Alengrin (11609) reviewed Tripel from Biercreaties Pottelbergh 5 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
One of countless new(ish) client brewers in Belgium today, this one located in the city of Kortrijk and having its beers brewed at De Meester. I read about this Tripel Pottelbergh last year already but only now managed to score a bottle, at Dranken Pauwels in Heule near Kortrijk. Medium thick, membrane-lacing, finely mousy, off-white head quickly showing gaps but retaining well; hazy peach blonde robe with orangey tinge, turning cloudy with sediment - and adding a few large, translucently white and not very appetizing flakes of protein in the end, sinking to the bottom of the glass and ending up there looking like pebbles (or indeed, excusez le mot, turds) in a pool of mud. Aroma of ripe peach, banana mush, honey, sugar loaf, coriander seed, cooked red apple, ripe pear, hints of 'appeljenever', some orange peel which may or may not have been effectively used here, plum compote, melting powder sugar, wodka, potato peel, 'pepernoot' and clove. Sweet onset, estery hints of ripe pear and peach again, banana and some pineapple, white candi syrup but nowhere cloying, lively carbonation adding minerally 'stings', full and smooth mouthfeel; soft bready maltiness harshened a bit by ongoing stingy carbonation, light caramelly edge, lingering honeyish sweetness but not over the top for a tripel. Softly spicy coriander seed sets in after that, while a floral hoppy note also develops, depositing a gently lingering bitterness on the finishing stages; malty and estery sweetness remains present as well, until everything gets a bit 'deformed' by wodka-like, inelegant, peppery and astringent alcohol, which drowns out the much more fragile bitterness provided by the hops. Spicy and bready yeasty effects accompany this wodka element till deep into the tail. The protein 'turds' visually bothered me a lot so this one is losing a lot of points in the appearance department, the whole remains a tad unbalanced and the alcohol, though firmly positioned in the final stage, easily gets wry and obnoxious. If the alcohol were better masked and the whole thing can be cleaned up a bit, I think this one surely has the potential to become a really good tripel someday, if, again, a very predictable, ordinary and traditional one, adding absolutely nothing to the already vast ocean of tripels flooding this conservative country. Being Belgian myself and basically having grown up with tripels, it has been annoying me for years that so many recently launched brewers (and client brewers - perhaps even more so) here seem to find it necessary to carry coals to Newcastle as the British say. Sure, a tripel is always a 'hit' among conservative Belgian consumers because it is the first style they expect from a 'specialty' brewer, but if the influence of the global craft beer movement in Belgium keeps getting stuck in churning out more of the same, I would not be surprised if other 'beery' countries start to regard us as a kind of open-air museum - if, of course, this is not already the case today.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
31/12/2018 - 33cl bottle from a trade with jerre. Dark brown, with big beige tanned head. Nose is dark malts, spices, bit fruits, licorice. Taste is malts, bit spice, licorice, bit nutty, some chocolate, roasted in the aftertaste.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Rustiek Bruin from Biercreaties Pottelbergh 7 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Imported from my RateBeer account as Pottelbergh Rustiek Bruin (Dubbel) (by Pottelbergh):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5
31/X/18 - 33cl bottle from a trade, shared @ Bosrijk Efteling, BB: 16/IV/20 - (2018-1624) Thanks to Jerre for the trade!
Clear dark purple brown beer, small creamy beige head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: bit spicy, liquorish, some aniseed, caramel, some molasses, sugary. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: some banana, soft roast, some mocha, bitter, caramel. Aftertaste: roasted, some liquorish, spicy, sugary, caramel, mocha, soft roast, bitter, spicy finish.