Lakes of love ou lakes of taste? Car cette Préaris intégrant de la pomme manque cruellement d'intensité et de complexité aromatique. L'amertume est-elle peu enlevée, et nous sommes sur une bière ayant amertume et douceur maltée à un niveau comparable. L'alcool, à 6 % se fait peu trop ressentir quant à lui. Le visuel est sur un blond orangé, légèrement voilé et surmonté d'une fine couche de mousse. Le nez n'est pas extraordinaire, relativement neutre et doux sur la pomme de terre, légèrement floral et une pointe de poire. A la dégustation les arômes de pomme et de cidre sont plus présents, tout en restant relativement discrets. Alliés à de légers arômes floraux et de pomme de terre, les arômes restent cependant plats, sans variation. L'ensemble est relativement frais mais manque de présence. Corpulences et longueurs sont très moyennes. A noter également une petite astringence. Tout cela ne vaut pas un cidre !

Bottle from Belgiuminabox, Antwerp. Dark brown pour with a beige head. Toffee, creme caramel, sweet spice nose. Taste is treacle toffee,gravy browning, brown sugar, caramel. Not getting much coffee at all. Expected a lot more from this.

33cl bottle from Etre Gourmet web shop. F: medium, off-white, almost good retention. C: pale gold, milky hazy. A: mellow fruity, lactic, bit yeasty, bit funky. T: light body, higher bit disturbing carbonation, mellow fruity, bit sugary, pomegranates are quite masked, ok, drinkable.

Leicht säuerlicher, brotig herber Beginn. Geringe Süße, minimal herb, dumpf. Wenig fruchtig, mittellanger Abgang. Okax. 10/9/9/9/7/9

33cl bottle. A clear yellow golden beer with a white lacing. Aroma of tart Pass, mango. Taste of apricot, passionfruit, strong malt, honey.

The winter version of Crispy Li, in itself the follow-up to Smokey Li but a different beer altogether; the regular Crispy Li is an amber coloured ale with cascara, the husks of coffee beans, even if the term originally refers to the bark of the cascara tree, which is something very different botanically speaking. Anyway, the coffee version of cascara returns in this winter edition, but is accompanied now by massala (the Indian spice mix usually - but not always - containing cumin seed, coriander seed, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and clove). A complex spice beer, in other words, always a challenge - which I have to thank tderoeck for, who was generous enough to offer me a bottle. Medium thick, pale greyish beige, mousy, small-bubbled, stable head gradually showing gaps here and there, on a misty, ruddy mahogany-hued deep amber coloured beer with small 'dusty' particles floating throughout, shifting to a cloudy, ruddy bronze with sediment. Outspoken, indeed very clearly spiced aroma of (real) clove, indeed dried coffee berries (the 'cascara'), cranberries, cinnamon and cardamom from the massala also clearly noticeable, dry cinnamon sugar cookies or cinnamon crumb cake even in combination with the malts, plum, herb tea, coriander seed, old 'speculoos', homemade pear juice, fresh bay leaf, dried apple peel, volatile background whiffs of rosehip, cumin seed, parsnip, rusty iron, brown cardboard. Fruity onset, sweetish apricot and red apple surrounded by sourish cranberry and insufficiently ripe plum or nectarine, with both components well in balance; softish carbonation, slick, bit glueish mouthfeel. Brown-bready and dry cookie-ish malt backbone, sweetish (though not too much so and still dried a bit by the sourish aspect too), slight toasty bitter aspect in the finish matching well with the coffee bean husks, which act slightly spice-bitter and aromatic with only a vague reference to coffee. The massala, meanwhile, becomes increasingly prominent, with especially the clove, coriander and cardamom dominating retronasally. Rather earthy finish, with a 'deep' and late hop bitterish note, accompanying the lingering cascara and (partial) massala spiciness; the sour aspect, though remaining gentle all the way through especially for a 'Flemish red' style beer, keeps thing light and relatively refreshing, but age has added a dusty old cardboard-like oxidation effect as well, that interferes a bit with the spices. The soft sourness and spiciness linger on for quite a while after swallowing, with a trace of that dry cookie-like maltiness underneath. I still have to get my hands on the regular Crispy Li, I guess that one is a bit less spice-forward and a tad less malty perhaps (from what I read), but this one is not the worst Belgian spice beer I had to date - perhaps because it has a spice profile more reminiscent of the Far East than is normally the case, a nod to the tea part of Li O Lait I suppose, the coffee and tea house for which this beer was made. I would drink this again fresh I would ever visit Li O Lait, but I'm guessing that the spiciness is even stronger in a fresh one... Interesting and original beer, more easily drinkable than I was fearing, as I am not the greatest lover of spiced beers.

