7.1

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

Bottle from Hopduvel.
A: hazy dark brown, stable, frothy, tan head.
A: raisin, brown bread, mocha, prune, liquorice.
T: sweet raisin, sourish blackberry, brown bread, cookie spices.
F: earthy hops, dried fruit, spicy liquorice, bit toasty, warming liqueur-like alcohol.
P: medium body, oily texture, average carbonation.
Enjoyable, delivers on the 'dark' aspect too.

6

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

Bottled. Yellowish orange colour with a mediumsized foamy head, that leaves some lace. Aroma is sweet malts, some yeast, mild toffee. Flavour is fruity, some yeast, mild spiciness, some bready and mild toffeeish tones. Some slight fruity and floral hops to it as well.

7

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

Bottled. Ambery brown colour with a small off-white head. Aroma is herbal, spicy, some wood and mild yeasty notes. Flavour is mildly toasted, some raisins, caramel, spices and mild wooden notes. Sweet toffeeish wooden finish and aftertaste.

6.6

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

8/I/22 - 75cl bottle from a trade, shared @ figurines painting session (Samuel & Sophie’s place), BB: III/2022, bottled: III/20, Lot 2001 (2022-53)

Clear orange beer, small aery irregular off-white head, unstable, falls down quickly, non adhesive. Aroma: pretty metallic, malty, grains, little yeasty, bit dirty, some sulfur notes. MF: lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: bitter touch up front, malty, pretty metallic, malty. Aftertaste: yeasty, spicy, little bitter, fruity notes, dry finish, some cloves. No idea why, but I thought this was brewed with some berries or something… oh well… This is better I guess. ;-)

7.8

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

25/X/21 - 75cl bottle from a trade, shared @ Eline’s place (ATP-drink), BB: VI/2022, bottled: VI/2019, lot: 1909 (2021-1197) Thanks to Bierridder_S for sharing the bottle!

Clear dark brown beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, bit adhesive. Aroma: overripe banana, caramel, leather, dried fruits, alcohol, esters. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: slightly sweet, caramel, ripe banana, earthy, little bitter. Aftertaste: more earthy notes, some caramel, slightly sweet, soft roast, some chocolate, decent!

7.4

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

Small, cream-coloured head over deep dark redbrown beer. Warm aroma with wood, tarr, whisky, but also spicy as cola. Peated, phenolic... Islay malt I presume? Bit dusty flavour, old wood, hints at brown candi sugar. Well-bodied, bit warming, sticky, slightly oily. Pretty good. Why not mentionning the type of spirit it has been lagered on? Thanks to Stef!

5.5

kerstbierfestival essen 2017

7.1

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Saison hopped with not one, but two 'historical' hop varieties, Loeren and Groene Belle; everybody knows that the Poperinge region has been cultivating hops for centuries, but it is far less known that the region around the city of Aalst in eastern Flanders also had a flourishing hop culture until the second World War, even with their own varieties, two of which are featured here. Quite unique in that sense, especially since both Loeren and Groene Belle were considered extinct until fairly recently, when living specimens were taken from agricultural institutes in Wallonia and Slovenia, respectively, and are now little by little (and so far only very locally) making a comeback in artisanal Belgian brewing - which, in view of the whole history of craft beer and its constant reviving of old and often forgotten beer traditions, seems to make perfect sense. Only 250 bottles (75 cl with crown cap and hangtag) of this 'historically hopped' beer were made apparently; mine came from the Hopduvel in Ghent. Slow but steady gusher, yet with the necessary patience and care, I managed to reduce the loss to a few centilitres. Very thick, audibly crackling, tightly cobweb-lacing, frothy, irregular, eggshell-white head on a hazy straw blonde beer with deep 'old gold' hue and strong, champagne-like sparkling; shifts to a dirty, 'muddy', brownish ochre as more sediment is added. Aroma of ripe pear, fresh lemonbalm, sugared lemon juice, banana, freshly baked white bread, warm cake, honey, persimmon, tulips, stewed pumpkin, damp straw, minerals - very recognizably Belgian, in all, but indeed with subtle hoppy notes that are quite distinct. Crisp onset, very sharply carbonated to the point where it becomes painful and distracts from the banana, ripe pear, red apple and halfripe peach notes provided by esters; supple bready maltiness, sweetish but not overly so, with a clear soapy edge from the used wheat. Spicy and fruity yeasty aspects dance on top, the first hinting at clove and even - very faintly - liquorice, the latter at (mostly) pear, while the Groene Belle and the Loeren do their work, releasing an increasing, yellow-greenish hop character, a bit earthy and providing relatively gentle, grassy bitterness that will stick a bit to the root of the tongue without exaggerating in bitterness - but not before it has exuded the most genuinely floral aromatic character I ever had in a beer: nothing exotic, just a very convincing retronasal effect of sweetclover, white dead-nettle and goldenrods flowers. Malty and yeasty effects linger on in this quenching, very easily drinkable Belgian blonde, with perhaps a tad too much residual sweetness to fully qualify as a classically correct 'saison', even if effervescence, 'souplesse', minerality, yeastiness and 'quenchingness' are spot on. Solid enough, in all, but of course the importance in this one lies in those utterly floral, 'rural' hops, evoking the hop fields of Aalst of a century or more ago. In that sense, I would consider this a culturally important beer on the Belgian beer map: after this enormous wave of American and other New World hops and imitations of them in e.g. Germany and Poland, I think the rediscovery of old, forgotten hops from a traditional beer country like Belgium could not have come at a better moment on the timeline of beer history. This Keun interpretation shows these old Aalst hop varieties in a classic way that will go down easily with any 'serious' Belgian consumer, but I am sure that both these varieties can offer a lot more and make quite a unique contribution to craft beer development in Belgium (and perhaps even abroad) if further refined and 'amplified'. Curious to see what Groene Belle and Loeren may have in store for us if ever they become applied by some or other craft brewer in a more 'adventurous' way...

8.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

24/12/2019 @home - 75cl bottle from the Brewery. Dark brown, medium tanned head. Nose is malts, caramel, sweet booze. Taste is dark malts, caramel, bit fruits, sweet alcohol, bit leather, hint of peat, dry bitter roast malts ending. Nice and balanced!