Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 8

Bottle shared at home. Vintage 2013. Past its sell by date. Clear rusty red/brown with thin white head. Sweet toasty caramel malts, grapeskin, light sour fruity, rusty brier, sickly raisans, chestnuts, nutty peels and dryness. Moderate sweet, quite dry and mild bitter. Under medium body and soft carbonation. Fruity but very dry and unoutspoken. Weird one.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 6

Bottle shared thanks to sjogro. Slight hazy pinkish brown with barely any head. Oak, light roosevicee, rosebuds, dry malts, grass, light funk, poop, red berries. Really dry, no sweetness and light sour and bitter. It’s quite weird, it has aroma but barely any taste. Like artificially flavored water. Over light bodied with no carbonation. It has some decent stuff going on in the aroma, but overall I really don’t like this, it’s weird and hard to get down.

Clear rusty red/brown with thin white head. Sweet toasty caramel malts, grapeskin, light sour fruity, rusty brier, sickly raisans, chestnuts, nutty peels and dryness. Moderate sweet, quite dry and mild bitter. Under medium body and soft carbonation. Fruit

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

'Special edition' of this classic Bruges beer, the regular Witte Zwaan with added camomile and acacia honey. Steinie bottle from De Hopduvel in Ghent. Opens with some 'bubbling' but no gusher; loudly crackling head initially, thick but swiftly thinning to a medium-sized, egg-white, barely lacing, moussy ring with a big, flat 'island' in the middle, on top of an initially lightly hazy, pure 'old' golden blonde beer with visible fizz. Aroma of green apple acetaldehyde, ripe banana and a polite whiff of bubblegum, cold mashed potatoes, Chinese chrysanthemum or marigold tea doubtlessly representing the camomile, stewed turnip, pear, honey indeed but in a very generic and unsuspecting way (in other words: not much more so than the regular version), old white bread, apricot, grass, field flower notes but not necessarily camomile, slight hint of DMS (overcooked white cabbage). Fruity, crisp onset, fiercely fizzing and numbing a bit in terms of carbonation, accentuating a sourish green apple- and raw pineapple-like note which surrounds basic, simple Belgian banana ester; supple, rounded mouthfeel, needlessly made harsher than it should have been by the strong carbonation. Sweetish cereally and 'white' bready, bit soapy (wheat!), rather clean, very slightly metallic malt body with ongoing green apple and banana notes, spicy phenols as well, but hardly honeyish in retronasal aroma; the camomile, in a dried form, does come through as a sourish, 'pale green', herbal, marigold tea-like way that sticks a bit to the middle of the tongue, but adds little 'vividness'. Ends rather mundane, ongoing Belgian esteriness in a cleanish kind of way, sweet maltiness and floral hop bitterishness, the latter accentuated a bit by the dried camomile tea effect, a tad rooty but refraining from becoming all too 'dirty'. The DMS, however subtle, remains and keeps bothering me a bit, as well as the overall banana ester sweetness. The basic beer is not a high-flyer to begin with but adding camomile and honey could have been a good idea if the people who made this, had any idea of what the effects of these ingredients can be; honey is supposed to create a delicate, nectar-like aroma while camomile can support the floral qualities of the hops. In this case, the camomile is quite blunt and tea-like while the delicate properties the honey could have added, remain absent; I guess the honey was a pasteurized one to begin with and was probably added to the boil, thereby failing to achieve its own purpose. Rather uninspired and somewhat amateurish, drinkable but certainly not worth hunting for in spite of the cheap 'special edition' tag.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Brugs Bierinstituut’s attempt at black IPA and the follow-up to their better known Witte Zwaan, steinie bottle from De Hopduvel in Ghent. Thick and densely creamy, intricately cobweb-lacing, yellowish beige, stable head over a black beer, revealing its hazy wine red robe only in the end. Aroma of toffee and lots of caramel candy, stewed plums, dried fig, liquorice, orange peel, walnut, tea, coffee grounds, stewing red cabbage, moist clay, banana, white pepper. Sweetish onset with sourish edge, notes of dried plum, raisin and banana with even a light bubblegum touch, softish carb, full and slick body. Very caramelly, bit resinous maltiness with nutty edges, sweetish and bitterish in the end with the sweetness turning a bit – strangely – aspartame-like, while esters linger and a liquorice-like aspect gains considerable strength. The toasty bitterish aspect of the dark malts remains, in all, a tad dull and underexposed, especially since the hoppiness one normally expects to unfold in a BIPA fails to achieve greatness – remaining limited to a rooty, herbal, earthy bitterness which totally lacks the ‘pineyness’ and other New World aromatics, or even the bitterness associated with the style. In fact that liquorice flavour persists in a much stronger way than the hoppiness. Black version of (very) “Belgian IPA” at most, not an unpleasant or unenjoyable beer by any means, just not delivering what it promises, which is still a bit of a shame since I love BIPAs.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

28 May 2018. At Cambrinus. Shared with Anke.
Pours hazy dark amber to brown with a lasting, small, frothy, tan head; little lacing. Intense aroma of almond, caramel, cookie dough, herbs, tea leaves, cinnamon & speculaas, peach, pear syrup. It tastes medium to heavy malty sweet, caramel & dough, and light to medium herbal bitter, bit spicy. Dry, herbal hoppy finish, lingering dough & cookie, very slightly metallic, a dash of warming brandy alcohol. Medium to full body, creamy texture, fizzy carbonation. Quite my style, nice for dessert.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Geprobeerd met LiekevdV. Het is een troebel geel bier met een wit schuim. Het heeft een moutige geur gistachtige geur. De smaak is moutig, kruidig en wat zoet.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Aroma has some light vanilla and lots of sweet and sour red fruit. The flavour is slightly balanced towards sweet and that is a good thing. The oak adds plenty of dryness too. Nice texture. Quite smooth and full bodied.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Cloudy blond appearance with lasting head. Aroma and flavour are dominated by the fenugreek which is woody and savoury.