Strong stout flavoured with 'drop' (liquorice candy, not the first one to use this ingredient even in Belgium), by this brewery near Bruges. Gusher, but can be opened without loss if done very carefully (and over the sink just to make sure). Very thick and foamy, thickly paper-lacing, large-bubbled but dense and firm, pale greyish-ecru head on a dark chestnut brown beer with hazy wine red hue - not the kind of opaque black one expects from a stout of this strength, though. Aroma of old caramel candy, vegetable soup and vegetable 'bouillon', cooked salsify and even overcooked broccoli (DMS and a lot of it!), damp earth, old liquorice indeed, ground walnuts, dried prunes, soggy toast, cloves, dried tarragon, coffee filters that have been used repeatedly, hints of iron (in a natural way), bayleaf, brown soap, old brown bread, whisky, frying tomato concentrate, some faint wood glue-like solvents, chewing gum somewhere but very faintly so. Estery onset, restrained in sweetness but still hinting at baked banana, dried fig and apple peel, very fizzy carbonation (filling the mouth - yet not too painfully stinging), light umami accent (beef jerky), sourish undertone; full, fluffy mouthfeel coarsened a bit by the overcarbonation. Brown-bready, toasty and doughy malts with a caramelly edge, dryish with a sweetish core, bitterish in the end but rather softly so and lacking in the expressive 'black' chocolate and coffee aspects inherent to stouts in general; meanwhile lots of fruity and spicy yeasty aspects dance around aimlessly, with strong clove- and somewhat thyme-like impressions. Ends yeasty, bready and 'rounded' bitter, the latter both from malts and from - herbal and leafy - hops, accentuated by a 'jenever'-coloured alcohol glow; the liquorice is certainly there, but fortunately does not overpower too much. Many attempts at the old but revived and still very prestigious 'imperial stout' genre have been made in Belgium since Regenboog, Alvinne and Struise introduced it here, but many have failed, in remaining basically Belgian style beers (often quadrupels) with an above average toasted bitterness; this one fits that category perfectly, with the additional comment that it has turned out much too yeasty, with unpleasant cooked vegetable notes (DMS - which I hate with a passion) taking over in the nose and being overcarbonated. Technically flawed (something I do not tend to expect from Bryggja), way too Belgian-yeasty for the intended style and lacking significantly in roastedness, this is again more Scotch-like than imperial stout-like, and not even the most pleasant one in that respect. Needs to be rethought and reinvented completely - and please omit that annyoing liquorice nobody is waiting for, I would almost say I'd have preferred coriander seed instead... Almost.

Clear brilliant chestnut brown colour, tall frothy beige head, half-way lasting, good lacing. Aroma toasted malt, dark fruit, cocoa, liquorice, spicy notes. Flavour medium sweet and bitter, malty, light chocolate, caramel, light dark fruit, light liquorice, spicy notes. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation, mild sweetbitter finish, spicy and liquorice notes, quite good.

Bottle from Carrefour, Sint-Kruis. Pours hazy ochre with an unstable, thinning, frothy, white head. Aroma of ripe orange, apricot, pineapple slice, banana peel, coriander, kitchen herbs, perfume, soap. Taste is medium fruity sweet, quite perfumey still, ripe orange & pineapple, estery banana on top of a honeyish, bready malty base with a dash of white sugar; sourish touch of wheat in the light spicy bitter middle, notes of 'generic' herbs, coriander & grass. Dryish, floral & earthy hoppy finish, lingering coriander, ripe fruit, honey, a tad metallic which gives rise to a more bittering effect. Medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation. Bit of a mess all in all, too much perfume and not well-balanced.

The starting point of the Bryggja project, the beer they won a hobby brewing contest with in 2012, enabling them to expand and start their own brewery. Tripel in a steinie bottle with Bruges' Halletoren on the front label - this is as Belgian as it gets. Thick, very frothy, tightly membrane-lacing, beaten egg-white, dense and stable head resting on top of a clouded, warm and deep peach blonde beer with yolk-yellowish edges. Very yeasty-fruity and malty aroma, ripe peach, ripe banana, orange peel, honey, freshly cut pear, bread crust, phenolic spiciness, dough, moist white pepper, dusty and soapy coriander seed, fresh camomile, hints of grated ginger, calvados, carrot cake, whipped cream, freshly cut 'witloof'. Very fruity onset, lots of banana but matching with equally strong pineapple, peach and pear impressions, sweetish with a sourish edge, lively but refined and in that sense 'soft' carbonation, full and fluffy mouthfeel, doughy malt base, brioche bread and bread pulp, with ongoing fruitiness and upcoming, dusty-spicy and soapy coriander seed, shifting to an elegantly floral hop bitterness with a more 'deep' and rooty tail in the end, and a gently warming, calvados-tinged finish in which the 'fresh' fruitiness, spicy phenols and soft, fluffy malt and yeast breadiness linger. The sweeter side of tripel but not too sweet, completely predictable in its fruity yeastiness, warming alcoholic finish and use of coriander, but in its segment far from the worst I had - reminds me a bit of Chimay Triple and that cannot be a bad thing. Technically completely flawless, ticking all the boxes of the style and quite refreshing, while warming at the same time: this is a good tripel, whether you like tripels or not.

Golden colour with thin head. Aroma and flavour have some bready yeast and spicy notes. Full bodied.