Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Pours black. Small tanned head. Small tanned head. Scent is intence, rye noticable. Taste is roasty, creamy, nice rye profile, bit chewy, 'plastic' like feature I'm not to fond of. Nothing majorly off, just a small imperfection. Easy drinker, not bad at all, just not very specific or unique, perhaps.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Pours black, medium sized, slowly rising (almost looks like nitro) , very creamy mocha head. Scent is raw, roasted malts, tad hoppy (very green). Fairly intense. Taste is roasted, coffee, mild hops (noticable, mostly green) Medium body, medium low carbo. Mild bitterness. Decent!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Draught Dark beige head, with some larger bubbles over fully opaque black-brown beer. Roast, charcoal, meatroast, breadcrust, candi syrup (if not really sweet). Again roasty but a lot more dry than the nose suggested. Still a bit breadcrust and even some of the sweeter crumb. Faint root spices, finish has a lot of dry hops, if not very aromatic nor fruity. Feels at least medium bodied, quite hopoil slick, medium carbonation. OK, fine, but you have to accept it sits on the fence between several styles; black IPA, dry stout, sweet stout, Belgian dark, etc.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Draught Very dense & fine off-white head over fully hazy ochre-orange beer; textbook lace. Dry yeast features, grains, bit spicy malts. Somehow creamy nose, greenmalt. Sweet, malty, again rather spicy and quite yeast-intoned. Tastes young, almost unfinished, lots of maltsugars, only relieved by the spicyness, but in the same breath promising. Quite full MF for a tripel (and hence a bit too sweet); good carbonation, yeastslick. Promesses, promesses - more ripening and attenuation, and this might become a really excellent tripel.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8.5
Draught Crystal clear copper beer, still, with a huge ultra-fine and dense off-white head and textbook lace. Nice hops, very fruity and citrussy nose, inviting; lunaria, grapefruit, passion fruit, faint ureum, etc. Bitter and malty at the same time, slightly more discreet fruity notes, straw, dry. Not very slick for a wheatbeer, absolute clarity going along with this. Soft carbonation, medium bodied at best. Nail on the head! Exactly what I love and IMHO, this is the first IPA that can really called both IPA and Belgian - as a 'style'. IPA-like, but with a distinct Belgian character.
Sloefmans (15519) reviewed Tourist #05 from Spéciale Belge Brewers 4 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Draught Dark tan head, very dense & fine over jet-black beer. Chocolate, tobacco, dark green leaves, ureum. Outspoken initial bitterness, roast, dry dark malts, but a lot of sweeter stuff lurking beneath. Bit of meatroast, (over)roasted peanuts. Warming up, aftertaste displays pipe tobacco smouldering. Medium bodied, not more. Medium carbonation, quite slick, oily feel. Nice. Still, I think the hops might be more prominent compared to the roast - at least if you call it "hoppy" porter.
bier4der (3358) ticked Tourist #03: Saaz from Spéciale Belge Brewers 4 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Belgian style amber ale used to be called (and for nostalgic reasons often still is) ‘spéciale belge’, and the Spéciale Belge taproom in Antwerp – home to the ‘Bolleke’, one of the most iconic examples of this style – is named after it; they have recently installed a microbrewery in their taproom too, and this beer is, you guessed it, a ‘spéciale belge’ from this new microbrewery. I did not have it there, though, but at Ernst, another new craft beer pub in the city of Antwerp. Thick and dense, yellowish egg-white, ‘Brugse kant’-like lacing, very stable head over a slightly brownish-tinged peach blonde beer – reminiscent of the traditional amber colour of a ‘spéciale belge’, but lacking a bit in ‘redness’ to fully qualify. Aroma of bread dough, raw cauliflower, soggy peanuts, green banana, unripe peach, rusk, baker’s yeast, grass, hint of DMS (cooked green beans). Moderately fruity onset, green banana and unripe peach accents, fizzy and sharp carbonation with strong minerally effect – but still soft and fluffy mouthfeel; rusk- and bread crust-like maltiness, a bit toasty, bitterish, matching with a floral, somewhat old-citrus-peel-coloured hop bitterness in the finish, all topped with a pleasant, softening yeasty breadiness. Decent example of the style but as said, I miss a bit of nuttiness and a red tinge in the colour; that said, most commercial examples of spéciale belge are or were filtered and pasteurized, which by definition leads to a very different look and taste. So generally a solid Belgian amber beer, this one, quenching and balanced.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Draught Very good, dense, lightly amberish tinted head over opaque dark-amber beer, fine lace. Toasted malts, bread, bit of citrus/orange; breadcrust. Quite toasted flavour, parsley, Belgian sandwichcrust, some cassonade, scorched caramel. And - yes, strange - samphire. Quite slick, bit velvety texture despite good carbonation; medium bodied. Good! Twist on the Spéciale Belge style in the right way!