330ml. can. @"home", Compostela. 04/04/2026
[#8.990 Global - #321 Belgium - #1Batteliek (My Belgian brewery #114)]
Pours light hazed pale golden with a big off-white head. Aroma: herbal, spiced bready malts, belgianyvyeast and biscuits. Taste: spiced malts, light floral hops and yeast. Lovely belgiany palate.
Next one, please!

Can. Bit hazy light golden. Yeasty, cloves, grassy and spicy hops, doughy, overripe fruit, indeed some rye. Medium swert, a bit less bitter. Full bodied. Not bad, but a bit heavy on the spicy notes.

330ml can, poured into my Westmalle Trappist chalice at home on 9th February 2026. Slight haze in the golden body, white head that soon turned into a thin wisp and collar, plenty of sediment trying to settle in the base of the glass. Barley sugar nose and taste, this is initially a sweet tripel, there are herbal/fruity notes within that help to calm it down a little, alongside the 'Belgian yeasty feel' I love so much. Enjoyed it.

Goudgeel bier met schuim. Smaak is bitterzoet en kruidig met wat honing, sinaasappel, banaan, wat rijpe peer en een sterke alcohol smaak. Op zich een heel degelijk bier maar iets "over de top" qua smaakervaring vind ik.

Tripel brewed by Batteliek, the brewpub opened in 2022 in the deconsecrated church of Battel in Mechelen by owner Het Anker - now itself owned by Huyghe, so I wonder if this Batteliek project has any chance of survival. In case it has not, I purchased this 'tree-like tripel' at the Carrefour supermarket of Sint-Denijs-Westrem, because I had only one Batteliek beer before and wanted to have a broader view on their output, given my longstanding sympathy for Het Anker. Thinnish but stable, snow white, shred-lacing, partially opening head on a crystal clear, pure 'old gold' coloured robe with vague apricot tinge and visible sparkling throughout, turning misty with sediment. Aroma of breakfast cereals, unsugared oatmeal porridge, 'oude jenever', dried apricot, candied peach even, banana peel, clove, birch tree leaves in summer, linseed, grass, old musty lemon zest, vague hints of old cumin seed, sugarfree cookies, triple sec, violets, fennel. Fruity onset, sweetish peach, banana, pear and slight medlar, lively carbonation even for a tripel, with pronounced minerally effects; smooth-edged white-bready and cereally pale malt core with a layer of honeyish sugars on top - yet not as much as in the majority of Belgian tripels nowadays, I must admit. Slight herbal aspects in the finish - cumin, clove and anise spring to mind but only very distantly so, while a juniper berry-like aspect becomes much more pronounced, its bitter side merging with the leafy, slightly peppery hops - the promised citrusiness of which remains altogether very restrained and 'dry' instead of juicy. Somewhat 'rooty' finish in which part of the honeyish sweetness survives, along with that typical smoothness of oats - all warmed up by a notably 'jenever'-like booziness, both in flavour and in harshness, to be honest. Maybe this beer contains more alcohol than it can bear - a flaw often seen in strong beers not up to the job - but for me, it felt a bit wry and unbalanced, especially considering the tripel style that was intended here. Then there is this weird, bitter, juniper berry-like 'alkaloid' aspect I disliked - and which I could not identify unless actual juniper berries, but I cannot find any data anywhere that would confirm that. Not a very big success for me - the original Gouden Carolus Tripel is, at least in my recollection, a whole lot better.

Canned 330ml. -from Wild Lab Liege. Unclear orange/golden coloured, small off-white head, caramel and light ripe fruits in the nose. Sweet malty, bready, caramel, light ripe fruits and some alcohol with sweet finish.