7.1/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 7
Flavor 7.5
Texture 7
Overall 7
Frisian amber beer, oddly encountered in De Kleine Kunst, a café in the Ghent Heirnis quarter (located next to the Stroom brewery) – but I suppose the new owners of this café being Dutch, has something to do with it. Frothy, egg-white, creamy and moussy, stable head, warm and deep pure orange-amber robe, as good as clear. Aroma of wet toast, roasted peanuts, clear iron (confirmed by the ‘hand test’), dried thyme, tea, autumn leaves, dried orange peel, apricot kernels, fried tomato, hard caramel, candied peach, Graham crackers. Sweet, candied apricot in the onset, even a touch of candied cherry, quite sharply carbonated; rounded and bit ‘glueish’ mouthfeel. Caramelly and lightly peanutty malts with a lovely, refined toasty edge, but also something bubblegummy and then of course that metallic aspect; quite a lot of residual sweetness as well. Tea-like herbal hops in the end offer only mild ‘counterbitterness’, but admittedly match well with that softly toasty character of the malts; still, due to the bitterness underachieving, the finish feels a bit thin. Smooth, easygoing quencher with a pretty malt character, subsequently marred by the addition of iron for head stabilization (I suppose) and too much sweetness. I am a bit ‘in dubio’ here, this beer has good and less good qualities, so let’s give it the benefit of the doubt.
Tried
on 28 Nov 2022
at 10:59