Thank you tderoeck! 750 ml. bottle sampled @ “Tim’s Christmas Tasting”. BBF 28/05/2016. Black, creamy mocha head. Nose is soy, powdery, leaves, herbal, mocha, instant fare & light oxidation. Taste is soy, mocha, chocolate powder, iron, touch thin, herbal, leaves, touch watery,… Low carbonation, umami, bit thin, light oxidation. Passable but way below the Baltic Porter. Expected more to be honest.

Bouteille 33cl, de et partagée avec Tderoeck. Léger orangé, col fin blanc. Arôme est de suite sur des effluves levure très belge voire allemande, retrouve pas mal de notes ester - banane. Le houblonné - Yakima - Magnum ou Palissade? reste très modéré et couvert par la levure. Palais reste dans une approche que je qualifierai de Hefe surtout au niveau d’une levure très dominante qui ne s’apparente pas du tout à une saison. Retrouve un côté banane, épicé de girofle. Épais en bouche et dont le caractère américain s’en retrouve pénalisé. Pas mauvaise, mais loin de coller à ce que l’étiquette met en vente.

Thank you tderoeck! 330 ml. bottle sampled @ “Tim’s Christmas Tasting”. BBF 30/06/2016. Sparkling golden with fine white bubbles. Nose is apple (in a soapy, ester kind of way), fizzy, artificial lemon, fizzy, overly Belgian yeast, banana, soap,… Not getting any USA hops. Taste is ester apple, plastic, soap, Windex, low booze, cheap fizzy apple, coriander, soap, bitter esters,… Body is fizzy apple, touch dishwashing liquid, esters,… Fizzy soapy, dishwashing liquid Belgian,… Not getting any USA hops, disappointing since the regular Préaris saison is quite lovely. This one gets lost in the grey mass at best.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Préaris Chocolate porter (by Vliegende Paard Brouwers):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.7/5

26/XII/15 - 75cl bottle from the brewery/tasting room @ Tim's 1st Second Christmas Day Tasting - BB: 28/V/16 (2015-1800)

Clear dark brown beer, creamy irregular beige head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of mocha, lactose, caramel. MF: medium to light carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty sweet, lactose, sugar, ersatz chocolate (koetjesreep), pretty sweet. Aftertaste: mocha, bit sourish, hoppy touch, some lactose again.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Préaris Yakima Valley Saison (by Vliegende Paard Brouwers):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.2/5

26/XII/15 - 75cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker) @ Tim's 1st Second Christmas Day Tasting - BB: 30/VI/16 (2015-1778)

Little hazy light orange beer, small creamy off-white head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: very Belgian profile, banana, bit spicy, some citrus, coriander. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter start, grassy, bit lemony, some yeast. Aftertaste: bitter, bit metallic, coriander again, bit spicy.

Atypical Belgian Christmas ale in being a 5% pale quencher. Medium thick, cobweb-lacing, egg-white, moussy head retaining very well, over a deep and warm orangey golden coloured beer with vivid sparkling, lightly hazy. Rather weak aroma of unripe peach, freshly cut grass, toasted bread, white pepper, red apple, damp earth, dried ginger, dry hay, old cookies, field flowers, raw turnip and a faint hint of raw white cabbage (in the non-DMS way). Spritzy, crisp onset, unripe gooseberry, apple peel, unripe stonefruit, softly sourish but low in sweetness, with some hop bitterness already (subtly) announcing itself; carbo is strongish but not overly so, mouthfeel is light and supple, with a straightforward, dryish bready maltiness, somewhat grainy too, only supporting as a background structure serving the hops, which grow in intensity towards the end and eventually dry the finish almost completely, in a very noble ’Euro’ kind of way - earthy, peppery, floral and deeply bittering, tonic water-like, stretching very deep into the throat. A good thirst quencher in the ’Belgian bitter blonde’ tradition and the first one in that style I meet which is labelled a Christmas beer (but I may have forgotten a few meanwhile). I like this, but it is Christmas Eve after all, and I must admit I was more hoping for a classic Belgian Christmas ale, strong, dark, sweet, yeasty and heavily coriandered... Very decent hop forward beer for sure, but I can imagine some people may be disappointed to establish this has nothing to do with the stereotypical Belgian Christmas ale tradition.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Préaris Saaz Pils (by Vliegende Paard Brouwers):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 11/20, MyTotalScore: 2.9/5

22/XII/15 - 33cl bottle @ Vliegend Paard tasting room - BB: n/a (2015-1752) Thanks to Andy for sharing the bottle!

