Beer formerly made for the Burgundian Babble Belt, with a creamy, yellowish white head, thick but not too stable, and a bronze colour, cloudy with deposit. Rich aroma of nutty malts, whisky, pear, caramel, ginger, liquorice, cheese, tobacco, white pepper, tomato, mango and, if you’re familiar with their perfumes, the effectively used valerian and lemon balm also shine through. Sweet fruity taste, caramelly and nutty malt base, spicy (cloves and ginger), hint of lemon balm again but very subtle, warm alcoholic finish with floral, mild hoppiness; alcohol very well masked. This was a great spiced barley wine, too bad it isn’t made anymore.

This was the first beer made by Johan Brandt’s new brewery in Mater, continuing the brand from his first brewery (Regenboog) but with new beers and a slightly altered name (Smisje became Smiske, apparently). Dry hopped blond ale, quite fiercely gushing upon opening, resulting in a very thick, rocky, sticky, off-white head and hazy golden blond colour, clouded after adding the deposit. Aroma of green, oily hops, old dried grapefruit peel, grass, tonic water, melon, orange, pineapple, butterscotch, vanilla, honey, minerals, cheese spread, some crude iron but well hidden. Vivid and fresh onset of lemon zest and orange peel, peach and pineapple, yeasty, honeyish and bready malt backbone, medium carbo, strong dry hop bitter in the finish, with the typical, spicy, resinous ’green’ hoppiness of dry hopping, long, with a hint of warming, gin-like alcohol. A lot better than its brown sequel and qualifying as a ’Belgian IPA’ of sorts, but I have recently tasted this at two years of age too and - unsurprisingly - it hadn’t improved, on the contrary: with the ’green’ and fresh hoppiness faded, the underlying fruit sweetness has come more to the foreground, bringing along a much stronger and brutally off-putting iron effect as well as a sulfuric, overcooked green cabbage smell, a smell not unlike rotten Camembert and unmistakable, though not overpowering, ’rusty’ oxidation; taste had also become a lot more straightforwardly fruity, with more pineapple, apricot and even green banana impressions, while the hop bitter finish, though still present in the taste, came across as a lot less aromatic (apart from the rotting Camembert accent?) and more harsh. This ’vintage’ version was clearly of a lot lesser quality - this is by all means a beer to enjoy as fresh as possible (as with all hoppy beers), so after half a year or so I guess, all you’re left with is a stinky, thinned, withered and rotting vegetable-like shadow of its former self. I will take only the fresh version - tasted at Pol’s Vieille Forge deep in the Ardennes in 2012 if my memory doesn’t fail me - into account into my rating.

The second beer developed by Johan Brandt’s new brewery, with thick but quickly collapsing, opening, yellowish white head and ’autumn-like’ bronze colour with rusty brown glow, clear but hazy with deposit. Strong aroma of ripe plums, apple sauce, candied figs, tea, chocolate, coffee grounds, nutmeg, dried leaves, clay, dry sherry. Fruity sweetness in the taste, a bit reminiscent of figs in ’jenever’, spicy accents, chocolatey malts but everything is unfortunately drenched in a wry phenolic sauce; in the finish, a grapefruity hop bitterness sets in as well as badly hidden, somewhat astringent alcohol. Flawed.

A great looking brew with a 2 finger head of foam sitting on a slightly hazy golden liquid.

Spicy as heck with big coriander, cloves, wheat and orange.

The taste is a tad milder than the smell. More of a balance between the spices and the orange fruit. Still, it’s testing my palate.

Nice mouth feel for the style.

This bursts with flavour but it isn’t something that I’d seek out again.

Strange one for an imperial stout. More like and imperial brown. Pours brown with ok head and lacing. Medium bitter. Some roast, with some coffee. Lackluster. Bottle.

Bottle. Light hazy golden liquid with medium white head. Aroma of flowers, perfume, earth, grain and bread. Taste is dry and light bitter with notes of flowers and earth. Light to medium bodied with medium to high carbonation. Quite OK.

Bottle as Kerstsmiske. Dark amber colour, white foam. Medium carbonation. Sweet aroma of caramel, dried fruit and spices. Good beer, nothing special.

Keg @ T Brugs, Brugges. Menthol fresh, highly carbonated with a light sweetness, some fruits, lemon, vanilla and a generally refreshing blond taste. Nice.