Bottled. Deep brown colour with a mediumsized white head. Aroma is spicy, some caramel, yeast, dark dried fruits and mild toffee. Flavour is mildly toasted, some dried fruits, mild berries as well as some spicy and caramelly/toffeeish notes.

Light gusher. pours clear pale blonde, soapy, yet relatively stable white head. Scent is saison phenolic, bit straight forward but certainly not bad. Taste is very sharp ( overcarbed aspect doesn't help that) dry, to the bitter side. A bit of a generic, yet enjoyable, yet overcarbonated classical BE saison style. Ends a bit iffy, def not sweet, but not as dry as I would have expected. Still, refreshing and enjoyable, even with the extreme carbonation level.

Lichtgeel helder bier met weinig schuim. Smaak is licht fruitig zuur met iets van bessen, aardbei en wat citroen. Alleen geeft het bier in eerste instantie een wat vreemde geur af die ik niet echt kan waarderen.

Fles 33cl thuis. Klein zuurtje, redelijk droog, fruitig, yeasty, redelijk koolzuur, licht vineus, Orval-invloeden, witte druif, rood fruit. (9-12-2022).

Hofbrouwerijke beer celebrating the cliché of the drunk old uncle making a fool of himself at every family party - a stereotype many Flemish consumers will probably recognize. Quite a strong gusher - and even being prepared for it (this is Hofbrouwerijke so I kept a glass nearby), I could not avoid losing about 1/6 to the sewer. Even seconds after opening, foam kept bulging out of the bottle, so I wonder when this brewery is finally going to master the art of refermentation, considering all those years of experience they already have? Anyway: huge and towering high, very foamy, plaster-like lacing, pale yellowish beige, irregularly collapsing 'gusher head' on a misty mahogany brown beer with reddish-maroon glow. Aroma of banana peel, brown bread crust, clove, freshly cut grass, medlar, oxidized red apple slices, caramel, pumice, dried wormwood, raw parsnip, candied fig, old tea bags, bitter dark green beech leaves, dried prunes, old orange zest. Spritzy onset, numbing overcarbonation distracting from sweetish and sourish flavours of dried peach, banana, apple peel and prune, very minerally and harsh, distorting a slender, bit powdery mouthfeel; brown-bready and hard-caramelly maltiness with a slight toasty edge but generally remaining on the sweeter side, with some candi sugar lingering, carrying forward the medlar and banana fruitiness. Pronounced clove-like phenols and coriander powder in the finish, quickly accompanied by a leafy, rooty hop bitter note, lingering on for a while, bittering the sweetish brown-bready character of the malts; lots of bready yeastiness lingers behind, bringing back the fruitiness and spiciness. Typical dubbel in its general make-up, not too sweet and actually well-hopped for the style (I recall Hopduvel's commissioned Brunette as one of the first hoppy dubbels many years ago and this one seems to continue this idea), but obviously the heavy gushing is a technical flaw that has to be dealt with. Hofbrouwerijke should know better by now.

One of a series of beers by different brewers aged on barrels of Gouden Carolus whisky, this one having been integrated in a series of "Dungeon Master" beers and apparently already the fourth in that series. Advertized as a quad, but at 7% ABV probably closer to a dubbel... Gusher (though not violently) so keep a glass nearby. Foamy, regular, greyish pale beige, uneven-bubbled yet even, hardly lacing and slowly receding head, misty deep chocolate brown with amber-reddish glow. Aroma of overripe pear, medlar, soggy brown bread, damp earth, whisky, banana, cola, raisins, dusty old wood note, old blue plums, Ersatz chocolate, sulfuric aspects ranging from egg yolk to sewer water. Estery onset, sweet with aspects of overripe pear, ripe banana, medlar and cooked blue plum, quite sharpish in carbonation with rounded mouthfeel; sourish blackberry-like undertone, but brown sugariness and overripe dark fruit sweetness prevail, over a caramelly, brown-bready and slightly 'Koetjesreep'-like maltiness. The sugars even stick to the teeth a bit, and combined with spicy aspects in the finish (clove), create a somewhat cola-like effect, albeit perhaps a rather obscure homemade cola rather than the ubiquitous Coca Cola. Sweet sugared tea-like and earthy hoppy notes in the finish, along with vanilla-scenting oak wood and indeed that banana-like aspect of Gouden Carolus whisky, which also adds a rather harsh alcoholic astringency all the way at the back. The whole feels unbalanced, a bumpy ride from rotten fruit over cloying cola-like sweetness and unpleasant organic sulphur to all too obvious booziness; I never expected Hofbrouwerijke to come up with something truly refined, to be frank, and this one kind of confirms my prejudice. Better things have been done with these Gouden Carolus whisky barrels - by other brewers.

25/XI/22 - 33cl bottle @ Mash of the Titans tasting, Gentse Biervereniging, BB: 10/VII/24, bottled: 30/VII/21, 20210029 (2022-1692)

Pretty cloudy orange amber beer with lots of chunks floating around, small aery irregular head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: dirty, oxidized, infected, strawberry jam, funky, yeast, bubble gum, peat, weird. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: sourish start, very weird, bitter, very peated, chemical, lots and lots of band-aid, funky. Aftertaste: more peat, unpleasant bitterness, sourish, some pineapple, funky, don’t like it at all.

Lichtbruin bier met schuim. Smaak is bitterzoet en licht kruidig met iets van graan, wat gras en citrus.