500cL blik van de lokale Albert Heijn. Blijkbaar is het ABV aangepast naar 7.5% zoals duidelijk aangegeven op het blik. Helder goudgeel levendig bier met mooie schuimkraag. Smaak is vrij zoet en licht fruitig met een zuurtjes achtige ondertoon die gelukkig niet overheerst. Eigenlijk best wel een redelijk goed bier.

Can 50cl. from a local supermarket (Vomar). Deep golden colour, loose frothy white head, mostly diminishing, good lacing. Aroma sweet malt, grain, corn, card board. Taste medium sweet and slightly bitter, malty, grain, card board, sugary notes. Medium body, oily to watery texture, soft carbonation, sweetbitter aftertaste, acceptable.

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...