33cl bottle. A clear reddish brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of dark reddish malt, caramel, raisins. Taste of raisins. plums, dark red malt, caramel, riped fruits.

33cl bottle. A clear deep golden beer with a off white head. Aroma of moderate sweet and strong pale malt, some fruits and yeast. Taste of sweet grainy malt, cereals, honey, some yeast.

Bottle from Benzai, thanks! Amber color. Caramel, coughing syrup and pear drups in the aroma. Sweey, almost sygary, caramelly flavor with pear drups. Disappointing.

Another NoordSter beer made at Anders, apparently in existence for quite some years now, brewed with four malts (label fails to mention which ones) and five hop varieties (dito - sigh). Steinie bottle from Willems. Opens with a hissing sound, but no gushing. Creamy off-white, mousy, medium thick, non-lacing but altogether stable head, initially near-clear, pale orange-hued peach blonde beer, more misty and a tad deeper orange with sediment. Aroma of very strong isoamylacetate (banana-flavored bubblegum), 'crème anglaise' or meringue, ripe pear, sweetbread, textile dust and polyester floormat, bread crust, very old paper, cooked turnip, dusty old coriander seed and a lot of it, much subtler notes of brown soap (probably just the coriander again), flour, young 'jenever', baking soda, dried out orange peel. Fruity onset, very 'Belgian' as expected with a ton of ripe banana and hints of peach, pineapple and a dash of overripe pear, generally very sweet with a lot of lingering, honeyish 'white candi syrup' sweetness hovering over a sharply carbonated and very minerally, sweetbready and cereally body; the later stage adds a whole lot of unpleasantly dusty, albeit not overly soapy coriander combined with a late and fairly gentle floral hoppiness providing bitterness that remains too mild and incapable of balancing out the residual sweetness. Straw- and old paper-like aspect as well, along with a glow of warming, young 'jenever'-ish alcohol that should not at all be this noticeable in a 7% ABV beer. Ends sweet, bubblegummy and overcoriandered. I'm not sure what the aim was here, never met these NoordSter guys in person, but what I got here, is a generic Belgian style blonde aiming at a large and undereducated audience - which I probably stopped belonging to at the turn of the century. Technically okay, but way too sweet, too bubblegummy and too soapy to be enjoyable to the more discerning palate, though within a commercial Belgian context, I can see this work on a very local level. Even within the vast world of Belgian 6- and 7-ish ABV, sweet and ridiculously accessible blondes, this is completely forgettable from a broader perspective, that much is clear. Where are those four malts and five hops?? Well-brewed, though, as said, the only thing keeping this at around 3/5 for me.

Dubbel in the Noordster series of hobby brews commercialized through Anders, steinie bottle from Willems in Grobbendonk. Fairly thick, regularly shaped, ecru-coloured, non-lacing but very stable head over an initially almost clear, deep ruddy bronze beer with vermillion tinge and minute dots of dead yeast throughout, misty with sediment. Aroma of old brownies, dry cookies, dried prunes, fried banana slices, sugared tea, coriander seed, hard caramel candy, Ersatz chocolate and 'koetjesreep', wet dog, straw, 'rusty' oxidation as in rusty iron, brown sugar, fried chicken, cloves, dry tree leaves. Sweetish onset, old dried figs and raisins, dried banana, apple peel, sourish undertone enhanced by lively carbonation but acceptable for a dubbel albeit a tad too minerally; slick, bit resinous body, very caramelly, bit metallic maltiness with a nutty side as well as a very light toasty edge, but hardly bittering. Esters as well as spicy phenols accompany this malt sweet profile to a more earthy finish, adding herbal and earthy hop bitterness alongside rusty oxidation retronasally and a dash of old dusty coriander seed spiciness. Probably had this too old, as oxidation is already beginning to rear its - in this case - ugly head; very likely not the most inspired dubbel to begin with when t was young, but I admittedly had worse in this particular, ur-Belgian segment. Another one to throw upon the immense and still growing heap of stale Belgian clichés, that is for sure.

Bottle @ tasting with Roelzie1986, TomHendriksen and Inoven. Hazy reddish color, average sized off-white head. Smell and taste malts, sweetish a bit, with a touch of tart, tannins, sweet-sour, light wood and red wine notes. Average body, a bit firm carbonation. Ok but could go tart quite soon.

Fles gedeeld door Benzai. Amberkleurig bier met matig schuim. Aroma is zoetzuur. Smaak is zurig met een hint van de wijn. Nasmaak is iets zuur.

Fles gedeeld door Benzai, geprobeerd met Inoven en Roelzie1986. Het is fles 488 van 878. Het bier heeft een troebel bruinige kleur met een volle schuimkraag. Het heeft een fruitig aroma, licht zuur. De smaak is zacht, licht zurig en wat houtig met een licht bittere afdronk.

Vergadering BierKultuur #BYOB