzig, moderat hopfig. Mittellanger, fein bitter-malziger Abgang. Okay. 9/9/8/8/9/8

33cl bottle. A very dark brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of mid sweet dark chocolate malt, coffee, some red fruits. Taste of roasted dark malt, sweet chocolate, coffee, some red fruits.

4 July 2020. At Heeren van Liedekercke. Cheers to Pieter's birthday! Hazy dark brown with a big, lasting, frothy, tan head; lots of sediment. Aroma of coffee powder, fondant, tobacco, toast, wet earth, walnut. Taste has sweetish prune & nuts, bitter core of coffee, fondant & toast, bit sour even, ending earthy, dry & a bit herbal, spicy, tobacco & toast with a powdery feel lingering in the back. Light to medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation. Doesn't work for mee, too sharp, sour, carbonated.

330ml bottle. Minimally cloudy, redd-ish brown colour with absurdely huge, frothy, moderately lasting, minimally lacing, off-white head. Chocolately dark malty and leafy, fruity, hoppy aroma, hints of cocoa, a touch of red berries and plum, black tea and tobacco. Taste is slightly dry and minimally sweet, chocolately and toasty dark malty, dry, leafy and minimally fruity hoppy, hints of cocoa, tobacco, black tea, a cautious touch of red berries; way overcarbonated.

Hazy deep amber colour, small frothy beige head, half-way lasting, light lacing. Aroma roasted malt, caramel, raisins, coffee. Taste medium sweet and light bitter, roasted malt, grainy, chicory, burnt caramel. Roasted malt bittersweet aftertaste, burnt caramel, medium body, watery to oily texture, soft carbonation. Rather coarse brown beer certainly not a porter imo, disappointing.

Porter by En Stoemelings, now with 'official' label (other than the provisional one shown on the picture here); longneck bottle from Geers. Opens with a fierce hiss, but by opening very slowly, I managed to avoid the gushing that otherwise would have been inevitable. Very thick and 'bath-foamy', very dense, densely and beautifully paper-lacing, pale yellowish beige, firmly closed and stable head, misty deep purplish-brown robe with copper red hue, dark but not as dark as usual for a porter in our modern age. Aroma initially emanating a lot of carbon dioxide (that sourish, soda-like smell), but after this has elapsed, a very yeasty and malty profile is unveiled: dried prunes, fresh figs, wet toast, red apple, wet clay or even plasticine, old brown bread, soggy tea bags, old sweat, an old gum, coffee grounds, dried mushrooms, baking soda, dried black radish peel, moldy chestnuts, some band aid phenols, fermenting tree leaves on a forest floor. Estery onset but low in sweetness, some red apple sharpness and some dried fig, lively carbonation as expected (typical Belgian ale level rather than typical porter level), with a sourish side effect; fluffy, bready malt profile, again restrained in sweetness, with a 'deep' sourishness running under it all. Soggy brown bread, old walnuts and soaking wet toast impressions, all rather dry, with a roasty, dull bitterness in the end, matching with a late but spicy and lingering, leafy and rooty hop bitterness. Everything remains drenched in quite heavy yeastiness, with relatively strong phenolic effects (cloves, even some mild band aid) and a kind of lingering, a very bready, almost starchy feeling and a dull 'yeast sourishness'. Way too yeasty, perhaps fermented at too high a temperature, but in any case this is not a great success, with the maltiness buried under not very inviting, phenolic yeasty effects; much more like an amateurish attempt at Belgian dubbel (albeit much more roasted bitter) than a true porter in the modern sense of the word. If you approach it as a dark Belgian ale, it is, however, still enjoyable - but too bad En Stoemelings didn't manage to produce a clean, straightforward, malt-forward English style porter. As much as I sympathize with the Brussels 'nouvelle vague' in brewing, this particular brewery has failed to impress me so far and this one clearly has technical flaws which they should be able to avoid.

Keg at Moeder Lambic. A murky nut brown coloured pour with a a lasting grey head. Aroma is nutty, ginger nut biscuit, spicy, nurmeh, earth. Flavour is semi sweet, thin earthy bready malts, Rye bread, hints of cinnamon, light metallic finish. Palate is thin, semi sweet, grainy, moderate carbonation. Ok..