Sloefmans (15389) reviewed Lewis Dark from Volders Bieren 5 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5
Gushing to a huge greyish - pale beige head, irregular, over deep brown beer. Nutty, bready nose as from opening, brown candi sugar, but also a fresher, green leaves-like aroma. Rather bitter, mildly roasted flavour, bit leafy, undergrowth - but generally speaking very monotone. Finish has a bit sour-sweet streak, but again without any depth. Well carbonated to spritzy, medium bodied, bit thinnish. Ow. Not a success in any way.
blackisle (5698) reviewed Lewis Dark from Volders Bieren 6 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
Almost opaque amber brown colour, good and stable mousy beige head. Aroma toasted malt, caramel, light treacle. taste medium sweet and light bitter, malty, caramel, faint chocolate, bit flat. Medium body, oily texture, active carbonation, smooth sweetbitter aftertaste, roasty and herbal accents, caramel still rules, boring label, well-balanced and good strong ale.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Lewis Dark from Volders Bieren 6 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
The newest of these ‘home brews’ by Patrick Volders commercialized (on a small scale) by Marc Knops’ Varenbroek brewery, and the third one now, after Joske and Sibyl. Slow gusher, but manageable. Thick and foamy, yellowish pale beige, mousy head, cloudy chestnut brown robe with ruddy-burgundy hue. Aroma of sweet caramel candy, Ersatz chocolate, treacle, Liège pear syrup, candied dates, crumbled dry cookies, soap, tea, hint of glue. Sweet onset with a slightly sourish edge, hints of fried pears and dried banana, fizzy carbonation, slick and smooth mouthfeel; sweet-caramelly and cookie-like maltiness, a tad powdery in the end (crumble-ish) with dark sugar on top but also with a more bitter, toasty edge. Mildly leafy and herbal hop bitter accent in the finish too, but the caramelly sweetness remains dominant. Simplistic ‘massieve ale’ (a strong dubbel or a light quad, depends on how you look at it), sweet and malty and certainly suitable for a larger Belgian audience, technically well executed, nothing wrong here.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Lewis Dark from Volders Bieren 6 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
11/I/20 - 33cl bottle @ home, BB: 8/IV/20 (2020-25) Thanks to Alengrin for sharing the bottle!
Pretty clear rusty red brown beer, creamy bit irregular beige head, pretty stable, bit adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: very malty, caramel, ripe banana, chocolate milk, little spicy, some paint thinner. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet start, caramel, malty, bit dusty, chemical touch, sugary, soft acidity. Aftertaste: lots of caramel, overripe banana, berries, bit chemical, unpleasant bitterness.
Rubin77 (10187) reviewed Joske from Volders Bieren 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
F: big, white, average retention. C: gold, bit hazy. A: malty, vaguely fruity, bit orange, bit honey. T: malty, fruity, peach, floral, spicy, taste is better than nose, bit honey, alcohol is well masked, medium body and carbonation, relatively good balanced, enjoyed, sample from 0,33l bottle @ second day ZBF 2018.
Rubin77 (10187) reviewed Lily Blond from Volders Bieren 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
F: big, egg-white, long lasting. C: blonde, hazy with yeasty veils. A: malty, apples, orange peels, spicy, grassy, banana, herbal. T: malty, herbal, bit banana, grassy, spicy, bit juniper alcohol, yeasty, medium body and carbonation medium to high, not bad, enjoyed, 33cl bottle from ZBF 2018.
Beertalk (16424) reviewed Joske from Volders Bieren 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Zythos 2018. Hazy golden with a small white head. Fruity and spicy aroma. Sweet fruity and phenolic flavour, with a nice bready malt note.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Lily Blond from Volders Bieren 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
After Joske, the second beer developed by pipe smoking hobby brewer Patrick Volders, executed at Varenbroek. Bottle from Kevin's Beer Shop in Kontich. Very tightly 'membranous'-lacing, eggshell-white, dense and creamy, medium thick, very stable and persistently closed head over a pure straw-tinged golden blonde beer with lively fizz and small translucent flakes of yeast throughout. Aroma of freshly cut Granny Smith apple, banana-flavored bubblegum, sourdough, white bread, decorative sugar, withering leeks, spoiled cucumber soup, meringue, lots of soapy coriander (even with a 'hand soap' effect), steamed parsnip, potato mash, withering nettles, gin, hints of dried camomile, unripe pear, chalk, fresh manure somewhere faraway in the background. Crisp, sweetish onset with souring edges highly accentuated by a sharp, stinging carbonation effect; truckloads of the old banana ester (isoamylacetate) mingled with a dash of green apple acetaldehyde and light pineapple and unripe peach impressions; strong minerally, even chalky notes at the sides of all this. 'White' bready malt body, rounded and softish but made needlessly harsh by overcarbonation; sharper grainy notes, quite harsh green apple accents somehow lingering about, soon overshadowed by a soapy coriander seed effect, although remaining relatively at bay in this case. Drier finish with ongoing white bread dough maltiness, dry coriander spiciness, some spicy phenols, sweet banana ester and minerally carbonation effects, but turning more bitter by a floral, grassy hoppiness, a tad resinous at the root of the tongue but in a very soft way, incapable of making any relevant statement against the initial sweetishness. As expected and as usual within this style, this whole story is rounded off by a glow of warming, somewhat wry and in that sense insufficiently hidden, young 'jenever'-like alcohol. Your average sweeter-side, coriandered, 'jeneverish', spicy Belgian tripel, very clearly the most overexposed beer style in this country - in this case adorned with dry-hopping, which only adds spoiled vegetable soup-like aromas instead of doing what it is normally capable of. I can drink this, but if (at least the original) Joske was a perfectly fine and technically completely correct tripel, this one has some flaws here and there so I guess I should recommend Joske over Lily, for what it's worth. Strange that this guy seems to have no further inspiration apart from tripels, too - aren't there any other interesting styles to try from his perspective, even if you limit yourself to a strictly Belgian context?
Benzai (24515) reviewed Joske from Volders Bieren 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle @ home. Hazy murky yellow color, medium to full sized white to off-white head. Smell and taste malts, yeast, sweet, slightly herbs or spices. Decent body and carbonation. Decent.
Kraddel (15844) reviewed Lily Blond from Volders Bieren 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Sampled at Zythos 2017. Thnx for sharing, Ruben and Tim ! Pours unclear blonde, small white head. Smell is weak, mild bitter notes. Taste is bit sweet. very yeasty. Mild bitter, some fruityness. OK