Summer beer ironically playing with the Christmas beer theme, made for De Drie Vaten at Boelens in honour of the O.B.E.R. Zythos club (no coincidence, since it is O.B.E.R. which organises the yearly Kerstbierfestival). Intended as a rye IPA but I have great doubts about that. Fairly strong gushing upon opening, foam kept creeping up from the bottle for a while. Consequently rocky, bath mousse-like, egg-white head with thick, paperish lacing, over a deep peachy golden blonde coloured beer, misty with lively fizz and a suspension of minute dead yeast bits floating around. Unusual, but not necessarily unpleasant aroma: rye bread dough indeed, fresh cucumber, sorrel, cut thistles, unripe gooseberries, lime, Indonesian prawn crackers, green apple, sourdough, stale sweat, wet cardboard, flowers; there is something earthy which could be attributed to the Mosaic, but the ’grapefruitness’ of Cascade is clearly underachieving - a pink grapefruit odour is certainly there, but conflicts too much with an overload of odd yeast products in order to really shine. Sourish onset, I’m beginning to suspect a mild infection at work, lime, unripe redcurrant, starfruit, with very limited sweetness; spritzy carbo as expected, minerally and adding further ’sourishness’, thereby making the overall flavour a bit harsh. Bready malt sweetness underneath, buried under phenolic yeast byproducts and paired with a basic rye spiciness. Finish is aromatically hoppy but only lightly bittering; citrus peel quite strongly appears retronasally, white pepper, field flowers and deep earthy bitterness too, accompanying an otherwise ’undisturbed’ juicy breadiness and spicy yeastiness to slip down the throat. This is a weird concoction indeed: flawed from a technical point of view, that much is clear, but the odd fishy and sourish odours do have a certain appeal to me, coincidentally, I assume. In any case: Drie Vaten still has a long way to go in brewing IPA-like beers, I suggest they taste a few dozen established Anglo-Saxon examples first before releasing something like this.

Bottled@Cambrinus, Bruges. Hazy orange colour with a mediumsized foamy head. Aroma is floral, some berries, fruits and mild spices, yeast and some alcohol as well. Flavour is fruity, some alcoholic notes, mild yeast as well as some apple skins and mild toffeeish notes.

Commissioned beer for a bee-keeper in Wilrijk near Antwerp, probably the same beer as Boelens’ own Bieken, but since this claims to be made with honey from the bee-keeper (Micha De Herdt) who commissions the beer, I hesitate to call this a true alias of Bieken, though the recipe is doubtlessly more or less identical. It is, however, perhaps an alias of Antwerps Honingbier, which was its immediate predecessor, commissioned by the same bee-keeper, who claims the recipe has been altered a little bit; I have no idea what has been changed exactly. Thick and frothy, lacing, snow white head collapsing quickly but retaining well, over a pretty orange blonde, clear beer with lively sparkling, turning misty with deposit. Pleasant, estery aroma indeed reveals a certain tangy sweetness of artisanal honey, next to impressions of biscuit, peach, white pepper, (soft) orange, white bread, fresh weeds, bubblegum and Cape gooseberry; a very faint hint of H2S (sewer water) is there too, but very weak, and will not bother anyone if the beer is served chilled. Estery, sweet onset, very fruity with suggestions of orange, banana, redcurrant and unripe pineapple, spritzy carbo but not too overcarbonated, smooth and soft mouthfeel; honeyish and lightly biscuity malt sweetness blends perfectly with the actual honey sweetness, which does not become too cloying. Instead, the finish becomes more and more dryish, though a trace of residual honey sweetness remains present; it is countered by a ’noble’, leafy, slightly grassy hop bitterishness, though. After swallowing, the balance remains to the sweet side, but not overly so. In all, a typical Belgian honey ale, or rather a tripel with added honey like Bieken, well-made and tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Commissioned by an Antwerp student’s club, brewed at Boelens. Clear, lightly orangey ’old gold’ coloured beer under a stable, regular, moussy, off-white head. Aroma of banana, apricot, bitter honey, grass, old cake with something unpleasantly sweaty disturbing the whole. Crisp fruity onset, peach, red apple with a lemon zest accent, sweet honeyish malt base, smooth body, grassy hop bitterishness in the finish but the malt sweetness persists. Technically more or less okay, but not very exciting, aren’t there already enough stereotypical tripels as it is?

Imported from my RateBeer account as Boelens Kerstbier (by Boelens):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.2/5

3/VII/15 - 33cl bottle as "Santa Bee" from De Hopduvel (Gent) @ Filip's place - BB: 15/XI/15 (2015-833)

Clear amber beer, creamy irregular beige head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: sweet, honey, sugary, bit soapy, floral, citronella. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sourish, spicy, citrus, floral, hoppy, bit herbal. Aftertaste: soft bitterness, lots of citronella, some caramel, hoppy, bit grassy, soapy touch. Weird, with all the citronella. I'm curious where that came from...

33 cl bottle @ Cambrinus, Bruges. Rated 24.06.2015. Aroma has peaches, mild hoppy tones and fruit candy. Also some grain and hay. Flavour has peaches, tart grapefruity notes and some fruit candy. Rather foamy palate. Feels like a Belgian blonde - not like a 8.5% tripel, hides it well. Too sweet.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy orange with medium off white head that lasts. The aroma is caramel. yeast, sugar. Medium mouth, bready malt, caramel. light spice, dry finish, decent.

Ambar. Dos dedos de espuma muy efervescente, que no dura demasiado. Aroma dulce, en el que claramente se percibe la miel que lleva. En boca muy equilibrada, manteniendo el tono dulce pero evolucionando con un amargor claro, muy marcado y cada vez más seco, dejando además un calorcito final muestra del alto contenido alcohólico, bien disimulado hasta ese momento por la rica textura suave al paladar. Gas también marcado. En conjunto es una buena cerveza.