bier4der (3358) ticked Hay - Z from Spéciale Belge Brewers 3 years ago
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Hay - Z from Spéciale Belge Brewers 3 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
21/X/22 - on tap @ Spéciale Belge taproom (Antwerp), BB: n/a (2022-1404)
Pretty cloudy orange beer, big creamy solid off-white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: sweet and sugary impression, some diacetyl, yoghurt, fruity, some tropical fruits. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: a bit sweet, bitter, watery, yoghurt, some diacetyl, a bit dirty, meh. Aftertaste: weird bitterness, unpleasant, diacetyl is very present, malty, some banana peel, dry finish, not a very good beer...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 3.5
21/X/22 - on tap @ Spéciale Belge taproom (Antwerp), BB: n/a (2022-1401)
Clear orange beer, big creamy white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: malty, grains, cow fodder, doesn’t smell like a witbier at all? Not getting any wheat, or coriander, or orange peel, or a bit of Belgian banana yeast esters... MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very malty start, grains, a bit sourish, slightly fruity, watery, chemical bitterness. Aftertaste: bitter touch, more chemical, very bad unpleasant taste, lots of band-aid and solvents. Something went wrong here, not sure what. But it’s a bad beer.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Pours a surprisingly dark hazed brown-over-amber. Medium sized white head. Scent is bready, crisp maltyness, milder on the caramel, not much yeast and very little hops. More like a dunkel than a Special Belge to me. Taste is surprisingly bitter, mild caramel, way more expressed on the bready side and crispyness, almost lager like (enhancing the dunkel feel) even though it's a high fermentation beer. Very decent, but i'm a bit confused by the style meaning VS brewed result.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Draught Very dense & fine, good head, beige, retreating over black beer. Barrel aging on the maple immediately suggesting booze, fragrant wood, wild mushrooms, moss, ferns, undergrowth, and dried dates. Sweet, vanilla-ish, chocolate bar (black & milk), Chocotoff, again boozy-ish. Feels really full-bodied, slick to viscous; good carbonation. The maple lagering and -syrup - and/or the yeast - lends a superb nose to the beernapped edition, unfortunately joined by a pastry flavourcharacter.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Draught Black beer with a beige-brown good head, reasonably stable. Stout as with caramel, roast and heated toast; nutty, chocolate. Dry stoutish ashes, with just a pinch of sweetness, roasted, retronasal. Almost no stout acidity, but a tad diary. Stiff helping of chocolate, black bread. Feels better bodied than it is; good carbonation. Recipe for the making of a nice, almost dry porter.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Draught Very good, dense yellowish head over muddy ochre beer with a mossy sheen. Very fruity, grapey C-hops, citrus, passion fruit, hint @ asafoetida. Fruity flavours with a light bitterness; same fruit as the nose, plus a little banana. Medium bodied, wheatslickness obvious, even a hint of alcohol (?!). Very good wheat - it happens to be quite difficult to marry wheat and these aromatic hops (as the Mosaic for dry hopping) - and here the success is complete.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Draught Very good cream-beige head over reddish brown beer. Very malt, fresh green beer still in fermentation; hint of wood and even lactic; half-dried grapes. Quite malty, dark malts, bready, bit of chocolate, and again wood, traces of caramel. Medium bodied, bit slick, the finish is a bit light. Good beer. It is however 2-3 scales too dark for a Speciale Belge.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Draught Fluffy, yet dense just off-white head over hazy orange beer. Very fruity nose, exotic fruit, citruspeel, jute, preserved citrus as sucade (without the sweetness). Soft-spicy and citrussy flavours, serious hints of other grains (oats, I thought spelt,...) Fine bitterish- and sourishness from citrus, again non-sweet sucade comes to mind. Light, well-carbonated. Rather nice! NB the "Mountain" reference is a joke as being situated halfway between Westcoast and New England IPA.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
9/VI/22 - 33cl bottle @ Brouwbar (Gent), BB: 25/V/23, batch: SB01 (2022-678)
Clear dark brown to black beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: good roast, malty, caramel, vanilla notes, something sweet, almost like lactose? Lots of chocolate notes as well. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: sweet start, some alcohol, lots and lots of alcohol, slightly sourish, more alcohol, bitter, hoppy. Aftertaste: more roast, lots of chocolate, alcohol, whisky, some vanilla, bitter roast, nice stuff!