Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
28/10/2018 @home - 33cl bottle from a trade with jerre. GUSHER!!! pretty violent at first but slower afterwards. Although poured in the glass very gently, the head kept growing even a mnute afterwards. Sure has a lot of energy! (sorry could'nt resist). Of course huge soapy off-white head, colour dark brown. Nose is malts, pretty roasted, caramel, some coffee. Taste is malts, roasted, some chocolate, caramel, sour touch. Sweeter and more caramel on warming up. Difficult, not really bad but the gushing and sour touch?...
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Retrorik Experiment from De Meester 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Special version of De Meester's Retrorik, thanks to the brewery for the sample. Pale yellowish beige, thinnish and open, lightly lacing head, misty dark chestnut brown, almost black with burgundy edge. Aroma of brambleberries and passionfruit, treacle, pear syrup, caramel, soggy brown bread. Essentially sugary onset, cloying, pear syrup- and candied date-like sweetness penetrated by a blackberry-like tartness; fizzy carbonation, supple, full mouthfeel, caramelly and somewhat chocolatey, nutty with an effect of sugared soy sauce, while that initial soft sourness continues. Ends sweet and sourish with lingering sugariness and a bready yeasty effect. Apparently the sourness was intentional, but it fails to balance out the overdone basic sweetness of the Retrorik and I honestly would not be surprised if this is just an infected batch of Retrorik they are trying to sell as 'experimental' in view of the popularity of sour beers these days; that said and if this would be the case, I'd say this is quite a happy accident, as the end result is enjoyable apart from the underlying sugary cloyingness. In any case a notably weird beer for sure, like some other De Meester's creations.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
De Meester's take on imperial stout, winter beer from a bottle wrapped in paper, at Modeste. Thick and moussy, yellowish beige head, black robe with hazy burgundy edges. Aroma of Belgian chocolates, glue, fondant, brown rum, candied fig, teriyaki, beef broth, coffee liqueur, Rumtopf, walnuts. Sweet onset, condensed candied dates and dried prunes, beef broth-like umami edge, softish fizz, thick and 'greasy' mouthfeel, thick caramelly, toffeeish, nutty malts, chocolatey with a coffeeish roasty bitterish touch in the end before a long, warming and eventually astringent, rum-like booziness with strong solvent-like effect sets in. Way too boozy for its own good, but admittedly better than expected from this brewery. --- Beer merged from original tick of Dark Master - Aged in Bourbon Whisky Cask on 25 Nov 2020 at 11:08 - Score: Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7. Original review text: New bourbon barrel aged version of De Meester’s Dark Master stout, with regular label instead of the paper wrap this time. Mousy, pale greyish beige, thinnish and irregular head, some thin grey ‘veils’ in the middle of a very dark, de facto blackish beer with still translucent burgundy, hazy edges. Aroma of toffee, liquorice and even ‘drop’, whisky, crème au beurre, marmite, bayleaf, clove, dried prunes, salmiak, burnt toast, cigar ashes, thyme, solventy effect (shoe polish). Sweet onset, blackberry coulis and candied dates, ‘krenten’, light umami edges (beef stock-ish) and light sourish undertone, softish carbonation, full and smooth body; toffeeish and slightly chocolatey malt core with toasty edges, initially sweet but turning increasingly bitter towards the end, with a mild but confident coffeeish roastiness; liquorice aspect in the end, along with impressions of bayleaf, cigar ashes and black tea, before a boozy alcohol glow takes over – only vaguely reminiscent of bourbon actually, could have been another liquor as well for all I know. Bit crude and less bourbon-forward than hoped, but still quite an impressive beer for this brewery, I guess they learned a lot from what Brambrass has been doing there… Enjoyable if you are into robust stouts with a quadruple-ish side, but I would have preferred more influence from the wood ageing (especially the woodiness itself, which remains superficial and altogether on the weak side).
