Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle from a gift - many thanks, Elke!
Hazy brown, thin, off-white head. Aroma of brown sugar, pear syrup, plum, dark honey, caramel, liquorice, tea leaves. Taste has very sweet pear & plum, brown sugar, honey, bitter herbs & vague juniper for balance. Herbal hops in the finish, lingering candied fruit, perfumey honey, flowery herbs and warming alcohol hinting perhaps at spiced mead. Medium body, syrupy texture, average carbonation. Herbs set the tone but don't dominate here, which is an an accomplishment in itself. Apart from that I'm a sucker for Belgian Dark/Dubbel anyway, although I find Viking references rather silly ('cringe' as Gen Z would say).

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6

33cl bottle. A clear amber beer with a off-white head. Aroma of mild rotten fruits, caramel, spices, grapes. Taste of old hops, caramel, ripe fruits, spices.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5

Fast gone offf-white head over hazy ochre-copper beer. Watercolour paint, moss, wet green plants & weeds. Artificial appearing bitter flavour, faint coriander, again watercolour paint. Finish is, despite some watery feel, burning-bitterish, again artificial, unnatural characterized. Light, watery, decent carbonation. Bof. The beerworld might not gotten instructed as to whom ordered Het Lam Gods (what is the -AWA stuck to the Vijd name?), but on matter of taste, we wouldn't have lost nothing if this beer never appeared. Thanks to Stef!

@ 2016

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Brunn's own contribution to the series of five beers commissioned by the municipality of Beveren to commemorate the historical figure of Judocus Vijd, the guy who paid for the famous Lam Gods painting by Van Eyck. The most potent beer of them all, a strong 'black' beer flavoured with yarrow, locally harvested meadowsweet, woodruff, angelica and dates. Thick, dense and creamy, pale yellow-beige, slowly opening head on a very dark chestnut brown beer, indeed as good as black but still with mahogany glow throughout. Aroma of cocoa dust, burnt toast, hard caramel, bitter chocolate, coffee filters, toasted walnuts, liquorice, dry clay, black tea, dried woodruff, dates, wet leather, green kitchen herbs and dried flowers but nothing that overpowers the rest. Dried dates and raisins in the onset, baked banana sweetness, softish carb with supple, full, oily mouthfeel; caramelly, walnutty, bitter-chocolatey and brown-bready malt core flavoured with lots of herbal effects, liquorice-like even if no liquorice was used (could be the woodruff in combination with the roasted malts), aniseed-like (probably the angelica) and tea-like (the meadowsweet), all carried onwards by a firm, toasted coffeeish bitter tail, gently heated by whisky-like alcohol. Stout-ish, rather an imperial porter perhaps, but what the heck: something altogether different from the sweet pastry stouts and porters you see passing by these days and in that sense an interesting product that manages to combine an idiosyncratic character with outspoken but well-managed herbalness as well as high technical quality. By far the best one of all these Vijd beers for me. Cheers Bruno!

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bier Verenigt, the microbrewers' club of Beveren, was tasked with creating five different beers commemorating the historical figure of Judocus Vijd, who commissioned the famous Lam Gods painting of Ghent. This one was made on behalf of MV²O, a wine wholesaler who also has a honey beer in his portfolio (Papitou) and now, with this 'Ameltje', embarks on his second 'own' beer, even if it is brewed in the kettles of fellow Beveren entrepreneur Brunn. Many thanks to both Tim of MV²O and Bruno of Brunn for inviting me over and taste all these beers! This Ameltje has a thick and frothy, paper-like lacing, egg-white head and clear, deep 'old gold' robe. Aroma of dried banana, star anise, sweet cicely, green apple, liquorice candy, stewed pear, dried mandarin peel, cheese rind, pineapple, sugar loaf, white bread, wet cloth, something vaguely plastic-like. Fruity, crisp onset, green apple, pineapple and unripe banana impressions, sharply carbonated; cereally, bit dryish middle, white-bready malt core deeply drenched in star anise and liquorice spiciness, with the curaçao being a tad less prominent (though still adding some fraîcheur in the end); some lingering leafy hop bitterness in the end. The fruit (medlar) adds this unexpectedly crisp, green fruitiness but plays a less important role in the nose; a second batch, also tasted that evening, contained rhubarb in replacement of the medlar and had a more distinct aroma, indeed reminiscent of - sweetened! - rhubarb compote. Quite a complex brew indeed, and in combos like this, it will always be difficult to find the correct balance between so many outspoken flavours - yet I think Brunn managed to pull it off, especially in the original medlar version. My rating here is an average of both the medlar and the rhubarb batch.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Home brewery Fienneke's contribution to the series of five Vijd-themed beers commissioned by Beveren, the birthplace of 15th-century nobleman Judocus Vijd; executed at Brunn and - like some of the other Vijd beers - making use of coriander seed and raisins. Medium thick, off-white, lightly lacing, mousy head on a hazy orangey peach blonde beer. Aroma of sweet yellow raisins indeed, sugar loaf, young cheese, honey, caramel, peanuts, peach, coriander seed soapiness, rainwater. Fruity onset, peach, banana and pineapple notes, sweetish with sharp and stinging carbonation distracting a bit from the actual flavour, with strong minerally effects; bready, very lightly toasty-bitterish maltiness with a slight caramelly streak to it, quickly spiced by soapy coriander seed and - in the end - a leafy, lingering hop bitter note. Crisp, cleanish, dryish blonde, with the raisins adding a weird but quite agreeable cheesy aspect as well as the expected sweet aroma, yet little of their sugariness has survived in the mouth, if any. Unexpectedly interesting.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Light brown colour. Aroma has some bread dough and yeast. Flavour has candy sugar and yeast. Slight metallic taste but ok overall.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

sampled at Zythos 2017. Thnx for sharing , Ruben and Tim. Pours unclear blonde, hazy yeastyness. Smell is mild, bit yeasty. Touch bitterness. Taste is somewhat yeasty, malts. Mouthfilling sweetness. Yeasty ending.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

The newest one in Brunn’s range of spice ales. I actually already tasted this in its preproduction phase last year, under the provisional working title of ’Léonneke’, which has now materialized in this spiced tripel. Thick, cobweb-lacing, off-white head, hazy peach blonde colour with slight ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of camomile, ripe peach, honey, dried orange peel, sweet white wine, soap, melting powder sugar, dry cookies and subtle but ethereal sweet-and-spicy notes of liquorish and star aniseed, with almost vanilla-like effect; more aromatic than I remember it was originally conceived, with less off-flavours (the first batch suffered a bit from DMS). Estery, fruity, sweet onset, peach, pineapple, some banana, honeyish malt sweet middle, soapy especially towards the end due to the spices (coriander especially, star aniseed as well), curaçao and liquorish remain largely absent, though they certainly contribute to the aromatic retronasal spiciness in the finish. Ends mostly sweet and spicy with a mild herbal hop bitter touch and some warming alcohol. Sweet and spicy tripels are not my personal cup of tea but within that range, I think this is quite well made, though perhaps just a tad too spicy for its own good.