Deep amber colour, white foam. Nose of dried fruit, caramel, spices, peat. Taste is medium sweet, some spices and a lovely peaty whisky finish. Well balanced, maybe a bit too much carbonation.

17/VII/20 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ home, BB: 20/III/23 (2020-651)

Clear yellowish beer, small creamy off-white head, unstable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: nice, some banana, bit malty, marzipan, fruity, nice! MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice bitterness, spicy, floral, pretty fruity, quite some alcohol. Aftertaste: bit herbal, grassy, chemical touch, some phenols, little sweet in the finish.

Pirlot and Het Nest, both in the Antwerp Kempen region, have recently joined forces on an official level, and this new beer is presented as the starting point of their formal collaboration. The recipe draws from both breweries' flagship tripels, respectively Kempisch Vuur and Schuppenboer, but for all I know, it could just as well be a simple blend of both beers too... Medium thick, off-white, small-bubbled, mousy head, slowly showing gaps here and there but generally stable, on a pure, warm golden blonde beer, initially clear with fierce whirls of sparkling feeding the head, turning misty and more orangey peach blonde with sediment. Aroma of ripe banana, coriander seed, white bread, dried orange peel, unripe pineapple, bubblegum, powder sugar, pan-fried apple slices, honey, hints of lavender, candyfloss, hand soap, gin, camomile, sweetcorn. Sweet onset, strong banana ester, bubblegummy, with additional hints of pineapple, pear and unripe peach, sourish edge from fizzy carbonation adding minerally effects; smooth, slick body. Lingering honeyish residual sweetness over a cereally maltiness with a sweetcorn-like slickness to it (corn actually having been used here), further enhanced by the oats; clear wheat soapiness as well, but in a somewhat restrained manner. Dull coriander seed spicing in the finish, accentuating the soapy aspect brought in by the wheat, next to a hint of dried orange peel, but not too strongly so; floral hoppiness takes over in the end, with a medium long, leafy, grassy bitterness and a retronasal field-flowery touch. Some warming, wodka-like alcohol in the end, but in a 'clean' and nowhere too obnoxious way. I assume both these established Flemish breweries made their decision to fully cooperate for the purpose of boosting sales, and in that line of commercial thought, it seems to make sense to start out with a tripel, still the first beer style the average Belgian 'specialty' beer drinker associates with smaller breweries. For the more seasoned beer lover, though, this choice makes very little impression - an underwhelming and negligible start. Both Pirlot and Het Nest have made perfectly fine craft beers in their years of experience, so why not open with a blast and forge some or other highly profiled, complex craft beer, in order to draw attention from the beer world? This Ring of Fire seems rather lazy and uninspired, even if it is admittedly a completely correct and technically flawless tripel. And it burns, burns, burns...

Dark golden and clear. Aroma and flavour have a lot of residual yeast. Some straw, dust and sweet pale malt.

Fles thuis geprobeerd met LiekevdV. Het is een troebel goudgeel bier met een wild wit schuim. Het heeft een wat bloemige geur. De smaak is zoetig, bloemig en licht bitter.

75cl bottle. A clear reddish brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of dark red fruits, raisins, caramel. Taste of sour red berries, caramel, cherry.

Big bottle. Cloudy brown low head. Tart oude bruin nose. Light dry wooden base, sparkly, foamy nice funk, banana, wood, light bubblegum. Definitely not an stout, but a nice clean bruin.

Bottle. Rather clear brown color with beige head. Aroma is red apples, cherry, mild chocolate. Taste is red apples, mild funk, cherries. Tastes like a clean Oud Bruin, but where's the stout?