8/IV/23 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ holiday home (France), BB: 15/VI/24 (2023-306)

Clear pale yellow beer, big aery fizzy irregular white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: a rather watery impression, a little spicy, herbal touch, a bit malty. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: a little bitter up front, grains, hay, a bit metallic, spicy, some coriander, yeasty touch. Aftertaste: some banana, bitter, grassy, a bit watery, spicy touch, more yeast, grains, hay, gentle acidity. Not a real witbier if you ask me...

Bottle from Drinks Vanuxeem, Ploegsteert, Belgium. Pours a hazy golden colour with a large thick foamy white head. Aromas of yellow fruits, bananas, pear drops and candied sugar. Taste is different from the aroma and is fairly sweet with sherbet orange. Medium to full body with low carbonation and smooth mouthfeel. Not the typical type of Tripel but fairly unique and decent enough.

330ml bottle. Cloudy, chestnut colour with small to average, frothy, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, beige head. Toasty, minimally nutty, dark malty and yeasty spicy aroma, hints of Brazil nut, chestnut, a minimally waxy touch. Taste is dry, toasty, dark malty, slightly nutty, very subtle residual sweetness, a yeasty fruity touch, a yeasty spicy touch as well, weak hints of red berries, nougat, some leafy hop; a minimally waxy touch in the finish. Watery texture, smooth and slightly dry palate, medium, mildly prickly carbonation. Not overly complex, a tad monotonous - OK.

33cl bottle: BB 4th May 2024. Poured into a 2000 vintage Duvel glass at home on 19th February 2023. My 1,000 Belgian rate on this site (as if anyone actually cares).Bright golden orange with a full on white head, plenty of carbonation bubbles rising through the brew. Malty and a pretty sweet Tripel with a slight 'orange' flavour. The 8% ABV there for all the feel.

Bottle from a shop in Nieuwpoort.
A: hazy orange, small, off-white head.
A: oxidized apple, pear, plum, coriander.
T: sweet apple, plum, white bread, spices.
F: floral hops, ripe fruit, yeast.
P: medium body, slick texture, average carbonation.
Refreshing Tripel, nothing more.

33cl bottle: BB 13th October 2023. Poured into an old Chimay chalice at home on 14th February 2023. Deep ruby red/brown, soft tanned head. It's sweet and malty, a bit 'thin' body and flavour wise really. Head fell away to a wisp and collar very quickly too. Not overly impressed to be honest.

Bottle 33 cl. Dark brown, creamy foam. Aroma: strong, alcohol, bourbon, caramel, black bread. Taste: strong, bready, caramel, winey, strange.

One of old Van Den Bossche's newest, a classically styled witbier - though oddly, the ingredients list does not make any mention of spicing. Vichy bottle from the Carrefour of Oostakker. Medium thick, snow white, lightly lacing, breaking but generally well-retaining head, near clear yellow-golden blonde robe turning misty (and effectively more witbier-like) with sediment. Rather weak aroma of halfripe banana, white bread dough, light lemon peel, coriander seed, dry straw, oxidized pear slices, raw turnip, freshly cut grass, hints of white soap, withering field flowers, unripe green melon, minerals. Fruity onset, green apple and hard pear mingled with unripe banana, sharp fizzy carbonation (a bit overcarbonated for this style, in fact - very minerally), slick body with indeed wheat soapiness and wheat slickness at its edges but still firmly white-bready barley-like in its core; the wheat sourishness does, however, persist and accompanies the rest of the flavour 'parcours'. Drier in the end, with obvious added spicing in the form of classic, soapy coriander seed and vague dried lemon peel (or, more likely, the old curaçao); some grassy hop bitterish notes add 'fraîcheur', but the spicing, white-bready maltiness and even wheat sourishness prevail. Ends with that typical 'blanche' soapiness. A bit maltier and less wheat-forward than the classic Hoegaarden standard, perhaps, but clearly spiced (why is this not mentioned anywhere?) in the classic way and in that sense adding literally nothing to this genre. Hoegaarden epigones abounded already in the eighties, so why look back again instead of coming up with something more modern? After all, the witbier market has only declined since then, so one can wonder what the point of this beer is anyway... Still, and out of respect for this tenacious and hard-working old brewery, I will grant it a decent score, not the least because it is a technically very well made beer which still feels genuine and not as industrial as Hoegaarden itself. Decent, in all, but frankly very boring as well - a bit as expected, really.

Bottle (well out of date) from Craft Beer Oasis, Crewe – drank at home.Pours a cloudy golden amber with visible floating sediment and a small white head. A fairly typical Belgian aroma – malts and yeast with a hint of bubblegum. It the mouth it is sweet with vanilla, bananas and raisins. Some hoppy bitterness in the finish. It’s decent enough. Forgot to say - hides its strength well

Good, fine & dense yellowish head over clear, well-carbonated orange golden beer. Vegetable, citruspeel, spicy (pepper), white candi sugar, dry herbs, ever so slightly toasted aroma. Very slightly burning MF, partly due to the lively carbonation. Dry flavour, slightly scorched sugar, again peppery and herbal, but mainly really dry. Obviously well attenuated. Aftertaste isn't empty, but very neutral. Warming up, very lightly human sweat. Every sip short and slight impression of acidity, again due to the CO². Medium bodied. Very dry and good attenuation... what one expects from a triple, but it dearly lacks flavour. Txs to Stef!