Small sample from 330 ml bottle, as Tongerlo Blond, at Vectura-messe. Pale blonde colour. Light and fresh aroma and flavour, notes of mild spices and a little fruit. Nice and refreshing, will sample again.

Plain ordinary pilsener Golden pour and a fine head Moderate intensity in the aroma Ok balanced sweetness and bitterness Fine carbonation level Malty and herbal flavor [On tap at ’t Einde in Gent, Belgium]

Decent refreshing ale Hazed golden pour and a fine head. Fine lacing. Ok intensity in the aroma. Mellow sweetness and a pleasant carbonation level. Easy to drink. Malty, bread, fruity and mild citric flavor [Bottle at ’t Einde in Gent, Belgium]

Nice refreshing ale Hazed deep golden in the glass and a fine head Ok intensity in the aroma Balanced sweetness and a fine carbonation level Malty, wheat, fruity, mild banana and some yeast in the flavor [Bottle (as Tongerlo Blond) at ’t Einde in Gent, Belgium]

The brown (dubbel) one in this newish abbey beer series by Haacht, named after a renowned Antwerp abbey and produced for the Aldi supermarket chain. Almost certainly an alias of Tongerlo Bruin, but since I have no hard evidence or confirmation (yet), I cannot but treat it as a separate beer here... Thick and frothy, busily cobweb-lacing, pale greyish beige, irregularly edged but quite dense and very stable head on a crystal clear chestnut brown beer with copper red glow. Aroma of burnt sugar, dry caramel, toast, chewing gum, clove (quite pronounced), very strong iron (and very convincingly confirmed by the 'hand test'), crumbled old 'speculoos', brown bread crust, breakfast cereals, dry bayleaf, damp earth note. Clean, sweetish onset, some light banana and pear notes but little 'esteriness' in general, with vague and dull sourish undertone, very lively (and artificially) carbonated with minerally effects drowning out the low fruitiness; smooth middle of hard-caramelly maltiness with cereally core, notes of brown bread crust and toast but all simplistic and superficial, while this iron effect manifests itself as a metallic 'zing'. Some more toasty bitterishness in the finish, convincing me that actual dark malts were used here and not just caramel to 'dye' a blonde beer brown (as I am convinced is the case with Leffe Brune and Grimbergen Double), while a superficial yet leafy and balancing hop bitterness also shows up. Burnt sugary and dried dark fruity effects linger, but everything remains unsurprisingly simple, shallow and metallic. In comparison with the abovementioned brands of mass-marketed abbey beers, this is admittedly not the worst, but it remains an industrially made, 'dead' and pasteurized, simple macro beer for the masses - just like Tongerlo, which I remain convinced is the same thing as St-Michel. Poor and bland, but there is even worse - about the same conclusion as for the blonde one. I was thinking of using the remaining bottles in my 'stoverij' (beef slowly stewed in beer, a very classic Flemish food staple even described by the legendary Escoffier in 1903) but I am hesitating if this beer is even good enough for that...

Tap and bottle. Aroma: caramel, fruity esters, sweetish, liqueur. Taste: caramel candies with honey-liqueur-coffee filling, corn sticks with rum-based syrup, a bit fruity, not bad.

As Tongerlo Blond. 33 cl bottle. Color of light honey with a noisy snow-white cap. Aroma: malt, honey, candied fruit and toffee. Taste: malty, candied pear and apple, a bit honey, mild hop bitterness. Nice blonde.