Traditionally styled Belgian 'bruin tafelbier' produced by Haacht for the Dutch company responsible for the Kaiser brand (and others) - oddly perhaps, as the rest of this brand seems to be brewed by Swinkels (but the label explicitly mentions Haacht as the brewer here so I will leave it at that...). Comes from a 75 cl bottle bought at the Carrefour supermarket in Sint-Denijs-Westrem; contains a whole string of 'E numbers' including our sweet friend acesulfame K, preservatives and ascorbic acid as an antioxidant - this sounds like a lot of additives even for an industrial table beer if you ask me... Towering high, foamy, pale yellowish beige, cobweb-lacing, firm and very stable head, clear dark caramel brown robe with ruby red glow. Aroma of dry cookies, industrial brown bread (as in: white bread coloured with industrial caramel), liquorice candy, cola light (but not the most famous one), damp autumn leaf hints, artificial sweetener (acesulfame K indeed), the water from a can of corn, chewing gum, very vague note of rusty iron somewhere. Artificially sweet onset as expected, caramelly and non-fruity (no esters expected anyway - this is of course a lager), 'sugary without sugar' as it were - like a sweetened product for diabetics; clean, thin, straightforward structure, thinly caramelly, very slick due to palpable corn, with that added sweetness continuing and even becoming a bit sticky. Vague bitterish note in the finish - the minute dosage of hops perhaps, but likely also coming partially from all those additives, while that sweetness remains in a caramelly way. Typical industrial Belgian table beer: I cannot say if this is to be preferred over its best known competitor, AB InBev's Piedboeuf Brune, because it has been way too long since I last had that one, and I believe I am just slightly too young to have truly grown up in the tafelbier tradition (though of course I have been familiar with the concept since I was young); what I can say, is that it is of course 'just' an industrial tafelbier, so expectations were low to begin with. Intuitively I would recommend the table beers from family brewers like Bavik or Roman - if they still produce it today - but of course those too may have become all but redundant in a time when low alcohol beers of all colours and flavours have rapidly become much better than before...

Can in Costa Rica (4.7% ABV)
Pours clear light golden with a medium sized off-white head that dissipates quickly leaving a small ring, light lacing. Grains, wet straw, doughy, mild bitter.
Decent