Bottle from Carrefour Viviers. Caramel with a medium head. Aroma of wine wood. Flavour is berries and malt, dry wheat and Belgian nutty base.

Bottle on holiday in Gent 29/07/2014.
Creamy light brown head on a chestnut coloured body.
No other details only a photo.

Oranjebruin bier met mooi stevig schuim. Smaak is bitterzoet en licht kruidige met wat citrus, rozijnen en wat druiven. De whiskey heb ik niet kunnen ontdekken maar desondanks een uitstekend en bijzonder kerstbier.

The obligatory dubbel in this animal-themed series commissioned at Grain d'Orge, this one referring to the (red) deer. Came from a festive packing containing all three Thirsty Animals beers plus the customised glassware. Thick and foamy, pale yellow-beige, regular and dense, moussey, shred-lacing head thinning and dissolving over an initially clear, deep chestnut brown robe with burgundy-reddish glow and dots of protein, eventually becoming hazed. Aroma of dry caramel, ground hazelnuts, medlar, tea, brown soap, green pear, banana peel, coriander seed, clove, treacle, dried peach, rosemary. Fruity onset, sweetish with a slight sourish edge, hinting at pear and medlar with a touch of baked banana, quite sharply carbonated; smooth brown-bready, cereally and caramelly malt sweetish core, some light honeyish sugariness but nowhere too sweet, let alone sticky. Herbal hop bitter notes in the end alongside phenolic clove and nutmeg spiciness and added coriander spiciness; meanwhile a volatile retronasal whiff of rusty iron passes by, indicating the first sign of oxidation. Completely predictable, stereotypical Belgian dubbel - a textbook example of the style, I would even say. Correct, like the two others in this very classically styled miniseries.

The ordinary blonde in this series of animal-themed Belgian ales, executed at Grain d'Orge for this Thirsty Animals 1991 'bierfirma', this one referring to the fox - which in Latin should be Vulpes rather than Vulpis, but anyway. Very thick and foamy, egg-white, dense and even rocky, lightly lacing head over an initially clear, warm golden blonde robe with 'old gold' glow and sparse visible sparkling, misty with sediment. Aroma of freshly cut red apple, straw, light banana peel, cardamom without a doubt, allspice, dried lemon zest, grass, cold pasta, dried flowers, wet sand, pear. Fruity onset, sweetish with impressions of green pear, red apple and a dash of banana but no 'bubblegumminess' as is all too often the case in this type of beer; sharp and minerally carbonation, stinging through an essentially supple cereally pale malt core with a very thin layer of residual sugars on top; floral hop bitterishness in the finish but also clear 'ethereal' white cardamom, also reminiscent of allspice, which provides not just its typical - dominant - aroma but also a bit of spicy wryness. Bready yeasty notes linger too. Spiced beers - whether it be with cardamom, allspice, ginger or anything else of that kind - will never entirely be my cup of tea, but this one does not overplay it too much and is in any case correctly executed.

The tripel in a series of three beers - following the ultimate Belgian 'monastic' cliché of blond, dubbel and tripel - conceived by a hobby brewing project and commercially executed at Grain d'Orge, referring to forest animals - the bear in this case, but oddly the label depicts a giant panda (which admittedly is a kind of bear, but in any case no Ursus species...). Somewhat irregular but moussey and fluffy, snow white head lacing in shreds over a misty orangey peach blonde robe with amberish tinge and translucent dots of protein throughout. Aroma of dried peach, rusk, a truckload of coriander seed, bread crust, 'oude jenever', wet gravel, a touch of canned tomato soup and some wet brown paper both referring to onsetting oxidation but not too strongly so, honey, cooked sweet potato, apricot jam, raw celeriac, old biscuit, dried orange peel. Fruity onset, sweetish with notes of peach, red apple and apricot, sharply carbonated with supple mouthfeel; rusk- and slightly biscuit-like maltiness with bready core and honeyish residual sugars on top, leading to a spicy finish in which a confident leafy hop bitterness counters the sweetness successfully - but then a heap of coriander seed also sets in, along with notes of clove and dried orange peel, all warmed by Grand Marnier-like alcohol. Lots of yeasty breadiness lingers while the feared oxidation fortunately remains very much in the background, even if it does make itself noticed. Typically sweet, boozy, overcoriandered tripel, thirteen in a dozen, but technically well executed and enjoyable for what it is.