Bottle from Hopduvel. Dark brown, beige foam. Sweet nose of caramel, unripe fruit. Light bitterness. Dull brown beer.

At Kerstbierfestival 2016. Thnx for sharing ! Pours clear, darkamber to brown. Small white head; Smell is sharp, bit malty. Some spices. Taste is sharp, spiced. Bit sweet. OK .

33 cl bottle. Pours sweet and toaasted malty. Sweet, caramelish. Sweet malty. Slight herbal. Dry and bitter.

Bottle sampled at Essen Christmas Beer Festival ’16. Hazy brown with a cream head. Aroma of malt, caramel, nutty notes and overripe dark fruits. Flavour is above moderate sweet and moderate bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

[Thank you for sharing!][330 ml. bottle sampled @ O.B.E.R. Kerstbierfestival 2016] Dark brown amber, tanned head. Nos is very boozy, sugar, cough syrup, alcoholic licorice. Taste is sweet, overly sweet, thin cough syrup, herbal, plastic, sugar, cereal, overly medicinal & sweet. Thin, herbal boozy medicinal body. Expected more, not a fan.

33 cl bottle. Pours clear and golden deep amber with a small tan head. Aroma is roasted malty and breadish, slight spiced. Sweet, toasted and caramelish malty. Bitter and roasted malty. Caramelish and slight minerals finish.

Donkerbruin bier met weinig schuim. Smaak is krachtig en licht zoet met iets van karamel, bittere chocolade en bessen. Smaak blijft mooi lang hangen.

New winter ale from this brewery, with frothy, initially quite thick, very moussy and dense, pale greyish beige head leaving some lacing here and there; hazy deep brown-bronze colour with burgundy hue, dark but translucent. Aroma of old chocolates, toffee, hint coffee grounds, candied fig, lots of clove-like phenols, sour berries (did they use those buckthorn berries here again?), dried banana, forest floor with dried tree leaves or even dried mushrooms, some freshly fermented farmland underneath, brown rum, orange peel, caramelized brown sugar, dry cookies soaked in sugared tea, ginger, coriander seed (no surprise), slight iron, toasted bread, cooked salsify. Fig, some banana and apricot sweetness in the onset surrounded by elderberry - or indeed perhaps buckthorn berry - sourishness for balance, medium carbo, ’full’ but slick and soft mouthfeel, actually feeling a little bit on the thin side for a beer carrying 9% alcohol. Bready, slightly nutty malt sweetness in the middle with residual brown sugar sweetness on top but not cloying and countered by that berry-like sourishness silently continuing till the finish; soapy coriander quite strongly coats the back of the mouth but the end phase also harbors a toasted, almost coffeeish malt bitterness (Scotch-like), along with an earthy yeastiness (especially in the end), a pleasantly spicy hop bitter accent and an ’afterglow’ of warming, rum-like alcohol. In all: a little bit ’dirty’, overcoriandered and a tad too phenolic, very clearly a traditionally conceived, 20th-century style Belgian Christmas ale, which is historically based on Scotch ale - hence the toasted bitter aspect in the malt bill. Conceptually, this is as cliché as it gets, neatly fitting into the long tradition of Gordon X-Mas, Corsendonck Christmas Ale, N’Ice Chouffe, Boelens Kerstbier, Delirium Noël, La Binchoise Spéciale Noël, Pater Lieven Kerstpater, and so on, and so forth. But admittedly it feels kind of ’natural’ compared with the more industrial embodiments of this old ’Belgo-Scotch’ style and it is technically correct, so I did enjoy it, all things considered.