75cl bottle shared with 3 friends. Thin tan head. Clear black pour. Lots of chocolate. Lovely brew.

Bottle 12fl.oz. @ home. [ As Spencer Trappist India Pale Ale ].Clear medium yellow orange color with a small, frothy - fizzy and open, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, white head. Aroma is moderate malty, cookie, sweet malt, caramel, light to moderate hoppy, fruity hops, biscuit malt. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and moderate to heavy bitter with a long duration, cookie, biscuit malt, sweet malt, hoppy, dry. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20161110] 7-3-8-3-15

Golden colour with light haze. Aroma has lots of citrus peel also a touch of caramelised peach. Light, clean and well balanced.

Pours rather clear blonde, ok to small white head. Smell is mildly bitter, some soft pine. Taste is full, pine, bit bitter, very grassy. Some malts to the back. i’ve heard about 99 % negativity about this one, but I really like it, to be honest. guess it’s just these kind of hops I like. Def intense , not weak as I had been told. quite nice body and carbo as well. Can’t think of anything really negative, to be honest.

With this newest trappist beer to date, the monks at Spencer venture further into beer styles that have no traditional connection with trappist breweries whatsoever: this is apparently intended as an Oktoberfestbier, typically a lighter version of Märzen both in colour and ABV - yet 7.5% is clearly higher than even the heaviest of traditional ’real’ German Märzens... Bubbly and moussy, quickly diminishing, off-white head over a hazy orangey amber beer with a salmon pinkish hue. Aroma of butterscotch, dry banana peel, dried red berries, strawberry, biscuit, cloves, candied apple and an unexpected hint of smoke, almost as in a peated whisky, but much more subtle and without any noticeable alcohol. Clean fruitiness in the mouth, hints of redcurrant and dried mango but very restrained, softish carbo, smooth and slightly resinous mouthfeel, not feeling as a 7.5% beer. Light biscuity and caramelly malt middle with that smoky touch from the nose returning in the end, hinting at a small dosis of smoked malt, even very vague smoked bacon, matching well with a gently drying, spicy but in no way exuberantly American hop character, establishing a medium long finish. Pleasant enough beer, certainly not a typical Oktoberfest and not even a typical Märzen, but a rather idiosyncratic interpretation of it, stronger and fruitier with less emphasis on malt sweetness and a surprising, totally atypical and unexpected hint of smoke. It seems the Spencer trappist beers are gaining more and more personality - as far as I am concerned, this brewery is clearly the most interesting of the new trappist breweries that joined the classic Belgians (and one Dutch) in this century.

(bottle, 35.5cl) Hazy, golden colour with a firm and mid-sized, slightly off-white foamy head. Flowery and moderately fruity hoppy aroma with notes of orange blossoms, apricots and minor grassy hints. Moderately bitter and slightly sweet flavour, medium to light bodied with a modest carbonation. Mildly bready malt character with slightly fruity and resiny hoppy notes; moderately bitter hoppy and delicately sweet finish with fruity, resiny and slightly spicy accents. Likeable anglo-american hybrid. 21.X.16

Imported from my RateBeer account as Spencer Trappist Festive Lager (by Spencer Brewery):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5

31/X/16 - 12Fl. Oz. bottle @ home - Ster's first Ghentian tasting, BB: IX/9/17 (2016-1255) A huge thanks goes out to Alengrin for sharing the bottle! As it seems, it's a pretty rare one as well.

Clear orange to amber beer, big irregular beige head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, bit sweet, some caramel. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet malts, some caramel, banana, a hint of peated or smoked malts (very subtle, hard to determine), sweet in general. Aftertaste: banana, sweet, caramel, slightly bitter, grains and malts. Decent, though my score is probably influenced by the rarity of this one. :p

0,33 l bottle bought at Bierzwerg, Greven. Little bit unclear dark golden, huge frothy head. Intensive floral hopy on the nose. Taste starts strong bitter, less fruity, malt in the second row. Scratchy alcoholic.Increansing malt and getting smoother in the second part. Okay.