11/VIII/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 17/VIII/22 (2021-766)

Cloudy pale beige beer, big creamy irregular white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: pretty dirty, cow fodder, dead yeast, grains, bit grassy, some banana peel. MF: lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: bitter start, very dry, bit spicy, grains, weird, slightly sourish, bit yeasty. Aftertaste: bitter, hoppy, grassy, bit dirty, unpleasant, yeast, banana peel, spicy touch.

Honey beer by Broers in Wachtebeke, bottle from the Aveve garden centre in Drongen near Ghent – an unlikely place to find a tick. Egg-white, moussy, small-bubbled, thickly plaster-lacing, gradually opening head on a crystal clear yellow-golden beer, turning misty and a tad deep apricot-tinged with sediment. Aroma of strong DMS (overcooked cauliflower, even overcooked beans), old potatoes, honey indeed but not very explicitly so, coriander seed, banana peel, rubber, ‘jenever’, clove, moist white pepper, white bread, damp straw. Sweetish fruity onset, clear banana ester mingled with peach and red apple notes, sharply fizzing carbonation filling the mouth, cereally and white-bready malt backbone carrying the sweet esters onwards to a slightly soapy-spicy-coriandered, phenolic and warming finish with a dash of Poire William-like alcohol, grassy and floral hop bitterishness (gently so) and indeed that vague extra touch of ‘floweriness’ that I suppose represents the honey – but the DMS strongly returns retronasally as well. This latter aspect is basically what ruined this beer for me – I could have forgiven the near lack of delicate flowery aromas I associate with the best Belgian style honey beers, but I thoroughly hate DMS. Not a great success for me, Broers have done a lot better.

Besteld op 17-12-2020 bij Poseidon Beers en ontvangen op 18-12-2020. Thuis geproefd op 3-04-2021.
Winter Barley Wine is een spinsel van brouwerij Broers uit Wachtebeke. Deze werd in 2013 opgericht door de (schoon)broers Bram Bossuyt, Ruben Laureys, en Thomas Laureys. Gestart als leuk tijdverdrijf, werd het brouwen van eigen bier al snel een passie. Gaandeweg groeide ook het idee om het bier echt te verkopen, en uiteindelijk werd Brouwerij Broers opgericht.
WINTER BARLEY WINE is een helder koperkleurig bier dat bij het uitschenken een normale hoeveelheid gebroken wit schuim aanmaakt in de vorm van een gelijkmatige fijne laag. Het blijft sterk aan je glaswand kleven maar zakt naderhand in elkaar tot er nog een dun fijn laagje van overblijft. Je ziet nog wat gistrest op de bodem van het flesje. De CO2 pareling bestaat uit een normale hoeveelheid belletjes van een normale grootte.
HET AROMA:
Stroperig zoet, karamel, banaan, mout, hout, noten, vanille.
DE SMAAK:
Stroperig zoet, krieken op genever, hout, vanille en een licht verwarmende alcoholtoets.
HET MONDGEVOEL:
Volle body met een licht bitterdroogje, een romige textuur en een medium koolzuurprikkel.
DE NASMAAK:
Is wat plakkerig en vloeit lang uit, zoet, licht droog, krieken op jenever, hout, vanille en een licht verwarmende alcoholtoets.
HET TOTAALGEVOEL:
Een verwarmend biertje.
HET VERDICT:
Dit is iets lekker, zoet en alcohol en wat alcoholwarmte. In de afdronk wat meer houttoetsen en het degusteert bijzonder gemakkelijk; kortom dit mag je niet laten voorbijgaan.
Foto’s en info te vinden bij:
http://www.beersfrombelgium.eu/nl/Winter_Barley_Wine-b-4441.html