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Meester Kriek Brut from De Meester 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
New cherry beer by De Meester, bottle at Modeste. Membrane-lacing, bright pale pink, creamy head, misty deep ruby-fuchsia red robe. Aroma of sweet cherry jam and red candy ('poepegatjes', cuberdons), lemonade, blackberry juice, white bread. Sweet onset, red candy sugariness, cherry extract, medium fizz, syrupy middle with ongoing sugary sweetness but a bit less cloying than feared with a bready maltiness with soft caramelly edges and a very thin lemony sourish edge providing some balance. Old school 'candy' kriek the Belgian way, apparently De Meester feels that there is still room for expansion in this particular segment; admittedly there was way worse on the market during the heydays of sweet and simple sugar-fruit beers and this was less repulsive than I was fearing but it still feels out of date and unnecessary in this day and age.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Sampled @ Modeste bierfestival, Antwerp. Dark brown color, average sized off-white to beige head. Aroma is weird: malts, dark malts, hints of paint, but also liquorice, glue. Taste malts, roast, glue, minerals, liquorice, soy sauce, lightly sweetish. Weird. 6-3-6-3-11.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Thanks to Benzai. Sampled draft @ Modeste 2018. Dark brown. Nose is cough syrup, herbal, thin. Taste is weird herbal, grainy cough syrup, bit sour, gravy, strange gravy, cough syrup, thin… Weird, not a big fan.
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as José Dewaele Sportbier Champ Bruin (by De Meester):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 1/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 11/20, MyTotalScore: 2.8/5
8/IX/18 - 33cl bottle from a trade, shared @ home, BB: 21/V/20 - (2018-1226) Thanks to Jerre for the trade!
BIG GUSHER!
Clear dark brown beer, huge fizzy aery beige to brown head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: malty, grains, sweet, caramel, big sugary, spicy, some chocolate. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sourish, pretty roasted, chocolate, more roast, caramel, bit sweet. Aftertaste: pretty bitter, sourish, roasted, some dried fruits, is this infected? Curious what "Champ energy drink" tastes like...
Bierridder (4318) reviewed Blond IPA from De Meester 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
11/08/2018 - 33cl bottle shared by tderoeck and his wife @ their place. clear blonde, small white head. Nose is malts, bit spices, fresh hops. Taste is malts, bit sweetness, bit spices, nice hops ending, dry. Not an IPA but a nice hoppy blonde however. --- Beer merged from original tick of Meester Blond IPA on 07 Feb 2022 at 10:49 - Score: 6.5
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Blond IPA from De Meester 7 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Meester Blond IPA (by De Meester):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.5/5
11/VIII/18 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte), shared with the famous Bierridder @ home - BB: 29/I/20 (2018-971)
Clear deep blond beer, big creamy off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: sweet, malty, oxidized, some ripe fruits, pretty soapy. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: sweetish start, very malty, very soapy, bitter, fruity notes, bit sugary. Aftertaste: pretty bitter, hoppy, grassy, fruity, ripe banana, coriander, yeasty. Ok beer, but by no means is this an IPA.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Douze from De Meester 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
The “twelve” (no doubt a subtle reference to Westvleteren’s legendary 12), a quadrupel by De Meester, bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck. Irregularly moussy, medium thick, pale yellowish beige head, slowly opening and breaking down into small islands over an initially lightly hazy, deep copper-hued ruddy bronze beer, more cloudy with sediment. Aroma of old soggy raisins, gingerbread, dried banana, treacle, brown candi sugar, coriander seed, fig compote, plum wine, caramel candy, dust, wet straw, cloves, damp earth, some vague rusty iron. Very sweet onset, candied dates and yellow raisins, with a light, vaguely wine-like tartness underneath but mostly dominated by candi sugar sweetness; medium carbonation, caramelly malt sweet body with a light toasty bitterish touch underneath the expected coriander and phenolic spiciness and rounded off by an earthy hop bitterish note, heated by a glow of rum-like alcohol. Very decent quad, better than expected, but a bit too alcoholically wry in the end and a tad too sweet perhaps.