Sloefmans (15389) reviewed Apropos Blond IPA from De Graal 1 year ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Very good, whipped eggwhite-like head, lacey, over fully veiled orange beer. End of bottle solid sediment. Very fresh yeasty nose, as actively fermenting beer, green malts and white candi sugar. Sweetish malts, herbal, wild hops. Faint orangepeel, spicy. Bit slick, even sticky; good carbonation; at least medium bodied. Far from bad actually, just very, very young. Sampled at the pub
Scopey (25115) reviewed Tripel from De Graal 1 year ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle from Wine Raks, St Swithin Street. It pours clear yellowy blonde with a rugged white head. The aroma is soft, white bread, biscuit, quite mellow, touch of green banana, banana split, nougat and melon. The taste is crisp, dry, snappy, pleasing grassy bitterness, straw, touch of green banana, floral accents, pear skin, melon, slightly phenolic, peppery spice and a nip of booze with a drying finish. Medium body and moderate, fluffy carbonation. Shame about that slightly phenolic element, but it's decent overall.
Franclh (7477) reviewed JAS 7 Dubbel from De Graal 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
Fles 33cl thuis gedeeld. Rood fruit, wat caramel, pruim, rozijn, wat kers, niet te zoet, wat kandij. (30-12-2023).
beerhunter111 (50581) reviewed Strontketske Winter 2022/23 from De Graal 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Kerstbier Festival. Slightly hazy orange brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of dried dark fruits, dark malt. Taste of dark caramelized malt, plums, raisins, slightly boozy.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Pius X Zomer from De Graal 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Newish summer beer in this series of very local beers, developed by a hobby brewer in the Muide quarter of Ghent and especially popular in that quarter (as well as adjacent Meulestede). At the Meulestede CC, where last Saturday the twentieth birthday of this brand was celebrated with a party. Egg-white, thick and frothy, membrane-lacing, stable head on a misty straw blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of raw green cereals, corn, iron (head stabilizer no doubt), old potatoes, DMS (overcooked cauliflower), cooked pear, stale industrial lager, grass. Sweetish onset, vague notes of apple peel and green banana, but with a sourish undertone too I cannot quite identify (onsetting infection perhaps?); minerally carbonation, sweetish pale maltiness but very cereally and a bit ‘empty’, while that DMS and hints of old potatoes and stale white bread come up. A grassy hop element provides a bit of end bitterness and phenols add odd spicy background notes, but that stale pale lager effect remains dominant. More hops could have saved the day here, perhaps, but the whole beer feels frankly unbalanced and ‘patched’ with iron to mask errors. Technically a bit flawed, unfortunately, and quite a disappointment after the more interesting autumn beer in this series. Oh, as for the IPA branding: I classified it as one here out of respect for the brewer’s intent, but that is where the IPA part stops for me…
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Pius X Herfst from De Graal 2 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
The autumn one in a series of seasonal beers in the Pius X range, developed by a hobby brewer in the Muide quarter of Ghent (an old dock workers and labourers neighbourhood) operating in the kettles of his friend Wim Saeyens at De Graal; at a party in the local cultural centre celebrating the twenty years of existence of this very local brand. Medium thick, pale off-white, stable, moussy head on a clear copper red beer with amber-brown glow. Aroma of hard caramel, iron shavings (head stabilizer from a mile out), coriander seed, dried fig, stewed apple, wet autumn leaves, pear, damp earth, moist brown sugar. Sweet onset but not too cloying, estery notes of pear, fig and red apple, fizzily carbonated; slick but relatively ‘full’ mouthfeel, caramelly and brown-bready malts with some residual sugars as well as a very slight toasty edge, but also that added iron returning. Rather earthy finish with notes of damp tree leaves, tea and nutmeg as well as clear coriander spiciness; light earthy hop bitterness, residual sugars and lingering yeast effects dominate the finish. Decent enough for the local purposes it serves – so local, in fact, that I was actually surprised to find out that not only does this brand still exist after all those years, it is even thriving. Too bad the winter version was out of stock – but more interestingly perhaps, the brewer told me that he is working on a bourbon barrel aged version to up the ante, so I will be on the lookout for that one…