Bottle shared, mild gusher. Murky chunky brown with a speckled tan head. Aroma of roast, yeast, caramel, overripe dark fruit and malt. Flavour is above moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Thuis een flesje gedronken. Houdbaar tot juli 2015. Bij opening erg wild. Diep donkerbruin bier met stevig lichtbruin schuim. Fruitig en moutig aroma. In de smaak komt de caramelsmaak van de gebrande granen duidelijk naar boven. In de nasmaak komt het bittere van de hop naar voren, deze blijft lang hangen.

Shared bottle on 5th Feb 2016 at the 4th International Beer Swap in De Bierboom, Brugge. Poured a hazy dark orange, the head a white affair. I had so many strong beers during the session this just seemed a bit weak in depth, taste and alcohol, even though it is labelled as 7,5% ABV. decent enough blend of malts and hops with a yeasty and herbal twist but lacked something in character compared to most Belgian Strong Ales I have uncounted. Drank again on 15th May 2017, again in De Bierboom: seemed more hoppy than I remembered. Also found out ’FishWife’ (VisWijf) is slang for a woman who does not shut up talking!

Vissenberg beer brewed at Gaverhopke - so why am I still surprised the gushing was so bad that it flooded the table and half of my laptop... Has somebody already alerted the brewer about this issue? Anyway, after cleaning up for a quarter of an hour, I found a completely cloudy, dark chestnut brown beer with bronze hue (but not black!) in my glass, residing under a dense, moussy, equal, yellowish white head retaining very well. Aroma of cold black coffee of dubious quality, old cocoa powder, raw red cabbage, roasted peanuts, banana, kahlua, brown bread, baker’s yeast, raisins, cloves, dried thyme, damp cloth, cigar ashes, earth and even a faint hint of sewer water (H2S?). Fairly bland onset actually, dried fruits, hints of baked banana, raisins and chestnut, soft carbo (it went to heaven through the gushing, I assume), little bit minerally, ’dull’ and, frankly, a bit tiring sourishness all the way through, moving on to a slick, smooth maltiness, caramelly at first, nutty and eventually lightly chocolatey with a bitter roasted edge, but lacking in body and efficiency, as well as suffering from the ’Belgian yeast’ phenols dancing on top of it. Ends in a very soft dark malt bitterness, more toasted than roasted, caramelly sweetishness, some phenolic yeastiness (retronasal cloves, but something band aid-like as well) and a ’powdery’ yeast feeling in the back of the mouth; there is a very earthy, leafy, herbal hop bitterness as well, but not powerful enough to save the day, and a glow of warming, wodka-like alcohol puts this thing out of its misery without becoming too astringent. Another failed Belgian attempt at imperial stout - luckily we have Black Albert and its offspring, otherwise I would consider moving to another country for it, even if this country were the Netherlands, where De Molen, Emelisse and others have understood what this style is about years ago - while apart from Struise, Belgian brewers are clearly still struggling with it. This is a ’stoutish’ Belgian beer alright, not unlike Ellezelloise’s Hercule. As for appearance: I can accept a light amount of gushing, but not this violent flow of beer flooding my kitchen; more importantly though, this lacks body, finesse and ’coffee roastedness’ to be a real impy. On top of that, there is way too much uncontrolled Belgian yeastiness going on. Make this a lot cleaner, thicker and ’less Belgian’ and it may still have a future, as the intention is not bad; however I, for one, will not acknowledge a category of ’Belgian imperial stout’ only to accommodate those who aspire at brewing one, but get stuck in Belgian traditions too much to deliver something truly important.

33cl bottle from Mitra Den Bosch. Thick creamy white head. Hoppy aroma. Very hazy light amber pour. Nice bitterness. Well done

Bottle shared thanks to Deanso. Pours very hazy orange with particles and a big off white head. Aroma of citrus, tropical fruit, orange peel and light grapefruit. Flavour is light sweet and over moderate bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle from Willems. Newish micro brew with off-white, moussy, finely structured head retaining quite well, over a hazy, peachy orange blonde robe with lively fizz. Very ’Belgian’, estery and aromatically sweet-spicy aroma of fresh orange, overripe peach, sweet white wine, pineapple, honey, rosewater, mango, even a volatile whiff of an agreeably sweet ladies’ perfume, ginger, banana, Poire Williams, mint, freshly cut grass, chamomille, vanilla beans, freshly ploughed earth, some faint varnish-like phenols and cloves. Estery, fruity onset, lively with hints of peach, banana, strawberry and pineapple, fairly strong carbo but not disturbingly so, sweetish with a relatively strong, light sourish citrus ’fraîcheur’ which will last for the rest of the palate, spanning a pleasantly bready and lightly caramelly malt background; spicy yeastiness continues to the finish, with a retronasal effect of cloves and ginger, balanced by a late and deep, earthy hop bitterishness, though it is the honeyish malt sweetness which remains as the last impression after swallowing. Very decent Belgian tripel, perhaps still a bit on the ’blunt’ side, could do with more ’cleansiness’, but enjoyable alright. I have the impression these guys know what they are doing, it is quite obvious that they put intrinsic quality before an attractive and original label ("hop doet leven" is a nice find, but otherwise I would not pick this bottle out of a dozen others based on the label alone...). I do hope they will soon turn to more exciting beer styles than again another tripel, though...

Imported from my RateBeer account as Vissenberg Schouwveger 9% (by Brouwerij Vissenberg):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 1/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.3/5

27/III/15 - 33cl bottle from the brewers @ home - BB: X/2016 (2015-407) Thanks to the brewers for the sample!

Gusher alert!
Clear purple to brown beer, aery beige irregular head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: yeasty, bit chemical, dried fruits, banana, dark chocolate. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: caramel, dried fruits, some banana, bit of alcohol, dark chocolate. Aftertaste: bitter touch, hoppy, caramel, banana, some chocolate.

Bottle @ home. Opaque brown color, full sized fizzy beige to light brown head that lasts for quite a long time. Aroma is malts, brown malts, overripe dark fruits, lightly earthy. Taste malts, earthy, iron, brown malts, dark fruits again. Fizzy carbonation, average body. Not very good. -- Update: after leaving it on the table for about half an hour the carbonation subsided and the beer actually was pretty decent. It would probably get a 3.3 or thereabout now, so I averaged them (original rating was a 2.7) to a 3.0.