kersbierfestival essen 2019

Small head over hazy orange beer. Extremely spicy nose, pharmaceutical dried herbs, and suggesting pharmaceutical bitterness. Pharmaceutical indeed, human sweat. First sweet-ish, then (herbal) bitterish to neutral. Finish is bitter artichoke and wormwood. Medium bodied, quite slick, good carbonation. Not my kind of... tripel? Thanks to Stef!

Gushing to huge, very dense & fine light-yellowish head over pale golden beer, finely carbonated to lace. Bit dusty, spicy grains, hints at a bit of acidity. Toasted, ever so slightly oxydated grains, a bit grassy. Finish is sweet, sugary, whilst all the hops & bitterness are concentrated in the head. Spritzy carbonation, slick, nearly sticky, light body. Not bad, if a tad superfluous. Thanks to Stef!

A weird creation by larger Antwerp's CyDraLe, describing itself as, wait for it: kefir-soured imperial black oatmeal cherry milkshake farmhouse session IPA brought to life from the remainders of Samhain Russian imperial oatmeal stout... I guess this can be read as a not too serious attempt to mock the hybridisation and over-specification of beer styles in the craft beer world, but with this kind of absurd descriptions, no consumer has any clue as to what he can expect, obviously - a first point of criticism for me. How am I supposed to take your beer seriously if you present it like this? Anyway, if the overly elaborate description is to be taken seriously in any way, I assume this concoction is a hodgepodge of leftovers from very different, earlier beers, with some added handling (like the addition of lactose). Very loose, even-bubbled, pale yellowish beige 'head' fizzing away into absolutely nothing as quickly as the 'head' on a glass of coke (i.e. in a second or two, max) - and with the actual beer looking very dark, a kind of blackish mahogany brown with bronze, hazy edges and visible bubbles of sparkling all around, the overall effect indeed looks exactly like cola. The aroma is - unsurprisingly - a mishmash of all kinds of impressions that do not all seem related to one another: I get black cherry juice, cola, burnt toast, damp earth, raisin bread, tea, nutmeg, cloves, bayleaf, liquorice candy, hard caramel, earthy beetroot, dried prunes, old dusty jute bags, elderberries, noticeable lactose. Crisp, fruity-estery onset, pear, elderberries, blackberries, blue plums and indeed a touch of black cherry - sweetish, but with a sourish edge, fizzily carbonated (again: like cola); medium bodied, soft and a bit 'fluffy'. Brown-bready and somewhat peanutty maltiness with strong caramelly core, but also developing a roasty-bitter edge towards the end; this sourish streak (I guess representing the kefir?) continues, matching with dark berry-like fruitiness and juiciness. Lots of bready yeastiness in the tail, a tad starchy, with phenolic spicy notes and lingering dark juicy fruitiness; the roasted effect becomes earthy and a tad ashy in the end, but provides welcoming bitterness against a very slightly sticky lactose sweetness, further adorned with a herbal hop bitterish note. An unorganized hotchpotch of styles mixed together like a cocktail, indeed, but the end result of this idea is not a NEIPA like the label claims. If anything, it has features of porter, dark sour and just simply Belgian dark ale, but given that roasty effect, I think the general 'porter' flag can cover it (more or less). Points off for knowingly being an ill-fated idea, for losing the head in the blink of an eye and for carelessly throwing together a bunch of leftovers that simply do not match - but then, not as bad as I was fearing, with still some redeeming features; I can, for instance, appreciate the combination of sour (cherry?) juiciness and tartness with the roasted porter aspect. In any case, most of the words in that ridiculously complicated description can easily be deleted...

Pours clear blonde, strong honey smell. very natural. Taste is honey, very natural. Some funk. Rather dry ( def not a sweet nor thick mead ) . Cognac is hidden.