Kraddel (15844) reviewed Kerel Grapefruit IPA from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Pours rather unclear amber. Good white head. Smell is vegetal. Taste is vegetal, bit bitter, some yeast. Sigh...
Kraddel (15844) reviewed Kerel Pink Imperial from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 9
Pours unclear , very dark brown. Small ring of foam. Smell is rich, fruity, mild raspberry. Some chocolate. Taste is full, sharp tones. Mild , very mild bitterness. Dry, cocoa , fruity raspberry notes. Ok.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel Dark IPA from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
The ’dark IPA’ in this series of Kerel beers, making use of an old brand name whilst filling it with new beers, by a recently opened family-owned brewing enterprise in Tielrode near Sint-Niklaas, situated in the restored buildings of the former ’Kerel brewery’. Lightly ’membranously’ lacing, medium thick, densely moussy, egg-white head, slowly thinning and opening in the middle, over an initially clear, deep amber-glowing, coppery bronze beer, clearly not as dark as a typical BIPA; turns expectedly hazy with sediment, the haze perturbed by strings of fizz. Aroma is however reminiscent of BIPA (or ’Cascadian dark ale’) in more than one respect, albeit in a somewhat ’idiosyncratic’ way, with hints of toasted brown bread, old biscuit and bread crumbs (the same ’real’ breadiness as in their regular IPA), hard butterscotch candy, horseradish, black tea, dried orange peel, toasted walnuts and walnut shells, ’vegetative’ iron, dried golden berries, a whiff of coffee grounds, nutmeg, a hint of pine resin and vague honey- and marmelade-like sweetness elegantly peeping from underneath the malt and hop bitterness. Fruity onset, juicy, more fruity than expected based on the aroma, some esters but no banana, rather hints of dried apricot, unripe pear and red apple, subdued and elegant, fairly ’clean’ for a Belgian ale, with restrained sweetness and a dim kind of sourishness underneath - and even a very light, dried olive-like umami touch. Carbonation is spritzy but acceptable for the intended style, mouthfeel is smooth and a tad resiny. Pleasant nutty and toasted maltiness in the middle, pretty straightforward and to the point as it is not bothered by overt Belgian yeast effects, only vaguely sweetish in its core but much more bitter toasted, with a thin metallic edge that feels entirely natural and undisturbing in this case. The toasted, soft bitterness of the malts pair with a spicy, tonic water-like, rooty, leafy hop bitterness in the end, releasing mildly piney and more explicitly peppery aromas retronasally. This hop bitterness, though in all still on the lighter side for this style (BIPAs do have a wide IBU range, usually between 50-90), lingers for a long time, drying the throat with a very quenching effect; the toasted malts also stick to the throat. I get not too much phenolicness, no misplaced yeastiness, no interrupting esters: this may be lighter in colour and more caramelly than your average American-style black IPA, but two things need to be noted here: first of all, this beer is sold as ’dark IPA’ rather than ’black IPA’ so making it entirely black was never the intention; in this sense, this is very comparable with the also Belgian-made, but Wallonian Belgian Psycho by Brasserie du Brabant. Secondly, this style, originating in the U.S. in the late nineties, has only just begun to carefully penetrate the Belgian beer landscape and it is to be expected that the still very few Belgian brewing companies that have attempted to brew a BIPA so far, will not necessarily end up with a full-fledged American-style Cascadian dark ale. I know that saying that this is among the best Belgian BIPAs I had to date, really is not saying a lot, but surely this is about at the same quality level as e.g. BBP’s Dark Sister, which seems to have served as a source of inspiration here. I expected way less from this, after many mediocre test brews and a couple of not too impressive commercial products from this brewery, this is much closer to what I needed to get more enthusiastic about them, though it is still far removed from what actual BIPA should be. Quite pleasantly surprised - though it can still be entirely ’black’ and more aromatically hoppy for me.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel Pink Imperial from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
VDBCK’s interpretation of the prestigious imperial stout style, with added raspberries... Moussy, quite thick, pale yellowish beige, irregular head, stable on the edges and slowly thinning to a disparate beige ’veil’ in the middle, over a very dark chestnut brown beer with hazy mahogany edges, not the beautiful ink black I expect to get when I open something called ’imperial stout’, but anyway. Aroma is even less imperial stout: lots of gravy and beef stock at first, soaking wet milk chocolate, caramel, rose petals somewhere, coffee grounds, banana, ’koetjesreep’, damp soil, melting brown sugar, ripe blue plum, mace, brown soap, black radish - but raspberries, delicate and volatile as they are, remain all but ’virtual’ at least in aroma. They do show up in the mouth, though, as a pleasantly refreshing ’berry sourness’ piercing brightly through the banana, pear and plum sweet fruitiness of the yeast, their sweetness accentuated by residual dark sugariness; carbonation is on the spritzy side for anything stout-like, mouthfeel