Yellow/golden colour, white foam. Lively carbonation. Unbalanced beer, very grainy (cow fodder), some banana and some metallic notes. Not good at all.

Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020

Amber colour with thin head. Aroma and flavour are strangely very orangey. Too sweet and really iut of balance.

The tripel in this very commercially oriented series, steinie bottle from De Centrale in Diksmuide. Frothy, egg-white, stable, firm, tightly cobweb-lacing head on a lightly hazy, warm 'old gold' coloured beer with pale orangey tinge. Aroma of halfripe banana, apple peel, dough, overcooked broccoli (DMS) note, strong-vinyl-guaiacol (cloves), young 'jenever', pear. Sweetish onset but cleanish, some banana, pear and red apple impressions, fizzy and minerally carbonation, slick cereally malt sweet middle with strong clove- and even somewhat plastic-like phenols returning, clear warming 'jenever'-like alcohol in the tail but the sweetness remains dominant. Clean, soulless, shallow tripel, as if wanting to go into direct competition with Grimbergen Tripel, Ciney Blonde and the like. If this is these guys' style, then I will certainly not go searching for the limited 75 cl edition of this beer, which they announced on social media last week. This whole range adds nothing gastronomically meaningful to the Belgian beer map - luckily for the 'Diksmuidenaars', Dolle Brouwers is just around the corner...

The dubbel in this classically conceived series, bottle from De Centrale in Diksmuide. Beautifully 'Brugse kant'-like lacing, creamy, regular-bubbled, pale yellow-beige, dense and frothy head, lying very stable on a cristal clear, warm 'autumny' bronze beer with glowing copper hue and strings of lively sparkling rising up from the bottom, turning lightly hazy with sediment. Aroma of dry peanuts, hard caramel candy, dried apricots, dried apple peel, burnt brown sugar, dry cookies, muesli, coriander seed, hint of iron, some damp earth and old bayleaf. Rounded, restrainedly fruity onset, hints of dried banana, dried apricot and fig but 'cleanish' in terms of esteriness, lively carbonated with minerally side effects but not too harsh, smooth and resinous mouthfeel; relatively light-bodied, slick and streamlined caramelly and lightly peanutty maltiness, sweetish with a bittering toasty edge but subtly so, at least not soaked in residual sugars (though a brown sugar touch is there) like many sweeter dubbels. Ends a tad herbal and very vaguely metallic, with a lightly leafy hop bitterishness, showing up quite late but accentuating the toasty-bitter edge of the malts. Minerally effects and spicy accents linger. Straightforward, but very drinkable dubbel, with the same clean, streamlined, semi-industrial and clearly mass market-intended profile as their other beers; enjoyable enough, but lacking soul and depth, also like their other beers.

The amber in this very classically conceived, streamlined series of Diksmuide beers, steinie bottle from De Centrale there. Very frothy and even rocky, pillowy, egg-white, densely creamy and very tightly, 'papier maché'-like lacing, closed and stable head, clear, warm peach-hued orange blonde beer, near amber indeed, with lively visible sparkling fiercely rushing upwards from the bottom of the glass. Aroma of marmalade, melting butter (clear diacetyl), candy apple, bubblegum, cooked cloth (clear pasteurization!), honey, Plasticine, coffeecakes, cream, touch dried flowers, faint whiff of iron, apricot jam, candied orange peel. Sweet onset, very clean and quite straightforward, smoothly edged, lively carbonated but in a refined, non-stinging way, honeyish and creamy middle, caramelly, with banana, candy apple and candied orange aspects lingering from start to finish; almost buttery mouthfeel, very smooth and round, gliding down effortlessly whilst leaving behind outspoken residual sweetness and a light, late and quite volatile hop bitterishness, floral and a tad grassy, but washed away by the sweetness and butteriness of this weird little beer. A light metallic effect continues to subtly vibrate. Cristal clear, sweet, easy and smelling of pasteurization: this is very clearly modelled after mass-marketed industrial beers, I guess these Nachtraafbrouwers have the intention to compete with AB InBev, Heineken and the like - but in a time when creative 'microbrewing' has developed into a world-encompassing hype, I highly doubt whether trying to imitate industrial beer for the masses is commercially the best choice, contradictory as that may sound. Very smooth, way too smooth to be interesting in fact, like the quadrupel in this series; I'm beginning to fear for the two other Nachtraaf beers I have remaining in my collection.

The quadrupel in this series of new Diksmuide beers, bottle from De Centrale, a local beershop there. Very thick, frothy, fluffy, tightly and thickly paper-lacing, very stable, pale greyish white head on an initially near-clear, deep copper-hued mahogany beer with bright ruby red glow, misty with sediment. Aroma of hard caramel candy, bubblegum, rum-soaked raisins, soggy cookies, baked banana, raisin bread, dried figs, brown sugar, tea, touches of iron, rainwater and plastic. Sweet onset, brown sugariness but nowhere too cloying (at least for the intended style), bubblegummy isoamylacetate, dried banana, fig and freshly cut sweet red apple impressions, medium carbonation adding very light minerally side notes, full and smooth, bit resinous mouthfeel; very caramelly malt body, slick and rounded, with a light toffeeish and bready side to it, lingering bubblegum on top, all leading to a moderately hoppy finish, a bit herbal and tea-like and remaining altogether soft in bitterness even for a quad; a glow of brown rum-like alcohol ensues, but refrains from becoming disturbingly astringent so remaining well in place. Technically rather well done, actually, but feeling very clean and streamlined like similar beers from larger, established breweries; La Trappe Quadrupel, the beer that gave its name to this style (which in itself is much older than La Trappe Quadrupel itself), is indeed not that far away here. This beer has the same sweet, resinous, smooth and bubblegummy profile so in that sense, mission accomplished. It does, however, lack the depth, body and complexity of the greatest of trappist quads - this is, in fact, one of those cases where I would not have minded a bit more yeastiness for complexity. Too clean, slick and sweet to be truly great in the eye of the beer connoisseur I think, but purely commercially this should work perfectly fine.

Reddish brown colour with thin head. Aroma and flavour have some candy sweetness. Bready, malty, sweet.

Blond colour with stable lasting head. Aroma has a lot of sweet and lightly toasted malts. Flavour is not overly sweet. Nice spicy dryness.