tderoeck (22946) reviewed Special Tony from De Wilde Brouwers 3 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
20/VIII/22 - 75cl bottle @ Gents Bierfestival, BB: n/a (2022-1078)
Clear yellow blond beer, small creamy white head, stable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: very very yeasty, ripe banana, weird. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: a bit sweet, very yeasty, herbal, a bit sourish, lemony. Aftertaste: dry, spicy, funky, very yeasty, bitter, sourish, meh. Not a fan.
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Hul Extra Stout from De Wilde Brouwers 3 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
9/IV/22 - 75cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Cybu’s place, BB: 15/I/26 (2022-344)
Clear dark brown to black beer, big creamy beige head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: floral, soapy, roasted, metallic, a bit malty. MF: lively carbon, medium body, creamy texture. Taste: very roasted, bitter, metallic, grains, malty, a bit soapy. Aftertaste: grains, very roasted, coffee notes, malty, metallic finish.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from Willems en Zoon Grobbendonk. Lively, but no gusher. Color: Hazy golden, white head. Aroma: Malty, lightly tart, citrus notes, hints of red wine. Taste: Malty, blond ale in the background. Light to moderate tart, light sweetness, sour red apple, citrus, subtle vinous notes of red wine. Tannins. Subtle oak wood and wild yeast funk. Dry-ish mouthfeel. Refreshing. Medium body, average carbonation. Quite some carbonation for this style but not disturbing. Nice one.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Flora Sour Cherry from De Wilde Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Special version of Wilde Brouwers' low alcohol lager, also named after the neighbourhood in Merelbeke where they are located; aged on barrels with sour cherries, with a sour lager as a result rather than a sour ale - a combination I have seen only very rarely and so far never in Belgium. Extremely violent gusher: spouting out of the bottle with great force at the moment of removing the crown cap, so forcefully that I could not prevent losing 1/2 (!) of the content to the sink - be warned. Typical 'gusher head': very irregular and very thick initially, but 'empty' and uneven-bubbled, eventually settling as a thick, plaster-lacing, irregular but dense and stable, vaguely pinkish pale beige-white mousse on a very murky, deep burgundy red beer with earthy brownish tinge, looking like beetroot juice or something alike, with small strings of tiny bubbles creeping up along the wall of the glass here and there. Strong aroma of indeed actual sour cherries and sour cherry juice in a very natural way, old bread, damp earth, cherry stones (almond-y even), redcurrant, beetroot, raw red cabbage, overripe blueberries, rosehip, bitter dandelion leaves, soaking wet old wood, vague background hints of soap, chlorine and old rusty iron (in a 'natural' kind of way though). Acidic onset from the cherries, malic acid as well as citric acid, astringent and puckering but softening further on; 'real' sour cherry flavour, even some overripe ones, fills the onset, with perhaps some side notes of redcurrant and other sour berries; lively, spritzy carbonation accentuates the acidity in the beginning. Supple, basically soft core, bready and cereally, deeply soaked in this sour cherry overload, dried by cherry skin and cherry stone tannins - and a hint of actual wood tannins, though remaining low in the expected 'vanilla' effect oak wood normally emits. Earthy finish, 'damp tree leafy' hop bitterness and again that overripe - if not rotting - sour cherry effect, with both wryness and drying tartness, while traces of malt and yeast breadiness form a softening 'soil'. Bitterness and sourness compete, but some inherent fructose sweetness lingers about too, albeit in a subtle way. I have nothing against the idea of creating a sour cherry beer from a lager - this is original to say the least, and fortunately in the glass the overall flavour is quite enjoyable, if earthy and leafy; the extreme gushing is unforgivable though, I can take a certain amount of it and not be angry but this is way over the top. The unpleasant murky looks and somewhat disarrayed head are symptoms of the same problem, which must be addressed; I can only assume that either the barrels or the fruit, or maybe both, contained additional fermenting agents that went berserk after bottling. Solve this technical flaw and you will have an original, distinct beer that resets the traditional ideas we may have of what is possible with lagers.
Tom (2084) ticked 't Biechtstoeleke from De Wilde Brouwers 4 years ago
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Flora Sour Cherry from De Wilde Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
11/V/21 - 33cl bottle, shared @ home (Ghent), BB: 16/XII/22, (2021-376) Thanks to my neighbour Fred for the bottle!