is full and fluffy but not oily or viscous, feeling much more like a quadrupel than a strong stout. The middle phase consist of caramelly, pleasantly nutty and eventually a bit (bitter) chocolatey malt body with an unnecessary layer of breadiness on top due to yeast, while the esters and the actual, soft but unmistakable raspberry tartness continue, towards a dryish finish with a welcoming touch of spicy, earthy hop bitterness, a lot of yeast breadiness as expected, the raspberry sourishness lingering and, most of all, this caramelly malt sweetness going down the throat and being highlighted by a well-placed warmth of rum-like alcohol, which shows up only at the very end where it belongs, without turning astringent in any way. As with their Grapefruit IPA, VBDCK clearly - and like many new Belgian microbreweries - has no clue as to what an imperial stout is supposed to be like; I don’t particularly like ’fruited’ stouts to begin with but I can imagine this concept being very interesting if the basic beer was a ’real’, oily, viscous, jet black and thoroughly roasted ’impy’. This, however, hardly qualifies as a stout at all: this is a quadrupel with raspberries. Once again I cannot help feeling a bit deceived, but as with their Grapefruit IPA I had before this one, this is a fairly decent beer in all, regardless of style issues - just a bit strong on the residual proteins, which are clearly the culprits of this heavily gravy-like aspect in the nose. For a local audience, though, this might work, if it gets cleaned up a bit, just do not sell it as an ’imperial stout’ please...
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel Grapefruit IPA from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
One of no less than six beers just launched by this new VBDCK brewery near Temse, a series of modern craft beers all under the same old (until 1966) Kerel brand, the original beer of which has nothing to do with this new series apart - allegedly - from the yeast strain, which was retrieved from a very old bottle, or so they claim. Thick, dense, regular, egg-white, very stable (closed) head over a misty amberish-tinged orange blonde beer with a suspension of yeast throughout (not a very good sign really) - turning all murky and a tad brownish (’muddy’) with sediment. Aroma of freshly baked bread and warm bread crust, peach, dried grapefruit peel, dandelion leaves and other bitter garden herbs, dried apples, baker’s yeast, straw, faint hints of orange zest, olive oil, peanuts, bubblegum, old nutmeg powder and, fortunately only after adding the sediment, something unpleasantly slurry pit-like (E. coli?) which luckily quickly fades again after a few moments. Crisp onset, fruity but not overly estery (almost no banana ester contrary to my expectations), hints of dried apricots, peach and pear, but blotted by very sharp, stinging carbonation, too much so for this style, numbing the tip of the tongue; flavour is generally dry, with sourish and only very distant sweetish notes. Very bready middle, bread crust-like with a lightly toasted bitterish edge, in all quite dry and becoming increasingly hop bitter towards the finish, ending in a very potent, tonic water-, black pepper- and bitterroot-like end bitterness, drying and quenching - and made even more bitter by the grapefruit, with eventually an aftertaste which indeed reminds me very strongly of yellow grapefruit flesh - or even the white underside of citrus peel in general. This is well-intended, but somehow the - admittedly still very young - concept of ’grapefruit IPA’ hasn’t been understood here: first of all, IPA is not just ’a’ beer made very bitter by hops and secondly, why not use some of those wonderfully fragrant American hop varieties which in themselves release very grapefruit-like flavours? Apart from these conceptual remarks, there is also the fact that most present-day consumers (though this will admittedly be true only for real beer geeks) probably expect a soft, not very bitter and highly aromatic New England style IPA with added grapefruit juice or flesh, as many breweries are doing these days. Last but certainly not least, there is a minor technical issue as well, as even a ’Belgian IPA’ (because that is basically what this is) should not contain a visible ’soup’ of yeast from the first pour. And yet, all those things aside, I have to admit that I expected less: this is not perfect at all, but it still is one of the hoppiest beers made in this region, called Waasland, to date and I’m a bit of a hophead, so even in spite of its lack of ’new’ hop aromas, overt breadiness due to the excessive yeast and not very attractive looks, I did enjoy this and certainly wouldn’t mind having another one.