Little cloudy pale yellow beer, fizzy aery white head, little stable, falls down quickly, non adhesive. Aroma: yeasty, touch of banana even, bit grassy, grains, cow fodder (rural character). MF: soft carbon, medium to light body. Taste: pretty bitter, grassy touch, bit yeasty, raw grains. Aftertaste: dry, another touch of yeast, bit grassy, grains.

Bottle from Taniguchi. Spicy, tart nose, grapefruit, lemon, some honey, yeasty spice. Deep gold with orange and a huge head. Crisp, hoppy flavor, bread, some biscuit and honey, grass, citrus, very bitter. Great. Reminds me of XX Bitter.

Bottle from Belgiuminabox. New Préaris and limited in production considering the black & white label, whereas their ’regular’ labels are coloured. Medium thick, light yellowish beige, dense and creamy head leaving a steady rim around the glass; colour is a very dark, blackish burgundy, but still translucent. Aroma of heavy caramel and even caramel candy, some clear FFF (manure), hint of chocolate milk or indeed sweet cocoa but far less outspoken than the caramel, candied dates, fresh peach, some ’haemoglobin’ iron, cooked red cabbage (clear DMS), honey, wet grass, fresh banana hint, roasted chestnuts, melting brown sugar, toasted brown bread, marzipan. Rounded, sweet onset of candied dates, peach, some banana and blackberry with a rather creamy mouthfeel, medium carbo tingling a bit on the surface of the tongue with a light minerally effect, smooth and supple malt body, caramelly, a tad honeyish and nutty with a subdued toasted edge; chocolate manifests itself as a vaguely metallic layer of ’bittersweetness’ but there is no outspoken chocolate flavour so in all, this extra ingredient has been well integrated, in a way reminiscent of the classic Young’s Double Chocolate Stout or something alike. Finishes dryish, with the toasted bitterishness gaining strength and receiving support from a lightly peppery, herbal hop bitterishness and a glow of warming, somewhat liqueurish alcohol; body, in all, remains still on the thin side for an 8% porter and peachy Belgian yeast effects as well as the sweetness of dark sugars keep hanging around in the background as well, where they needlessly complicate the overall flavour profile. Could do with an even creamier body, some more hop bitterness for balance and less Belgian yeastiness if you ask me; needs more audacity to step away from the Belgian dubbel tradition with which it still has a lot (too much?) in common. Other than that, this is a fairly enjoyable offering, hinting at Vliegende Paard’s Andy De Wilde’s guts and passion to establish a truly memorable brand of beers some day.

Bottle from Etre Gourmet. Apparently a limited beer, considering the ’cheaper’ (i.e. black & white) label than for the more widely distributed beers from Vliegende Paard. Lacing, egg shell white, dense, moussy, thick head and hazy peach blonde robe with orangey hue. Elegant and fragrant bouquet of unripe gooseberries, lime juice, some white grape peel (probably the Nelson Sauvin), field flowers, white bread dough, pear, some sweaty grains, bubblegum hint, mandarin but less strong than I had hoped for considering the use of Citra; since Citra is a rather volatile aroma hop, however, I cannot exclude the fact that this bottle may already be past its prime. Unfortunately though, there is a subtle but unmistakable hint of DMS (cooked cabbage) as well, something I am very sensitive to. Crisp and refreshing onset, fruity in an elegant way, some sweetish ’Belgian yeast’ banana but restrainedly so, sourish green apple and gooseberry accents, minerally and tingling carbo, smooth and light body of grainy and lightly bready malts, hoppy finish with earthy bitterness as well as pleasant retronasal floral and mildly citrusy aromas; bit yeasty as well but not so much that it becomes tiresome. Inspired by the ’new’ generation of session IPAs, I welcome this type of beer in Belgium: more of these young brewers should experiment with these new generation hops. In this case, they have turned what would otherwise be another boring Belgian blonde into an internationally inspired craft beer of elegance and graciousness. I would love to see this on tap rather than from a bottle though, and the minute I do, I will recommend anyone drinking blondes or pale lagers to switch to this one, as it is clearly intended to offer a more rewarding alternative to the Belgian blonde style, which by itself was originally meant to counter the rise of the pale lager. Nice work, in all; just too bad for the DMS, and for the fact that this bottle is probably a bit too old already, even though it cannot be older than three months or so: still, if I see the earlier ratings here from my esteemed colleagues, I cannot but conclude that the fresher you get this, the better it is. All the more reason for Andy De Wilde to make a more draught-oriented beer out of this!