Now here's an interesting one, at least conceptually: a variation on Broers Imperial Stout fermented with a kveik yeast strain and spiced with - wait for it - 'homegrown' Carolina Reaper peppers, one of the hottest pepper varieties in the world (I had no idea these Broers brothers grew their own hot peppers - gives me ideas). Bottle from De Hopduvel shared with Craftmember. Opens with a mean hiss and gunsmoke - but no gushing. Very thick, foamy, plaster-like lacing, yellowish beige-white, rocky head, slowly thinning over a black beer with thin and hazy burgundy edges. Aroma of black coffee powder, cocoa nibs or unsugared black chocolate, iron, dried blackberries, dry bayleaf, chili flakes or indeed dried chili peppers, smoked horsemeat, old dry cigars, hint of hard caramel, toasted brown bread. Sweetish onset, dried prunes, dried figs, very fizzy carb for this style - in fact, overcarbonated for whichever style; still full, dry-caramelly, toffeeish maltiness, remaining restrained in sweetness and quickly shifting to a full-blown roasted bitterness (as in black coffee grounds) - even a bit ashy towards the end. Black coffee and black pepper impressions linger along a burnt toast-like 'breadiness' with a slight metallic edge, but before this all comes to full fruition, a long, heating, burning chili effect from the Carolina Reapers sets in, aided by a gin-like alcohol warmth - and spicing up the finish considerably, even though a yeasty breadiness and coffeeish 'roastiness' remain too. Ends very dry, with that chili maintaining its heat for a long time. I did not see this coming at all - Broers' parcours has been a 'hit or miss' one to me in their years of existence with more misses than hits, but this one certainly is not entirely a miss to me. However, this is, more than average, a very personal annotation for me, because two things are to be taken into consideration here: first and foremost, this beer is strongly overcarbonated and needs to be redone in this respect. Secondly and more importantly, though: your appreciation of this hyper-spicy beer will depend on your personal capsaicin tolerance, and frankly I cannot see this work on the average Belgian market - Carolina Reapers are hot to a degree hardly anyone here knows about, die hard pepper fans aside, and strong stouts are difficult enough to the traditional Belgian palate as it is. I personally can take a whole lot of capsaicin, however, certainly to Belgian standards, and even if this brew is a bit of a one-trick pony, it deserves praise for being this bold and daring on a market which is definitely not ready to embrace such an experiment. Have a point for that alone, ignoring the mere technical error of being overcarbonated - work on this issue, Broers, and you will have a craft beer with balls. Fermenting it with kveik yeast seems like an unnecessary effort amidst this kind of intensity, though...

Voluptuous pink-tan head over virtually black beer. Nutty, chocolate, ganache, some roast - still searching for raspberry, let alone porter. Chocolate, again light roast, ever so faintly fruity - say strawberry or raspberry ganache. Grapes/raisins in a chocolate bar. Well bodied, slick, good carbonation. Good beer? Yes. Porter? No. And if this isn't a bit of raspberry essence, then the dose of raspberries ought to have been doubled. Thanks to Stef!

Bottle from Geers. Cloudy black, stable, foamy, beige head. Aroma initially of green & red apple, giving an infected feel, making way for toast, fig, black pepper, red bell pepper, mandarin peel, chocolate nibs, mocha.Taste has sweetish fig & prune with a sourish berry edge, strong toasty maltiness along with bitter chocolate & coffee roast, spicy undercurrent building towards a peppery hoppy finish, chili burn coming in strongly, overpowering the 'stoutish' roastedness. Chili lingers on but really has that vegetable aspect like bell peppers, rather than a spicy accent colouring the roasted base profile. Medium body, slick texture, lively (over!)carbonation. Aromawise, it just gives an infected or perhaps too young impression. Tastewise, overcarbonation mixes with the chili which the Stout character cannot keep in check. I just cannot enjoy this one unfortunately.

23/I/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Outside New Year’s Drink, BB: n/a (2021-75)

Pretty clear deep orange to amber beer, small dense creamy beige head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: malty, bit fruity, some caramel, bit soapy. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit chemical, funky, very bitter, weird, plastic touch. Aftertaste: yeasty, weird, alcohol, lots of it, caramel malts, some banana, very bitter, bit spicy, alcohol, dry, good stuff, probably the best Broers beer I’ve had so far.

3/I/21 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte), shared @ home, BB: 17/VIII/22 (2021-13)

Clear gold blond beer, big dense aery off-white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: lots of honey all right, malty, bit of a sweet impression, some cow fodder. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: malty, little sweet, grains, some citrus notes, soft bitterness, some honey. Aftertaste: malty, grains, pretty bitter, some honey, overripe banana, bit sourish, not bad.

Bottle from Geers. Hazy dark orange, lasting, thick, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of ripe orange, mango, pink grapefruit, pear, yeast, breadcrust. Taste has sweetish pear, pink grapefruit & orange in a bready malty body, a bit dirty yeasty with quite bitter citrus peel & grapefruit juice. Dry, resinous hoppy finish, yeasty, bitter citrus peels yet dirty. Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Okayish.