The latest new addition (2019) to this series of barrel aged Préaris Grand Cru variants by Vliegende Paard, aged on port barrels for 18 months. From a sturdy 37.5 cl bottle with classy label, like the others. Thick, frothy and mousy, papery lacing, yellowish beige, audibly crackling, largely even-bubbled and stable head on a misty deep bronze-brown beer with ruddy-vermillion hue and swirls of fierce sparkling rushing through the whole. Aroma of halfripe pear, dried plums, old raisins, candi sugar, ripe banana, bubblegum even, hard caramel, brown bread, dried figs, cloves, indeed a whiff of tawny port but more subtle than I was expecting, some wet wood, hints of almond, red apple, cashew nuts, honey, dried rosemary, brandy, tea bags, bee wax, dry cookies, vague background whiff of coffee grounds. Sweetish onset, banana ester but not too 'pushy' and balanced by aspects of red apple, pear and peach, sourish undertone accentuated by the lively, fizzy carbonation, bit minerally and a tad rainwater-like as well; full, rounded body, bit bubblegummy, but the smoothness is impaired by a somewhat astringent alcohol effect early on. Caramelly, bit resinous malt sweetish middle, dry cookie- and brown bread-like edges, quickly developing a toasty bitterish edge (like we know from the regular Préaris Grand Cru and the other variants, of course), which merges with a herbal hop character in providing 'end bitterness' that struggles to balance out the overall sweetness - especially when indeed additional sweetness from the port comes in, however managing to remain relatively discreet. Some vanilla-like oak scent and drying woody tannins are certainly there, but could have been a bit more outspoken for me; that sugary sweetness from both candi sugar and port wine form an almost honeyish complex, which entertains in its play with the abovementioned bitter aspect - like a cat playing with a mouse, because the sweetness clearly prevails here. The details in the finish further include bubblegummy isoamylacetate that keeps lingering, caramelly maltiness and of course a warming glow of soothing, indeed lightly port- but also somewhat brandy-like alcohol, which fortunately manages to stay firmly in place and does not overrule the other flavours anywhere. For a 10% quad aged on port barrels, I think the tempering of the alcohol is one of this beer's most impressive qualities: the booze sustains and accentuates flavour nuances without becoming tiresome or agressive. Subtle notes of vanilla, caramel and honey grace the finish retronasally, but it must be said that the bubblegummy banana ester and typical candi sugar profile keep things very classically 'Belgian', reminding one of such evergreens as Chimay Bleu, Sint-Bernardus Abt 12 or Rochefort 8. Thoroughly Belgian quad and in that sense not spectacularly different or innovative to a well-versed Belgian palate but technically very well made, with the port barrel aging having been applied relatively subtly; I do not always like overt booziness in beers aged on liquor barrels, but in this case, I would have emphasized the port factor much more. I fondly remember the first barrel aged Préaris Grand Cru variants (seven or eight years ago) and those were a lot more 'noble' and expressive, whereas this one remains a bit... well, restrained. Still a very enjoyable quad, though, deserving of a good score on this site - but also one that ironically may become a lot more port-like when aged for a good five years in a cellar due to natural 'portorization'...