Kraddel (15844) reviewed Kwetteraar from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Thnx to tim. Pours dark deep red, no real head. Smell is dry, sweet, sugary. Notes of cherry syrup. Taste is sugary, mediocer undertone. Plastic hidden features. Sweet. Cherry, but not nearly natural.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed De Schat van Belsele from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Boelens’ rendition of this threesome of Belgian blondes from Sint-Niklaas, intended to celebrate the 800 years of ’existence’ of the city and a first attempt of all three Sint-Niklaas breweries to work closer together (see Donum Ignis’ Koeruir and Paenhuys’ Blok for the other two). Tasted in the company of the brewer and later at home from a 33 cl bottle. Egg-white, ’membranously’ lacing, quite dense, medium sized head, stable though quickly showing gaps in the middle, over an initially cristal clear, warm golden blonde coloured beer with ’old gold’ hue, turning elegantly misty with sediment. Aroma of old wrinkled apples, pear, banana, green gooseberries, stewed rhubarb, camomile, dry hay, sweetbread, jute bags, moist white pepper, canned apricots, pineapple slices, old cake, sweetclover, some caramel, powder sugar, honeysuckle flowers, hint of rainwater and some faint but unmistakable DMS (cooked cabbage), alas. Fruity, quite crisp onset, banana ester dominating but mingled with sweetish hints of ripe pear, peach and pineapple and sourish hints of gooseberry and raw rhubarb, in a (for this style) adequately measured, minerally, fizzy carbonation environment; smooth and bit oily ’basic’ mouthfeel. Rounded cereally malt sweetish middle with a very light caramelly touch to it, residual sugars lingering but not overly so for this style, yet still retaining quite a lot of sweetness, aided by the persistent banana isoamylacetate. Ends dryish, with a good amount of floral, bit earthy hop bitterness, camomile-like and a tad grassy, while subtler minerally and fruity-estery hints linger, as well as some spicy phenols. Very stereotypical Belgian blonde, so conceptually I can make the same statement as for Donum Ignis’ version: I know this style of beer is still tremendously popular, but if Sint-Niklaas, in between Ghent and Antwerp, ever wants to put itself on the Belgian beer map with a vibrant beer scene built on a continuous collaboration of its three breweries, they really have to come up with more ’exciting’ and different beers than yet another generic Belgian blonde. This one, though showing a faint trace of DMS, is however technically close to correct and definitely to be preferred over Donum Ignis’ version, which suffers from too much coriander, even more DMS and even more sweetness.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Sombeeks Bier Schandpaal from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Ever since the ’Proef’brouwerij in Lochristi has been filled to the brim with Danish commissions, Boelens (not that far away from Lochristi) has jumped to the opportunity and profiled themselves as the new brewery-on-command, resulting in an indistinct mass of commissioned beers for all over Flanders. This one is for one or other cultural committee in Sombeke, a village near Waasmunster, in itself situated between Sint-Niklaas and Lokeren in the Waasland region. Bottle from Wijnegemse Drankenhal at close to one year of age, shared with Jan. Strong gusher - I could not prevent losing 1/4 of the bottle even with the most careful opening ’tactic’. Cobweb-lacing, off-white, moussy and stable head over an orange-tinged peach blonde beer, initially clear with a suspension of dead yeast ’spots’ throughout, clouded with sediment and even containing some dark protein flakes in the end. Aroma of old wrinkled apples, old - if not mouldy - bread, a very old dusty herbarium, white pepper, banana and even bubblegum, peach peel, glue, raw carrot. Estery, fruity onset, hints of peach, banana and a slight touch of pineapple, some sourishness underneath but nothing expressively lactic or otherwise bacterial, rather thinnish mouthfeel, medium carbonated, supple. Cereally malt body with a light caramelly edge, straightforward, carrying the esters towards an earthy, yeasty finish with a grassy, floral hop bitter touch and some lingering, bit ’dirty’ yeast bitterness. Boring as any of the hundreds of other ’standard’ Belgian blondes, and even at about one year of age, this clearly hasn’t kept well. Not that many off-flavours, actually, but the gushing in itself was off-putting enough. This beer deserves to be put on the pillory after which it was named - I think Boelens is taking on too many of these commissional beers lately, their technical abilities have doubtlessly improved in the past ten years, but they still have a lot of things to learn. No longer accepting generic Belgian blondes as easy commissioned beers could be one of those things.
77ships (14506) reviewed Kwetteraar from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 1 | Flavor - 2 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 2
Thank you tderoeck! 330 ml. bottle sampled @ LIBF 2017. Bottle states kriek beer / sour cherry beer. Ingredients kersen / sweet cherries. Sigh. Ruby red with no head. Nose is really god awful, smells like wet dog, dead insects & something rotting. Taste is bit better but still really bad, rotting, soapy rubbish, rotting sweet cherries, sugar,... Spoiled cherry syrup body. Really poor even by Boelens standards this is really awful.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Kwetteraar from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Imported from my RateBeer account as Kwetteraar (by Boelens):
Aroma: 5/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 2.9/5
5/VI/17 - 33cl bottle, shared @ train-tasting to LIBF (Leuven) - BB: 9/II/19 (2017-709) Thanks to Claudia for the bottle!
