Good, light-cream coloured head over opaque dark brown beer. Sweetish, woody nose with notes of, indeed, rum, rumbonen. Dry alcoholic flavour with mild sweetness, enhanced by the alcohol. Faintly nutty, also arachide. Well-bodied, viscous, faint alcoholheat. Good carbonation. Not bad. Too bad about the brewery. Txs to Stef!

Appearance: Medium golden. Huge white head. Aroma: Honey, spices, Belgian yeast. Taste: Pale malt, Belgian yeast, spices. Some decent fruitiness going on. Bought: Galerie FRITS (Antwerp), 330 ml, €3.75 Info: 24/10-2024, BB: 28/2-2025

Explosive gushing upon opening to towering cream-tan head, full of yeast, lots of lace over deep dark brown beer. Coffee, mocha, very clear despite the huge head; some meatroast, meaty esters, dark brown farmbread with coffee. Quite bitterish, if mainly from the roast & the coffee, rather than hops. Slight stoutacidity. Finish has some chocolate, and almost sweetness. Leather. Well bodied, overcarbonated, very slick to chewy. Pity about the gushing. Rest is more than acceptable. Txs to Stef!

Good, amberish tinted head, stable, over veiled amber-ochre beer. Alcohol, boozy nose, caramel, even toffee, biscuity. Biscuit, oxydized malts, bit dried herbs, other grains. Alcoholheat, very slick to viscous. Good carbonation. Bo-o-o-o-oring. Txs to Stef!

The latest beer to date in this series - a tripel, what an inspired choice... Off-white, medium thick, irregularly lacing, fairly stable head on a misty pale orange-tinged peach blonde beer. Aroma of old wrinkled apples, peach, very strong DMS (overcooked Brussels sprouts) ruining everything for me, stewed carrot, leftover bread dough, rotting grass, cooked parsnip, banana peel, old potatoes, mud and the obligatory and unmistakable coriander seed. Sweet onset, peach, banana, pear and red apple notes, fizzy carb, supple bready malt body, smooth and sweetish but a bit on the thin and cereally side, flavoured with 'dimly' spicy coriander; towards the end, more and more unpleasant vegetable notes come to the foreground, driven by that strong DMS dominance, ending 'dirty'-yeasty as well with lingering notes of coriander seed, grassy hops, dry earth, cooked carrots and even some rotting plant material. Amateuristic, technically flawed, simplistic and uninspired - sorry but this really wasn't necessary.

Quadrupel by this new microbrewery in Kruibeke, Eastern Flanders. Thick and frothy, pale greyish white, cobweb-lacing head on a cloudy beige-tinged dirty brownish-amber beer. Aroma of candi sugar, banana, stewed apple, melting caramel, crumbling brown bread, fresh cloves, dry earth, fig, almond, bayleaf. Very sweet onset, lots of banana esteriness, stewed peaches and figs, clear residual candi sugariness, medium carbonation; fluffy body, caramelly malts with a vague metallic touch to them, brown-bready, with a soapy coriander seed aspect and lots of spicy phenols; herbal hop bitter note in the end, lingering unfermented sugars, bready-powdery yeast and warming alcohol, while phenolic effects get the upper hand, even becoming a bit medicinal (band aid) in the end. Technically flawed, I’m afraid – this needs to be redone, guys!

Apparently already the second rendition of this 'green hops' project by Brixius, a microbrewery set up in the middle of the village of Kruibeke, situated in my (larger) home region; basically their house blonde but with hops from their own garden. The original 2018 version was bottled in 75 cl bottles while this 2019 edition resides in Steinie bottles - but other than the indication of the year on the front label, I could not find any differences between the two, so it seemed reasonable to treat both as one single beer. Bottle from Dranken De Moor in Haasdonk (bordering on Kruibeke). Gusher, but with a lot of patience, it is feasible to open it without too much loss. Off-white, mousy, irregular, intermittently opening head on a cloudy, 'dirty' amberish peach blonde beer with beige tinge. Aroma of ripe pineapple, peach, orange, sugar loaf, apricot jam, honey, tulips, apple sauce, mud, baker's yeast, rusk, sweet cicely and a vague, volatile and more or less negligible whiff of band aid. Sweet, estery onset, pineapple and banana ester fighting for dominance, hints of ripe pear and peach, sharply numbing overcarbonation no doubt related to the gushing; sweet-bready, bit doughy maltiness with a thick layer of residual honeyish sweetness on top and (somewhat bothersome) glueish effects at the sides, with that carbonation remaining a distraction, adding strong, sparkling water-like mineral effects. Finishes with primarily lingering malt and ester sweetness, lots of bready yeastiness, phenolic spiciness and - only in the last position - a floral, light hop bitterness. Sadly, instead of delivering a hop-forward profile like I was expecting based on the name alone, what I got here is a sweet, yeasty, unbalanced, overcarbonated, technically flawed, uncontrolled, very amateurish Belgian blonde. I hope the 2018 edition was better but in any case, Brixius needs to realise that in this day and age the educated beer drinker expects actual hoppiness in whatever form if you put green hops on your label - point off for not nearly being as hoppy as it ought to be (or in fact: being not even hoppy at all), without wanting to raise that whole 'Belgian IPA' issue.

