Alengrin (11675) reviewed Saison Classic from Stanium 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Bottle from the brewery. One of Stanium's few regular beers, a less hoppy version of the ordinary Stanium Saison, "to please the average consumer" - clearly a fear for overt hop bitterness is still very much alive in the remote Waasland region, or Belgium in general. Slow gusher, but perfectly manageable. Initially towering high, very loudly crackling head, slowly and gradually collapsing to a medium thick, moussy, egg-white ring and a pattern of flat 'islands' in the middle, leaving little (if any) lacing but in the end vanishing completely; immediately hazy, deep orange-tinged peach blonde robe with dull ochre-ish hue, turning into a raw pear juice-like murkiness especially after the foam has gone. Aroma of canned peach and dito pineapple slices, freshly grated ginger, ripe banana, melting powder sugar, lots of freshly cut red apple, white grapes, soggy sandwiches, very pronounced rainwater aspect, pond water even, equally pronounced fresh mandarin peel, coriander seed, fresh grass and lettuce, raw white cabbage, stale - if not spoiled - plum juice, hard unripe Conférence pear, egg yolk. Fruity, estery onset, lots of red apple and green pear, sweetish with a sourish edge, the sourishness being accentuated by very sharp, fizzy, numbing overcarbonation; aspects of raw pineapple, banana ester (though not so much bubblegum) and apricot as well, something very thinly green olive-like, minerals. Some residual 'white' sugariness remains and lends a honeyish effect to a somewhat meagerly but convincingly bready, somewhat cereally malty middle, while the esters also keep guard, though not overly so. Ends with a rooty hop bitterness, a bit unrefined actually, fresh wormwood leaf-like, in fact not all that different from the regular version - even if, admittedly, more residual sweetness remains here. This rooty, leafy, floral bitterness dominates the back of the mouth under a wave of peachy, pineapple-, pear- and honey-like sweetness, with eventually a cold green Chinese flower tea-like effect, if mildly sugared. Minerally and mildly spicy phenolic hints remain, and so does the sharp overcarbonation. "Redundant" does not even begin to describe this beer: the differences with the regular Stanium Saison are so minute that I would easily mix them up, so what is the point of creating a very subtly sweeter, very subtly less bitter version of a beer that is already very accessible - and very limited in its geographical scope? Clearly the intention was to please customers who find Stanium Saison "too bitter" (dixit the brewer himself), but the basic recipe is only different from its so-called "hoppy" self in minor differences. I think this version clearly has very little purpose, if any at all. Viewed as such, so not taking into account its faintly more bitter brother: sharply overcarbonated with the carbon dioxide not very well 'bound', a tad dirty in the end and, as for its saison ambitions: it's not because you impose a 'French' saison yeast (whatever the French have to do with it is another problem) onto a basic Belgian blonde, that you automatically end up with a saison. It increasingly bothers me that these small Belgian brewers increasingly make abuse of this term without 'feeling' what the style is about - and believe me, there is a reason why any concluding technical description of the style still fails: saison is about a local, rural 'feeling' more than anything else. This, if I ever understood what this feeling is about, is no saison and has virtually no reason to exist next to its (barely) hoppier brother. An inferior version of Stanium Saison, but drinkable. Enough said.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Foncé from Stanium 8 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
The dark one in this series of beers from a new micro brewery in Beveren, tasted at the brewery and now from a bottle at home. Violent gusher, about 1/4 went straight down the sink, alas... Irregular, ’papery’ lacing, pale greyish beige head, very stable on the edges as a thick moussy rim, remnants of foam in the middle, over an immediately cloudy chestnut brown beer with burgundy hue. Aroma of moldy walnuts, dried fig, coriander seed, pear, butterscotch candy, earth, damp tree leaves, black tea, dried cranberries, toasted brown bread, acorn shells gathered from a forest floor on a dry autumn day, mushrooms fried with brown sugar, cloves, old aniseed, sage, white pepper. Fruity, mildly estery onset, hinting at pear, fig and dried berries, sweetish with sourish aspects on the sides, quite sharply carbonated, distracting a bit from the actual flavour but manageable for the intended style (dubbel), fairly full mouthfeel. Deeply (hazel-)nutty malt middle, very butterscotch-like as well, toffeeish, sweetish in a cereally (and not so much sugary) way with a softly bittering edge, while some of the fruity esters play along; spicy notes in the finish, from coriander but also from yeasty phenols (clove-like impressions). Mildly bittering, herbal and leafy hop bitter ending, with lingering yeasty-fruity notes and a faint hint of warming, but otherwise well-hidden alcohol. Too bad for that heavy gushing, but otherwise still very palatable and enjoyable, remarkably dry for a Belgian dubbel (which was apparently the intention) and in that sense appetizing. Interesting one.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Extrema from Stanium 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5.5