Clear deep rubye red beer, small creamy irregular off-white head, light pink, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: sweet start, bit sugary, cherries, sourish touch, fruity, little bitter. Aftertaste: sourish, citric, little hoppy still. Luckily not the cloying syrupy artificially flavoured monstrosity I feared it would've been. ;-)
Sebletitje (15877) reviewed Kwetteraar from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 4
Bouteille 33cl on train to LIBF, thanks Tderoeck. De couleur léger acajou, col est fin beige. Arôme au nez indiquant bien la cerise, le tout restant cependant sous couvert d’un léger malté et d’un fruité indiquant un clair sucré. Palais reste dans une approche fruitée avec un effet jus de cerise qui ajoute un profil trop doux et sucré tout au long de la dégustation, une petite touche d’amertume offre qcq soupçons de houblons nobles. Rien de nouveau ici, on reste dans du belge fruité, sucré à outrance.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Hubert from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle from De Moor near Beveren. Seemingly a Belgian blonde honouring the tradition of pigeon keeping, which I quite fondly remember from my childhood, but is now dying a very slow death. Extremely aggressive gusher: even when removing the crown cap millimeter by millimeter, there was no way to avoid losing 1/3 of the bottle to the sink - a dreadful experience so we’re off to a bad start here. Medium thick, off-white head quickly settling into a steady moussy rim and thin patches of ’foam’ in the middle, residing over an immediately misty, straw blonde beer with khaki greenish tinge and a couple of darker protein bits near the bottom. Weird and clearly infected, yet in all not too unattractive aroma of fermenting pears, hand soap, feta, even old Parmigiano, fresh white mushrooms, green olive, rhubarb pie, cooked sweet potato, banana, cooked pasta going a bit spoiled, pineapple, honey, apple sauce without the sugar, spritzy minerals, ripe yellow plum, artisanal yoghurt, unripe gooseberry, sourdough, camomile, hint of glue. Very spritzy onset, clearly overcarbonated even for a plain ’Belgian blonde’, minerally, sweetish pineapple and banana core instantly threatened by a surrounding, green gooseberry-like sourishness enhanced by both the overcarbonation and the infection; something ’dirty’ linked to bacterial infection moves along but remains more or less at bay if seen from the general picture. The overcarbonation numbs an otherwise smooth, if not slick, medium light mouthfeel and a dosis of cereally but also ’white’ bready malt sweetness does admittedly provide a firm and sufficiently ’active’ backbone against this array of wild esters and other undesirable infection effects. The infection keeps on effectuating a needlessly souring factor till the very end, where some floral, deeply ’earthy’ hop bitterness checks in - though not powerfully enough to stop this ongoing stream of bready malt sweetness heavily topped by esters and residual sugars. Adding the sediment expectedly only adds a starchy, almost papery feeling at the back - in the end - and accentuates the souring effects established by the bacteria. Ends juicy with this doubtlessly unintended sourish ’twang’ but it’s the sweet maltiness that remains firmly in place; hops play only a supporting role here. I can more or less drink this, all things considered, but this beer is clearly ’ill’ and needs treatment urgently; if it comes across as a bready, starchy, almost ’grapy’ sour ale, then I am absolutely certain that it was not intended as such. Infected for sure and probably too much yeast and / or sugar went in here so a kind of simple ’sour ale’ nolens volens because there is no doubt in my mind that this was supposed to be a simple Belgo-blonde; I sincerely hope the pigeon-loving commissioners got what they asked for. Drinkable by means of ’happy accident’, but extremely cliché if it weren’t infected - this must be among the very scarce times I’m actually understanding about an infection in a top-fermented beer, implying I’m giving this weirdo a better rating than I probably would have if I had consumed it young and ’pure’. Still: it’s your lucky day young Hubert, enjoy it.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed LAfrique cest Chic from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Boelens LAfrique cest Chic (by Boelens):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 5/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 10/20, MyTotalScore: 2.9/5
26/V/17 - 33cl bottle @ Cybus Beer & BBQ - BB: 17/VI/18 (2017-646) Thanks to Cybu for sharing the bottle!
Clear orange beer, small creamy white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: not much, sweetish, bit fruity, sugary impression. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sweet in the start, some honey, fruity, very yeasty, sugary, floral touch. Aftertaste: lots of sugary, yeast, some ripe banana.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed 2000 from Boelens 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Boelens 2000 (by Boelens):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 11/20, MyTotalScore: 3/5
26/V/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk) @ pre-BBQ tasting, home - BB: 17/XI/18 (2017-636)
Note: darn backlog! I could've been first! :p
Clear amber orange beer, creamy yellowish head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: quite some banana, sweet, metallic, yeast, caramel. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: malty, very yeasty, bit sourish, metallic, bitter touch. Aftertaste: sourish (infected?), lemony, bitter, more metallic, malty touch, banana, hoppy finish with some apple skin, slightly fruity.