Overflowing foam from the bottle. Wouldn't say gusher but definitely seems highly cared. This is proven again in the pour. A slow pour will still develop a huge head. The color of the beer under this dense stable, yet relatively big bubbled head, is unclear, muddy amberbrown. Scent is weak, mild earthynessw leaves. Taste is full, sweet, heavy, boozy, very boozy for the abv, caramel, mild roasted malts ( medium high in intensity, mild in roastyness). Fairly creamy, with a decently complex aftertaste. Mild vanilla. Really decent quad, to bad for the overcarbonation. Fermentation profile seems a bit to estery, which is nice in taste but disturbed the mouthfeel a bit. Decent as is, with room for improvemen to become a beer to be remembered, even in the dense beer offering in Belgium.

The third beer in the initial range of this new microbrewery in Kruibeke (near Beveren-Waas), a Belgian 'strong brown' - so effectively a quadrupel almost by definition, even if opinions on this matter are divided. Steinie bottle from Dranken De Moor in nearby Haasdonk, cheers Carl! Light gusher, but slow enough to remain manageable. Mousy, membrane-lacing, pale greyish beige, irregularly edged and slowly opening head, initially lightly hazy dark brown robe with translucent vermillion red glow, misty coppery dark bronze with sediment. Aroma of freshly baked brown bread, caramel, coffee grounds and even cold black coffee (from the added coffee powder, obviously), dried figs, burnt brown sugar, baked banana, dried apple peel, coriander seed, caramel, nutmeg, hints of brown rum, rusk, clove, crunched pecan nuts, dry earth, brown soap, tea, even vague cinnamon - and indeed, very subtle but recognizable when warming up, a vague touch of smoked wood. Fruity onset, dried banana, fig, raisins, red apple, hint of apricot, sweetish with a sourish undertone, quite lively carbonation, prickling but acceptable for a strong Belgian dark, fluffy and bit powdery-yeasty body; caramelly and brown-bready maltiness with a trace of brown sugar on top yet not going into overdrive sweetness, lingering dried fruit notes and explicit spicy phenols, coriander seed and clove, almost Christmas beer-ish. Meanwhile the dark maltiness acquires a light toasty edge and the aromatic effect of the added coffee comes in, albeit very subtly so; indeed a very, very subtle smokiness does develop in the end, as in smoked wood or smoked eel, but it remains faint enough not to shock the average Belgian beer drinker (alas). Earthy yeastiness in the end, lingering caramelly malts with that toasty and aromatic coffeeish edge and faint background smoky touch still continuing, earthy and herbal hop bitter note and warming, 'jenever'-like alcohol, which in all remains quite well in place. Sweetish but not sweet, spicy without going over the top (though one pinch more of it would have been too much), malty with well-hidden alcohol: this is a kind of amped-up dubbel and therefore almost by definition a quadrupel (or a 'massieve ale' as the old OBP used to put it) and far from the worst one on the market, especially since it indeed seems to contain a pinch of smokiness, which does set it apart from the rest. I can appreciate the fact that bubblegum esters and sugary sweetness are kept at bay here, compared with many other, similarly profiled beers. Very malty and spicy-phenolic, thoroughly Belgian strong ale, perhaps a bit crude still but it is clear that the brewers put effort in this one - I guess this is the one they really wanted to commercialize more than the two others even. The best of the three for me (each one judged in their own respective style), not without complexity and technically quite well executed; the coffee does add an extra touch, even if it does not change anything fundamentally and could just as well have been left out for me. Now for a real Rauchbier guys, what's there to lose?...