Next to his own core range (Saison, Saison Classic and Fonc�), Wim Tindemans also makes a series of commissioned beers exclusively for restaurants, shops and other commissioners in the Waasland region; this is one of them, made only and limitedly for a Spanish restaurant in Hamme. A beer with a very thick, towering high, eggshell-coloured, regularly shaped, lacing head and a deep bronze-tinged, ochre-ish amber colour, clear at first but cloudy with sediment. Aroma of toasted bread, coriander seed, blue plum, caramel, ethereal spicing of star aniseed, apricots, dried camomile (effectively used), raw pineapple, green banana, soggy brown bread, dried orange peel (cura�ao also having been used), brandy. Fruity onset but remaining fairly ’clean’, hints of pear, apricot and banana, spritzy carbonation, smooth and lean mouthfeel. Dryish middle with rounded caramelly and lightly bready maltiness, a tad soapy due to the coriander, the flavour of which becomes equally obvious as that of the camomile flowers, the latter matching well with a floral, mildly spicy hop bitter finish; the cura�ao also becomes clear in the end, but the star aniseed remains relatively subdued (which in this case is probably a good thing). Ends in some warming, brandy-ish alcohol. Apparently the intention here was to make this beer match Spanish cuisine and more specifically, lending it a general effect comparable with sherry; not sure if this has worked out entirely, but regardless of that intention, this is a very decent, technically flawless and interesting ale, with a good balance of flavours, nothing overly sweet or banana-like, clean, dry, to the point and not going into overdrive in terms of spicing, in spite of four different ones having been used. Pleasant enough and even if I only know the restaurant by name, I’m sure this is able to shine on a table filled with Spanish delicacies.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Saison from Stanium 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
One of the first beers from this new micro brewery (opened January 2017) in Beveren-Waas, my home region, by Wim Tindemans, who has been active as a hobby brewer for twenty years. Brewed with a French saison yeast and a dash of coriander. Tasted at the brewery and now at home from a 33 cl bottle. Frothy, egg-white, moussy head, consisting of relatively large, irregular bubbles and thinning quickly, eventually settling as a thin, irregular ring with some dots in the middle, over an immediately hazy, warm peach blonde beer with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of green pear, banana with a slight hint at chewing gum, ripe peach, soggy white bread, clove-like phenols, field flowers, straw, bread crust, hints of old cheese, soap (the coriander, no doubt), old dry lemon zest, freshly cut grass, jute, dry earth and a vague touch of DMS (cooked vegetables) but fortunately not at all to the point where it ruins everything else. Fruity, bit estery onset, restrainedly sweetish banana and peach mixed with a sourishness reminiscent of green gooseberries and yellow plums, hint of pineapple perhaps, sharply carbonated, fizzy and a tad numbing at first, but with small bubbles so not overly harsh. Smooth bready malt body with grainy and slightly ’wheaty’ edges, while the fruity esters linger and some spicy phenols appear; ends dry, earthy and outspokenly hop bitter, long and a tad wormwood-like, with floral and bitter herb-like notes; some bready malt juiciness and yeasty accents as well, and then of course that spicy-and-soapy flavour of coriander, quite noticeable. Quenching, hop bitter, dry and crisp, with a high degree of drinkability and a low degree of residual sugars - intentionally so, this beer comes closer to the traditional Hainaut saison standard than many other of these countless ’new’ saisons which are often nothing but rebranded Belgian blondes. Clearly this brewery intended to make a credible, authentic tasting example of the style. Too bad for that whiff of DMS and the quick dissipation of the head, but from what I heard, the latter issue is going to be dealt with in upcoming batches; for me personally, the coriander, though subtly applied, can be even more subtle, or even omitted altogether. In all a more than decent effort, better than I was expecting, actually.