Bottle shared in Hackney - many thanks to Kenwise! Pours mostly clear, bright rich gold with a slender, creamy heading. The aroma holds ripening berries, bread, faint yeast, toffee, botanicals. Light to medium sweet flavour with ripe, dried berries, golden raisins, drying pale wood, hints of peach. Medium to full bodied with fine carbonation. Warming finish, sweet, wit more woody dryness, white grape, mild leather, alcohol, pear, bread. Fairly punchy, but nicely layered and reasonably drinkable.

Bottle shared at Leightons place 27/03/2017. Huge thanks to Kenny for this one. A hazed reddy amber coloured pour with a. Lasting loose white head. Aroma is big spicy hot alcohol, woody, solvent, Juniper, brown malts. Flavour is composed of light grains, spicy, gin, nutty, Belgian yeast and hop alcohol. Little tangy apple. Palate is semi sweet, tangy, highish frothy carbonation. Tangy. Lingering hop alcohol.

Bottle care of Kenny. It pours hazy amber with a small beige head. The aroma is earthy, wood, spicy, fragrant, fudge, dried fruits, date, candied peel and oak. The taste is bitter - sweet, orange candied peel, mild acidity, vanilla, lemon rind, spicy, peppery, mild acidity, raw alcohol and cheap lemonade with a dry, spicy finish. Medium body and moderately carbonated. Interesting, but the balance ain’t great. Hot.

Bottle split at LKS Hacknee Hights, thanks to Kenny, 27/03/17. Rich copper with a decent light beige covering that soon dissipates. Nose is sweet tunes, earthy fruits, dates, tarte fruit, spice, dollop of honey, caramel. Taste comprises sweet and sour notes, light wooded notes, tangy dark fruits, faint gin, sweet tones, toffee. Medium + body, fine carbonation, drying close. Decent Belgian affair.

Bottle @ De Heeren van Liedekercke. Hazy red brown with a lasting off-white head. Aroma is sweet, malty, caramel, candy sugar and light spicy. Flavor is quite sweet and moderate bitter. Dry and moderate bitter finish. 180317

Gin barrel aged ’massieve ale’ from Sint-Canarus, limited to 1000 bottles; this is number 614 (written in handwriting on the hangtag), bought at Fontana for about 12,50 €, which is less than some other ratings mention below but still too high for a 75 cl Belgian even if it is barrel aged - and I don’t even like gin, so I guess curiosity got the better of me today. Gusher, but slowly so manageable. Moussy, medium thick, irregular, lightly greyish white and rather loosely structured head, quickly reduced to a steady rim and a veil in the middle, over a hazy bronze coloured, translucent beer with coppery hue. Aroma of gin indeed, dried juniper berries, sour apples, hard butterscotch candy, caramelized brown sugar, wild cranberries, caramel sauce, pear juice, yellow raisin, fainter whiffs of banana, cough syrup, wet wood but very subtly so, tequila, brown bread, apple sauce, hazelnuts, dry earth, cooked carrot, cloves, white methylated spirit (probably just that gin again), band aid - a mixture of a classic Belgian strong brown, gin and medicinal, unpleasantly phenolic off-flavours. Sweetish onset, soft in its basic nature but quite harshly carbonated, souring a bit, with impressions of nectarine, orange, banana and blackberry, full mouthfeel coarsened a bit by the light overcarbonation but only initially - quieting down after a while. Sweetness (candi sugar) is there and accompanies the rest of the palate but more or less avoids offensive stickiness; a bready, caramelly malt sweet core shines in the middle but is quickly overpowered by the gin barrel effect, manifesting itself in an ethereal, juniper-like spiciness (the thing I hate most in not just gin, but gin-inspired beers alike), drying wood tannins but not much actual oak flavor and - unsurprisingly - a whole lot of ’white’, heating to almost burning, long-stretching, literally gin-like alcohol; bready yeast effects, an overdosis of phenols (to the point of becoming a bit medicinal) and some herbal, earthy hops linger along with this effect. Candi sugar sweetness and alcohol remain after swallowing. I will never understand this current gin craze - I repeat that I hate both gin and its Flemish / Dutch ’jenever’ counterpart - but the fact that more and more brewers try to cash in on this, is even further beyond me. The ethereal, medicinal spice effect of gin just does not fit in any beer, period. I understand why Sint-Canarus wanted to try this but it is a good thing that they kept it limited to one thousand bottles only. Not my cup of tea, but I hasten to add that this is considerably more enjoyable and much more genuine than many other gin-inspired beers I had to endure lately, some of which drew their gin factor only from heavy and completely inappropriate spicing (a - luckily still limited - range of such infernal beers has arisen from this, Hop(e)less Ginny is one, and please let no one ever remind me of that ghastly Gordon Xplosion Gin Spices again). Easily the best gin-inspired beer I had so far, all things considered, but not free of flaws.

Pours hazy dark brown with an amber hue and a lasting beige head. The aroma contains yeast, cheese, caramel, (over)ripe dark fruits and bread. It tastes medium sweet, light bitter and light sour. Creamy texture and decent carbonation. Unlike a typical brown beer because of its yeasty and character.

Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020