Bottle picked up from Dranken Vandewoude Veurne, Belgium. Shared the beer with Jonas and Ursula at home Friday 16th May 2025, listening to Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline. Pours mid, dark brown, good charity, typically Belgian, soft mouthfeel, spicy and whilst a little sweet (compared to previous beers from Schneeeule & Kykao) liked it.

Big bottle, thanks Fin & Loz! Bright ruby red Brown, offwhite head. Dusty roast, wooden, licorice , nice dry Belgian yeast, medium full roast, bready, quite chewy dry bread mouthfeel, foamy in the back.Licorice root, honey, dark sugar, cedar wood finish, quite nice balance.

Bottle. Dark deep red. Malt, raisins. Odd front heavy, then smooth long creamy. Boozy creamy raisins. Wood earthy. Warm. Not bad.

Nachtraafbrouwers connecting with the style most associated with their region (the southern part of historical Flanders): a Flemish red, something I would never have expected from them. Bottle from Dranken Vanquathem in Zedelgem. Very thick and foamy, pale yellow-beige, even-bubbled, moussey, busily cobweb-lacing, pillowy head towering over a clear, warm mahogany brown beer with deep amber glow, misty with sediment. Aroma of young balsamic vinegar, forest fruit yoghurt, fresh blueberries, lavender, soap, red wine vinegar, elderberries, milk gone sour, goat cheese, brambleberry juice, freshly cut cucumber, green apple, caramel candy. Rounded, fruity yet sleek onset, passionfruit, blackberries and green apple, tart with a sweet core (dates), medium carbonated; smooth, bit vinous mouthfeel. Slick caramelly malt core, slightly biscuity as well, sweet with that yoghurty lactic sourness piercing through all the way, carrying the sour berry and green apple effects onwards but failing to unfold the complexity needed for this demanding style; the sourness even remains a bit on the sharp side, with notes of balsamico and redcurrant, but there is clearly a lot of candi-sugary, candied-cherry-like sweetness has been added as well, sticking to the teeth. No woodiness here, instead the tartness, fruity as it is, becomes almost cherry Coke-like in the end, as it clings to that sweetness more intimately; hops are very subtle even though they deposit a leafy end bitterishness, and so a commercial forest fruit yoghurt feel is what I am left with. The sweetness is equally strong here as the sourness - both too outspoken for this style, which is all about patience, delicacy and refinement. Bearing earlier encounters with these guys' beers in mind, I was already suspicious when I unexpectedly stumbled upon this bottle, and my gut feeling proves me right: this is way too sleek, clean and mass-oriented to add anything significant to the precious 'oud bruin' heritage. Basically an overly sweet and overly clean dubbel unsubtly soured with whatever they threw in to make it sour - I am guessing industrial lactic acid, not unlike that Zulte in its final phase of life, a beer still resounding in the memories of older Belgian beer lovers (and in my case, not very cheerfully so). This whole Oud Bruin lacks the careful barrel ageing, blending and maturing required for the style, which confirms my opinion that these Nachtraafbrouwers, whichever way they produce their beer, are up to no good: so far all of the beers I had from them were implausibly sleek, 'easy', industrial and, frankly, completely redundant. This one is no exception and an insult to the families who have been creating 'real' Flemish red for generations. No more Nachtraafbrouwers for me.