Bottle sampled at Essen Winterbeer Festival 2014. Pours clear brown with a small tan head. Aroma of malt, caramel, big floral notes, speculaas, cinnamon. Flavour is over moderate sweet and moderate bitter. Medium bodied with over moderate carbonation.

330 ml. bottle from Willems & Zoon. Bottle claims the 4 standard beer ingredients & elder flowers, I am not buying that one for even a second! Pours a hazy brownish amber with no head, okay. Smell is crazy chemical speculoos dough & artificial sweetener, really artificial. Taste is extremely odd chemical speculoos, huge amounts of nutmeg, way too much, artificial sweeteners & flavors, light cinnamon, some plastic in the end, crazily sweet. Carbonation is very high & body feels artificial as well. Such a weird & artificial beer. Bizarre.

Sampled @ O.B.E.R. Kerstbierfestival 2014, Essen. Goldgelbes Bier mit einer geringen weißen Schaumkrone. Geruch malzig, getreidig, fruchtig, Gewürze. Geschmack würzig malzig, getreidig, leicht trocken.

Sampled at Kerstbierfestival Essen 2014. Clear golden color, small white head. Smell and taste malts, lightly hops, nicely bitter, grassy, hayish, herbs and spices lightly. Quite nice. Decent body and carbonation

Old school (but relatively new) top-fermented cherry beer with actual cherries from Haspengouw. Off-pinkish, stable head over a brownish, dark red beer. Aroma indeed reveals actual cherries, brambleberry, blackcurrant, some caramel, some sour cream, faint spicy hints. Very fruity taste, genuine cherries and cherry juice, very fresh and authentic, only lightly sweetened (sugary grenadine touch) but nowhere too artificial, quite strong carbo, lightly sourish finish. Authentic, artisanal, honest cherry beer like there once were many more. Nice.

Tripel with sticky, off-white, stable head and deep orange blonde colour, hazy. The aroma has the same amount of elderberry flowers as the original Toetëlèr Wit, caramel, honey, peach, yeast. Fruity taste, honeyish malt sweetness, caramelly, subtle elderberry blossom showing up retronasally with a bit refreshing, perfumed effect, mild hop bitter in the finish but rather brief. In all, an interesting spice beer rather than a classic tripel.

Witbier with elderblossoms since 2011, this beer company’s first, initially simply called Toetëlèr. More of a specialty grain in fact, since apart from the 75% pale barley malts, four other grains are used: oats, wheat, rye and buckwheat. Cream white, sticky head, pretty orangey straw blonde beer; pleasant aroma of elderberry flowers, vanilla, bread, exotic fruits, spicy grains. Refreshing, complex fruitiness, citrussy touch, soft grainy middle with velvety mouthfeel, sourish wheat and buckwheat accents, spicy rye accent all noticeable, thirst-quenching, retronasal flowery perfume and light bitterness in the throat. Very nice, above average ’free’ interpretation of the style, something I can only support after the dozens of Hoegaarden clones we’ve seen in the past three or four decades.

Bottom-fermented specialty beer, not far removed from a German Kellerbier. Stable, thin, off-white head, lightly hazy golden blonde colour. Pale malts and minerals in the nose, grainy, green apple, young cheese. Neutral and mineral-like onset like any ordinary pale lager, malt sweetness, aromatic hops in the finish. Redundant, they’d better stick with their spiced ales.

Leicht honigartiger Antrunk, dunkel hefig. Herb fruchtig, mild, minimale Getreidenoten. Trinkbar. 9/9/9/9//9

Kräuterantrunk mit künstlichen Noten, insgesamt mild, helles Malz, leicht fruchtig, etwas künstlich. 9/8/8/8//8