7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

9/2/2020. Bottle at TripelB, Worcester. 9% abv. Pours very dark brown with a creamy off-white head. Aroma of dried fruit, toffee, malt, dark plummy fruits, and a touch of chocolate. Medium sweetness with light to moderate bitterness. Towards being full bodied, oily/sticky texture, average carbonation. Jammy, plummy, raisin finish. Enjoyable.

5.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

75cl bottle in the Jilles Brugge burger bar, had to pay because neither my wife nor I are ginger haired. Bottle conditioned, so hazy pour to the Orange/ginger body, decent off-White head. Some distant spicy notes in both the nose and taste, nothing offensive but also nothing exciting or different to set it apart from run of the mill Belgian beers.

7.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle from Beers of Europe. Seems to be 9% now. Pours hazy dark brown with a thin beige head. Aromas of stewed prunes, raisins and brown sugar. Light spice, cinnamon maybe. Taste is light sweet, spice, dark sugar and plum. A bit boozy, but festive!

5.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

4 November 2019. At Café Vlissinghe, Bruges. Cheers to my dad & uncle's birthday! Pours hazy ochre with a lasting, thick, frothy, white head; some lacing. Aroma of soap, soapy coriander, wheat, yellow apple, yeast. Taste has sweet estery banana & ripe apple, quickly turning to a soapy profile of coriander, wheat & lemon, a tad peppery, all the while keeping a bready feel. Dry, grassy hoppy finish, more spicy & soapy coriander. Medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation. Technically imperfect; and anyway the kind of standard Tripel I don't like.

6.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

4 November 2019. At Café Vlissinghe, Bruges. Cheers to my dad & uncle's birthday! Pours hazy amber with a lasting, small, foamy, off-white head; some lacing. Aroma of caramel, candied apricot, dried banana, red apple, white sugar, vague cabbage. Taste is medium to heavy malty sweet, quite 'white' sugary with hints of ripe apricot & banana, bitter touches of clove, perhaps aniseed, resting on a yeasty-bready base. Dry, grassy & spicy hoppy finish, more clove & sweet yeast, phenolic effect to be precise. Some warming gin-like alcohol & a metallic echo in the very end. Medium body, creamy texture, soft carbonation. Unsophisticated 'Strong Belgian' but decent enough.

6

Verassend genoeg lekker

6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Blonde ale commissioned by a touristically exploited farm in Keiem near Diksmuide; small quantities for local use are brewed 'in situ' but the commercial quantities are produced by Fort Lapin, so I will leave it to the admins whether this Uytkant project needs to be recognized as an actual new brewery with its own entry here or not. Steinie bottle from De Centrale in Diksmuide. Egg-white, mousy, quite regular, frothy, stable head, lightly hazy 'metallic' orange-hued peach blonde robe with swirling strings of sparkling rising up here and there, shifting to a misty deeper orange-peach with sediment. Aroma of dry cookies, 'honingwafels', soggy sandwiches, peach, wet iron pipes, freshly cut red apples, old dried roses, banana mush, cold French fries, white sugar, cut flowers, powder sugar, something very vaguely sulfuric (freshly struck match). Fruity onset but cleanly so, banana ester mixed with sweet apple, ripe pear and light peach notes, lively but not too 'agressive' carbonation, smooth, full, even somewhat glueish mouthfeel; clear residual sugariness leaves a honeyish layer of sweetness on top of a slick, cereally, dry cookie-like and very lightly caramelly malt body with clear metallic edges. This honeyish sweetness cloys a bit in the end, unobstructed by confident hoppiness: the hops remain a floral, faintly grassy background note, but fail to exert the bitterness this beer needs more than anything. Warming, somewhat brandy-ish alcohol is noticeable too, in this case accentuating the sweetness, but it should not be noticeable at all at a mere 7% ABV. Typical Fort Lapin affair: unrefined, designed for the larger oblivious masses and too sweet, lacking depth, nobility and character even for being intended as an accessible blonde (or tripel - let's say that the transition between both is situated at exactly this ABV). Characterless, uninspired, overly sweet and 'easy' crowd pleaser, not my cup of tea.

8.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Tap at the Poatersgat. Pale blond colour, big creamy off white head. Aroma is belgian yeasty, bit floral, slight citrus hoppiness. Bit of graininess too. Taste is quite smooth and creamy. Some lemon, initial bitterness. Finish is very much Belgian yeasty and creamy. Bubblegum and sweetness. Very smooth and surprisingly nice. Reminded me a bit of an ice cream float for some reason.

6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

Gulbrun klar med høyt beige skum. Lukter belgisk gjør, blomster, noe metallisk og korn. Fyldig. Maltig. Karamell, hvete, alkohol og gjær.

6.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Bottle. Blonde, hazy. Citrus in the aroma. Malty alcoholic flavor with a restricted floral hopbitterness. Citrus. Decent.