Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5

Kerstbier Festival. Hazy amber beer with a white lacing. Aroma of herbs, spices, cinnamon, yeast. Taste of tart fruits, apples, sugar, sulfur, dried fruits, weird stuff.

kerstbierfestival essen 2016

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

Winter beer by this new microbrewery in Verviers, thanks tderoeck for sharing. Mousy, pale yellowish beige, medium thick, lacing head, hazy deep chestnut brown robe with mahogany hue. Aroma strongly dominated by added spices, varying between white cardamom, star aniseed and cloves to coriander seed, cinnamon and ‘pepernoot’, hint of dried thyme, caramel, brown bread, candied fig, pear, dry earth, hint of ‘jenever’. Sweet onset with light sourish edge, medium carbed, banana, pear and fig fruitiness with brown sugar on top, caramelly maltiness with a very lightly toasty-bitterish edge, the bitterishness accentuated by extreme spiciness, with nutmeg, cardamom, coriander seed and star aniseed dominating (no idea which of these actually went in here); this exaggerated spiciness lends the whole beer a somewhat astringent, unpleasantly perfumey effect, which is supported by a herbal hop touch and warming, gin-like alcohol. Even the front label itself is as cliché for a Walloon Christmas beer as it gets – and once again, we here find a Walloon Christmas beer that gets totally lost in overt spicing. Not badly made as such, but in this form, it not only feels like a throwback to the 20th century, but also as if someone accidentally threw in the whole spice rack – please tone down on this kind of spicing even in a winter beer, guys!

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

19/X/19 - 33cl bottle from Kerstbierenfestival (Essen, 2017), shared @ Wim VL's Stoofvlees Tasting, BB: IV/2018 - (2019-1749)

Clear dark brown beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: super spicy, floral, honey, cloves, some cardamom, not too bad. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: very soapy start, spicy, lots of cloves, dried orange peel, some caramel, nutmeg. Aftertaste: spicy, thyme, honey, oxidized. Wow, not good.

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

At Kerstbierfestival 2016 , thnx for sharing everyone ! Pours murkey brown. Small white heas. Smell is curry, nettle, aromatic spices. Taste is full, sweet, spice, cardamon, sweet. herbal. Meh... very unique notes I got out of this, but all together, it’s a bit of a mess, really.

Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 3

Sampled @ KBF 2016, Essen. Murky light brown color, average sized off-white head. Smell and taste herbs or spices, cinnamon, nutmeg. Horrible. Not my thing at all.

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

33 cl bottle. Pours hazy brown with a dmall tan head. Aroma is roasted malty and slight spiced. Sweet, spiced and roastd malty. Bitter and dry roasted. Light caramelish sweet malty finish.

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

Bottle sampled at Essen Christmas Beer Festival ’16. Murky brown with a tan head. Aroma of malt, overripe dark fruits, caramel and toffee. Flavour is moderate to heavy sweet. Above medium bodied with soft carbonation.

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

[Thank you for sharing!][330 ml. bottle sampled @ O.B.E.R. Kerstbierfestival 2016] Dark brown amber, tanned bubbles. Nose is weird licorice, black licorice mixed with gravy, cloves, cardamom. Taste is cardamom, cloves, licorice, herbal, sugar, tad too much gravy for me, bit watery, lightly umami. Not entirely there but decent with clear potential. Far better than a lot of the other stuff at the festival for sure.