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel Stout from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Like the bière de garde now released by this new Waasland brewery (which is basically a resurrection of a historical local brewery but with a modern, 21st-century range), I tasted this long before the opening as a test brew, shared with Jan. This ’preproduction’ version was a huge gusher and contained a lot of iron in the nose, as if some kind of iron-containing head stabilizer had been applied, but it wouldn’t be fair to rate this beer in its embryonic phase so here we are re-rating it in its commercial form. No gushing anymore, medium thick, creamy, pale yellowish beige head, very stable and dense with a ’membrane’ of tight lacing left behind; initially clear, very dark ruddy brown colour, blackish in its general appearance, but with a ruby red hue visible under bright light. Aroma of diluted coffee grounds, damp clayish soil, dead forest mushrooms, stewed plums, ripe pear, hazelnuts, blueberry juice, lots of caramel, liquorice, peppermint somewhere, moss, cloves, some manure - but no iron anymore. Sweet onset but nothing cloying, just your average Belgian dubbel-like dried fig, light banana and pear notes, with a sourish brambleberry accent at its sides; smooth, bit creamy mouthfeel, medium carbonated. Very nutty malt middle with an immediate toastiness to it, bittersweet but in a superficial kind of way, caramelly too, with still a thin metallic edge to it; more coffee grounds bitterness towards the finish but never shifting to the mouth-filling roasted bitterness one would expect from a stout in general - nor bringing any of the lactose creaminess one would expect from a typical sweet stout. Very earthy finish, juicy nuttiness persisting, clove-like phenols and a late dash of earthy, leafy, notably herbal hop bitterishness, yeasty and a bit doughy too, with that thin metallic accent continuing. Late bitterness, but more from hops than from roastedness. Clearly well-intended and an improvement compared with its pre-commercial self, but still not too impressive, a sweet stout the old-fashioned way, not far removed from ’dinosaurs’ à la Van Steenberge’s Wilson Mild Stout, Callewaert Extra Stout or the late Louwaege Stout. Alternatively put: in all their efforts of breaking with 20th-century traditions and introducing American craft beer styles into the Waasland region, these guys managed to do the opposite of their own intentions and created an Anglo-Flemish sweet stout of a particular substyle that had its heydays three generations ago... Drinkable though, if you keep this historical background in mind, but honestly I think this is not quite what they were up to and as with most of their other beers, this needs some restyling and technical finetuning.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kerel Bière de Garde from VBDCK Brewery 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Tasted as a test brew long before the opening of this new Waasland brewery, which has been founded by a family regionally renowned for its history in fine meats. They tried out many different beer style recipes in their long preproduction phase, only a few of which materialized now, making use of the old brand name ’Kerel’ which has been used by the original, historical brewery Verbeeck-Back, from its beginnings in 1867 till its demise in 1966. None of the current beers is an imitation of the original range, but it is claimed that old bottles were found in the remainders of the original brewery from which yeast was revived with which these newly released, ’non-historical’ Kerels are made... Anyway, this particular one is among the few beers they tried out long before the brewery opened, but in its preproduction phase, this was a gushing, infected, even vomit-smelling mess of a beer - so I guess it is only fair to re-rate it now that it has gone commercial. Still quite a lot of pressure on the bottle, but no more gushing so this issue has clearly been solved. Medium thick, egg-white, very stable, creamy head over an initially clear, pure orangey amber coloured beer with some lone bubbles of fizz here and there. Aroma of mouldy peaches, egg yolk, redcurrant, moist peanuts, overripe red apple, wet white pepper, sourish old sweat, damp haystacks, nutmeg, hints of gooseberries, ginger, some banana, fermenting tree leaves, spoiled lemon, cooked white cabbage, some faint young ’jenever’ and still those urine- and even vomit-like hints lurking ominously in the background, yet luckily a lot more subtle than in its test brew phase. Spritzy, estery onset, overcarbonated even for a bi�re de garde, minerally, souring, with a red apple- and redcurrant-like main flavour, a bit of the old banana ester added yet subtly so; more sourish than sweetish, in all. Slick, smooth mouthfeel in spite of the overcarbonation, superficially nutty malt middle with grainy edges, a tad caramelly at a certain point, leading to a herbal, mildly earthy finish, floral and very gently spicy hop bitterishness adding some dryness to an otherwise ongoing malty and estery juiciness. The alcohol provides a faint ’jenever’-like afterwarmth - but it should not be noticeable at all at 7% ABV... I fail to understand why this beer had a vomit-like odour in its aroma in its preproduction phase and now that it has gone commercial, they still haven’t managed to rule out this foul stench completely, though admittedly this has clearly been cleaned up and has evolved for the better. Still, not a very pleasant beer, the infectious sourishness piercing through the whole and the overcarbonation confirming that; conceptually speaking, I do not get the idea of presenting the Belgian consumer with a bière de garde at all either: isn’t this bringing water to the sea, considering how these bland French bières de garde are nearly always attempts at being as Belgian as possible? The average local consumer has probably never heard of "bière de garde" and the connoisseur probably doesn’t really care about it... Weird concept, not very well executed, sorry guys but this does not even deserve the 3/5 threshold for me personally. That said, I wonder what the average (northern) French consumer would think of it...