Pretty cloudy red brown beer, big fluffy creamy beige to dirty pinkish head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: fruity, cherries, some vinegar, floral. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter start, some tannins, fruity touch, vinegar acidity, cherries. Aftertaste: dry, nice acidity, some vinegar, cherry pits, sour cherries.
nathanvc (7053) reviewed Troggeling from De Wilde Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Hazy dark red-brown, stable, tan head. Aroma of red apple, pear, ripe plum, caramel, dark honey, raisin, bread & jam. Taste has sweet red apple, pear & plum over a bready, almost rye-like maltiness, accent of honey, very slightly toasty. Spicy, herbal hoppy finish, dried fruit, jam & bread. Medium body, creamy texture, soft carbonation. Agreeable, nice surprise actually.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Cydonia Barocca from De Wilde Brouwers 5 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Tripel flavoured with quince (Cydonia oblonga in scientific terms), commissioned by Cydonia Barocca, a baroque music ensemble in Ghent. To be paired with music (as is sometimes recommended in present-day beer culture), specifically baroque music, and even more specifically Bach, Telemann or Graupner - the latter being very obscure, but taking this wonderful, refreshing and quite unique recommendation to heart, let me put on Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier (performed by Sviatoslav Richter in 1969). With both Bach's and Telemann's output in mind, even ignoring all those other wonderful baroque composers, a few thousand of these Cydonia beer variations would not be sufficient, but anyway... Medium thick, snow white, moussy, small-bubbled, sparsely lacing, stable head on an initially clear, deep 'old gold' beer with 'metallic' orangey tinge and lively sparkling throughout, becoming misty with a slight khaki tinge after adding the sediment. Aroma indeed instantly revealing quince, a mixture between green apple and Conference pear in this case, coriander seed, ripe red apple peel, white bread crust, clove, homemade plum wine accent, medium dry sherry hint, vague notes of 'appeljenever', dried apricot, iron pipes, dried lemonbalm leaves, dry kitchen cloth, cotton, dry earth. Fruity onset in a more or less restrained way, slightly astringent quince effect (reminiscent of green apple or unripe pear with a tad more astringency somewhere), unripe peach and green banana accents, lively carbonated but not overly harsh, smooth and moderately 'full' body, very slick, a bit resinous even; cereally malt body with very light caramelly edges, ongoing 'green apple' fruitiness (sweetish and sourish) from the quince, a pinch of soapy coriander seed but fortunately not overdone, evolving into a gently warming finish in which a floral hop bitter accent appears, lasting quite long while coriander and that 'hard green fruit' quince effect continue - eventually all warmed up by a 'jenever'-like alcohol glow. An all too obvious metallic effect 'zings' along the edges, while sweetness lingers, but in a clean, non-sticky way, along with that floral hop bitterness; a more astringent green fruit touch, if subtly so, travels along down the throat as well. I wish (many) more beers would give specific musical recommendations like this - in fact the label did remind me of Graupner, whose music was very little known to me so far. Needless to say, the Wohltemperierte Klavier I put on lasted much longer than even the memory of this beer, which is, all things considered, just another 'easy-flavoured' tripel with a careful fruity twist to it; that said, the quince fruitiness is omnipresent and subtle at the same time, comparable with a quince saison I had from Broers (not that far removed from Wilde Brouwers geographically) a few years ago. Too metallic, unfathomably more boring than the music it associates itself with, easily smooth and many times more accessible than Telemann's countless concertos - this beer does not live up to its own associations for me, but I am a sucker for baroque music and a harsh critic when it comes to beer, so do not take my review here too seriously, just enjoy the baroque masters and have a sip of a beer which is altogether quite unusual thanks to this old and inaccessible species of fruit. My grandmother's garden, always an important guideline for me when it comes to olfactory memories, springs to mind once again - but not her homemade quince jam, which, from what I recall, was way sweeter than this somewhat astringent, mildly interesting tripel variation.
Tom (2084) ticked Louis XVIII from De Wilde Brouwers 5 years ago
Tom (2084) ticked Cydonia Barocca from De Wilde Brouwers 5 years ago