Bottle shared. Cloudy golden orange with a white head. Aroma of artificial lemon, light citrus, yeast and light malt. Flavour is moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle. Beautiful red/brown colour, creamy beige foam, stays until the last drop. Nose of red fruit, caramel and toast. Tart notes, some infection? Strange beer.

Bottle straight from the brewery, thanks Maxime! Very thick, frothy, dense, beaten egg white-like, thickly cobweb-lacing head over a clear, warm ’old gold’ coloured beer with a vast amount of fierce sparkling, hundreds of lively bells rising up through the beer in whole whirls of fizz - and this beautiful visual effect goes on and on. More misty with deposit, obviously. Aroma of banana, sweetbread, peach, honey, freshly cut sorrel, grass, apple cake, caramel, wet paper, pear, rhubarb, old cream cheese, cooked white cabbage but strangely not in a DMS kind of way, some stale urine and even yoghurt. Fruity onset, lots of banana, peach, pineapple and gooseberry as can be expected from a classic Belgian tripel, more sweet than sour with, unsurprisingly, a fair amount of fizzy carbonation; rounded, smooth, lightly creamy body, honeyish and caramelly malt sweetness with residual white candi sugar sweetness becoming a bit tiring in the end. Finish adds some grassy, lightly spicy hops but insufficiently bittering to counter the ongoing sweetness (even the deScription of ’late’ hop bitterness given by the brewery does not correspond with reality), as well as a splash of warming, yet non-astringent, wodka-like alcohol. The famous banana ester (isoamylacetate) is very strong in this one, and so is acetaldehyde (green apple), but these aromas are what you can expect in an ordinary Belgian tripel; what bothered me more, are the stale, almost ’old milk’-like off-flavours, yet I must admit they do not ruin the aroma entirely and they do add a kind of unexpected ’funkiness’ to the whole. Let’s say this is a happy accident: some off-flavours, but by sheer coincidence they fit in quite well and otherwise this beer is technically well executed; the inches-thick head and fierce sparkling will appeal to the average Belgian ale consumer as well. Frankly, and seen my previous experiences with this brewery, I expected a lot less from this: this is, all things considered, a very stereotypical and sweet, but rather enjoyable tripel, though still not free of errors.

Bottle from the brewery. Notably thick, frothy and dense, tightly lacing, egg-white, regularly shaped head over an initially clear, warm ’old gold’ coloured beer, hazy and deeper ’orangey’ with deposit. Aroma of banana and bubblegum isoamylacetate (strongly so), unfortunate DMS (stinky cooked cauliflower - and also - very - strongly so) and even some DMTS (burnt rubber), cooked rhubarb, peach, honey, freshly cut celery, dried grass, red apple, white bread dough, powder sugar, field flowers, young cheese, roses, straw, pineapple, gooseberry. Sweet onset of banana ester, peach, pineapple and yellow raisin, somewhat fizzy carbo, underlying ’deep’ gooseberry sourishness but sweetness dominates with even impressions of white candi sugar, honeyish malt sweetness ensuing with a very light caramelly touch, esters continuing and returning retronasally along with a remainder of the DMS; minerally, lightly and basically sourish aspects show up in the end along with a hint of grassy, insufficiently drying but still ’overdue’ and only briefly bittering hops and even some badly hidden, young ’jenever’-like white alcohol adding an extra, notably unpleasant bitterness, yet avoiding astringency (and frankly: why am I even evaluating the alcohol factor in a 6.5% beer?). I can take the banana ester in the ordinary Belgian blonde style, because, you know, it is hard to expect much else; but I sincerely hate DMS (and have grown quite sensitive to it), and that is what ruined this for me. Each time I took a sip, this deep sulphuric smell of overcooked cauliflower was there. Had it not been there, this would not have been a lot better, as it adds literally nothing to the worn-out, overly sweet, too ’easy’ Belgian blonde theme. Must be among the most redundant beers I ever had - and, with the off-flavours mentioned above, underachieving even for this way too ubiquitous substyle of Belgian ale. That being said, I guess this offended me a bit less than most of Kroontje’s other brews.

Bottle from the brewer, thanks Maxime. Medium thick, pale yellowish beige head retaining on the edges but eventually dissolving in the middle, lightly hazy dark burgundy robe with ruby hue. Aroma of strong FFF (manure), overripe peach, rotting pear, passion fruit, coriander seed, lots of caramel, damp forest floor, honey, toasted chestnuts, red cabbage, moist earth, candied cherry, ruby port. Candied sweet onset, candied cherries and dates, brown sugar, banana, tilted too much to the sweet side (even a bit cloying) even though there is a certain elderberry sourishness beneath, softish carbo, thick and sticky honeyish and caramelly malt sweetness with the candied brown sugar sweetness persisting; finishes better than it started, still too sweet and a bit metallic in the end, but aided by some soft and gentle herbal hops as well as warming, liqueurish alcohol which manages not to become too wry. Retronasally, I get ethereal spices again (coriander, star aniseed?) but this is to be expected from a stereotypical Belgian winterbier - because that is precisely what this is: a Scotch-based, overly sweet, cloying, ’overspiced’ strong Belgian brown ale. The ’manure’ factor makes this less pleasant than it could have been, but when I heard about this brewer’s views concerning beer production, that doesn’t come as a surprise. Redundant beer from a redundant brewery - and how on Earth is this a RIS instead of e.g. a quad??

Bottle at craig’s. Pours clear golden, nose is floral, citrus, light sourness, taste is similar, bit funky. --- Beer merged from original tick of Bierminnerke on 11 Jan 2016 at 07:46 - Score: 6. Original review text: Bottle at craig’s. Pours clear golden, nose is floral, citrus, light sourness, taste is similar, bit funky.

Bottle at Craigs. Pours hazy pale gold with a thin white head. Aromas of sweaty orange, faint yeast. Taste is light sweet, light astringent finish.

bottle at home ... golden amber ... nice white head ... soft funky bready funk nose ... soft dry funk fruit ... ligth fruit .. odd herbal fruit ... light violots ... quite earth .. little sake esk .. and something ... wierd frutit maybe .. cant place

Pours dark brown. Small head fadest instantly. Smell is sharp, grainy, even a mild sourness from which I am expecting infection on this one. Taste is very burnt, and very sharp. Is it sourness, or is it just the intense burnt aspect ( overly burnt here) together with the rather thin mouthfeel that make it very alike sourness somehow ? bit dry as well. Some funky flavors which I wouldn’t expect in a stout. Yeah, this is probably infected. But in a subtile way though. Note -the text here on RB speaks about lactic acid being in there by plan. Not sure if this is an infected beer that would be named ’slightly sour’ just to save them the pain of having complains and/or committing flaws, or a beer sour on actual purpose, in which case I think would be a bad one, since the sourness should either be intenser, or just not there. Leaves us with the unstable foam that dissapears completely within seconds, often pointing towards the infected scenario.

Pours clear blonde, ok white head. Smell is sweet, malty aromatic, with a peachy note that is pretty clear, yet not overwhelming, still quite hidden, in a way. Taste is bitter, some grainy background. Not really hoppy nor yeasty, so i’m not sure where the bitterness is coming from. Easy drinkable, with a good MF , perhaps a bit too high carbo. The peachy aspect is there ( towards the aftertaste ) but very hidden. Ok beer