Bottle from a gift. Hazy ochre, thin, foamy, white head. Aroma of ripe apricot, apple, pear, honey, coriander, yeast, vague vegetable (cauliflower perhaps, only low in DMS though). Taste has sweet ripe apple & pear, bready-malty with only mild clove-like phenols & a soapy coriander effect, vague vegetable accent in the back, very slightly metallic. Grassy hoppy finish, quite spicy-yeasty, ripe fruit & warming jenever-like alcohol. Medium body, oily texture, average carbonation. Okay but easily forgettable.

Bottle from a gift. Hazy golden, thinning, white head. Aroma of apricot, banana peel, old yellow apple, pear, clove, herbs, wheat. Taste has sweet fruitiness (apricot, apple, pear) mixing with spicy phenols, bitter pepper and sour wheat, the latter unbalancing the whole as if infected. Herbal hoppy finish, wheaty, dry spicy & quite yeasty, bittering and even somewhat metallic in the end. Medium body, oily texture, fizzy carbonation. Straightforward Belgian Ale but even then, shabbily executed.

The second beer by Huisbrouwerij Fienneke, a quiet and small 'bierfirma' in Beveren locally known for Fientje, a fine hoppy blonde brewed at first Bryggja and now Danny. This one too was brewed at Danny and is dedicated to the 'Puitenslagers' legend of Beveren, roughly translating to 'frog slayers'; a local yearly festivity keeps this legend alive and it makes sense for a hyper-local brewery like Fienneke to use this tradition as a source of inspiration. Thanks to Peter, the brewer, for sharing! Pale yellowish beige, mousy, slowly opening head on a misty dark caramel brown beer with mahogany hue. Aroma of brown bread, bubblegum, caramel candy, walnuts, diluted coffee powder, dried fig, cloves, nutmeg, minerals. Dried-fruity onset, old raisin, apple peel and dried banana notes, medium carbonated with hard-caramelly, brown-bready and lightly toasty-bitter malt body adorned with nutmeg- and clove-like spicy notes, a dash of coriander seed (adding light soapiness) and late herbal hop bitterness accentuated by the bitterish edge of the malts. Finishes medium long, malty and mildly spicy; a dryish, bit roasty dubbel like many other 'new' dubbels created by small local microbrewers in the Low Countries these days; traditional but technically well done and enjoyable, like its blonde predecessor.

Pours hazy dark amber with a stable, small, foamy, tan head. Aroma of sweet & sour cherry, plum jam, red apple, redcurrant, iron, pear syrup. Taste is a sour profile of unripe red apple, redcurrant & cherry; underneath there's sweet maltiness of caramel, plum & cake, a bit herbal with a faint touch of coriander. Tart, herbal hoppy finish, more sour fruit, syrup & heating liqueur-like alcohol. Medium body, thin syrupy texture, fizzy carbonation. Not getting that full-on syrupy sweetness here, I might even suspect my bottle was infected... Not sure I want to revisit, though.

The newest one in this Lokereire / Lokerasse series, commissioned by a company linked to the Bokmolenhoeve in Lokeren and also selling cheese. This one does not have a Kroontje predecessor like the others, but in any case the label (and website) refuses to mention the actual brewery, as if wanting to pretend this is all home brewed in Lokeren - a petty, dishonest, small town attitude I utterly detest. Anyway, as for the beer: very thick and dense, creamy, tightly plaster-like lacing, pale yellowish beige head on a misty, very dark chocolate brown robe with ruby red hue - but approaching black in general appearance. Aroma of melting caramel, Pepsi cola, candied cherries, old brown sugar, pan-fried apples, Liège pear syrup, fig jam, dust, crumbled 'speculoos', cinnamon, some 'koetjesreep', whiff of coriander seed, (very!) faint background hints of old rubber, freshly blown out candle and iron. Sweet onset, candi sugariness coating fruity hints of freshly cut red apple, blue plum and peach, with a sourish blackberry-like undertone as well as a faint brown game stock-like umami touch, medium carbonated; full, slick, lean body, with the dark sugariness a tad syrupy - and cloying a bit to the teeth. Underneath lies a smooth caramelly and lightly bready maltiness with a clear metallic 'zing' to it - albeit in the background, muffled by this syrupy, indeed very 'sirop de Liège'- as well as 'speculoos'-like sweetness, including date, pear and fig aspects. Some kind of syrup was added here, providing more body than the actual malts; this explains why the whole beer ends a bit on the thin side, with only a light herbal hop bitterish note, and a clear afterglow of 'jenever'-like, warming alcohol, not unsurprisingly of course, seen the ABV. Sirop de Liège and caramel effects linger alongside a spicy cinnamon and coriander seed note. Even for a quad, this is a bit too sweet and sticky (Kasteelbier-ish), and I would not be surprised if actual sirop de Liège went in here - it has been used in a few other Belgian beers before, in at least one case (to my knowledge) with tasteful result. In all, an overly sweet, slightly metallic affair, though - so surely this could have been better, but I must admit that it has a somewhat distinct accent to it (though I hesitate to refer to that as 'Lokers'...).

Imported from my RateBeer account as Lokerasse Bruin - Brune (by Brouwerij Danny):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 4/10, Palate: 2/5, Overall: 8/20, MyTotalScore: 2.4/5

26/VI/19 - 33cl bottle from a trade, shared @ Schola BBQ, BB: VIII/19 - (2019-895) Thanks to Alengrin for the trade!
SLOW GUSHER ALERT! Clear dark brown beer, big very creamy beige head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: metallic, roasted, some caramel, dried fruits, figs, chocolate notes. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: pretty sourish, metallic, some red berries, soft roast, funky, earthy, tobacco. Aftertaste: sourish, pretty bitter, very metallic, tobacco, soupy, bit dirty, weird.

Bottle from Van Eetvelde. Local beer from Lokeren, since last summer completing the blonde-brown-tripel triangle Belgian tradition prescribes (see Lokereire Blond, the original one, and Lokerasse Bruin). Slow gusher but nothing dramatic, apart from a hard to pour, towering high, foamy, egg-white, cobweb-lacing head, which quickly collapses to a thin layer of mousse on top of a misty peach blonde beer with vague khaki tinge. Aroma of ripe banana and banana mush, sweetclover, old 'jenever', lots of clove- and even anise-like phenol spiciness, meringue, soggy white bread, pear jam, honey, coriander seed, dried apple peel, hints of chewing gum, onion soup and white pepper. Fruity onset with strong but still enjoyable banana ester next to pineapple, red apple and apricot notes, very sharp and fizzy carbonation adding sourishness and a smooth, full mouthfeel. Old bread- and bread crust-like malt body, carrying ongoing fruity esters and a lot of spicy, but not medicinal or otherwise disturbing phenols to a somewhat soapy, mildly coriandered and florally and eventually even peppery hoppy finish, nicely bittering in spite of lingering bready malt and banana ester sweetness and followed by a gentle glow of 'jenever'-like alcohol. As cliché as it gets in terms of style, like the others, but demonstrably better executed, not hindered by off-flavours like DMS or things like that, and well-balanced between sweet and bitter, with the balance tilted towards the sweet. Based on the other two in this range, I must admit I expected way worse, this is very decent for a sweet Belgian cliché tripel.