Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
In the classic yet unwritten, 20th-century Belgian beer style law, every blonde needs a 'bruin' and this is the one in the Petre Devos brand; obviously a tripel should be next, and rumour has it that is exactly what these guys are going to do next - in fact, a tripel should have been on the market since late 2017, but apparently has been subjected to some delay. Spiced dubbel claiming to have been popular throughout the different social layers of society (see the label text), this comes from a classic 33 cl Belgian trappist bottle, bought at Geers near Ghent. Regulary shaped, thickly moussy, pale yellowish beige, lightly lacing, quite dense and stable head over an initially cristal clear, deep mahogany brown beer with bright ruby red hue, cloudy and a bit deeper brown with sediment. Classic Belgian dubbel aroma of caramel candy, dried banana, very pronounced coriander seed, raisin, damp earth, raw red cabbage, soaking wet peanuts, industrially made white bread, burnt brown sugar, ginger powder, liquorice candy, some fresh fig, hints of wet dog, pond water, carrot juice, damp towels, cloves, overcooked salsify (DMS hint, in other words), old coffee grounds, iron. Sweetish onset with a sourish undercurrent, hinting at ripe pear, red apple and light banana, estery but in a rather restrained kind of way, with some residual brown sugary sweetness sticking to the teeth a bit - yet refraining from becoming overly cloying; minerally, spritzy carbonation, lean and somewhat resinous mouthfeel, tad soapy, feeling a bit lighter than 6% ABV. Classic caramelly, walnutty and toasted bread-like maltiness, hard caramel candy at first but adding more toasted bitterishness towards the finish, with soapy edges from the über-Belgian coriander treatment, releasing dusty old coriander seed aromas retronasally. Some dried fruity aspects linger but again in a cleanish kind of way, lots of coriander remains and toasty sides to an otherwise caramelly sweetish maltiness dominate the finish, softly bittered by a late, herbal and somewhat earthy hop bitterness accentuating the toastiness rather than overpowering it. Minerally and even lightly iron-tinged aspects linger while the caramel - bitter toast combo remains the basic profile, quite heavily drenched in soapy coriander. I doubt whether dubbels were made like this already in the thirties, but other than that, this is an extremely traditional Belgian dubbel or 'brune', of a type I have encountered a few times too many in this country. This beer, though correctly made, does not distinguish itself from any other 'artisanal' brown 'streekbier' in this country, even boldly includes the coriander seed aspect, and is therefore at least redundant. One for the traditional, 20th-century-minded Belgian chauvinist beer drinker (of which there are many) so an easy hit commercially speaking, but not very interesting to the more discerning beer geek. At least it doesn't suffer as much from DMS, like the original blonde one did (though admittedly this issue may have been remedied meanwhile). Even if it doesn't seem to exist yet, I'm willing to offer a bet that the exact same thing can be said of the tripel when it finally avails. Maybe after completing the obligatory blond-bruin-tripel triangle, the guys behind this project will be forced to come up with something more challenging, though I can already feel a spiced winter quadrupel approaching at the end of this year - mark my words...
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Imported from my RateBeer account as Petre Devos Courant (by Petre Devos Audenaerde bvba):
Aroma: 9/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 4.1/5
12/II/18 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent) @ home - BB: 4/XII/19, bottled: 4/XII/19 (2018-161)
Note: another first I missed, due to my huge backlog :p
Little cloudy purple brown beer, big crackling creamy to frothy beige head, pretty stable, bit adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: nice stuff going on here, pretty fruity, some forest fruits, berries, soft roast, dried fruits, some caramel, ripe banana, chocolate, fruity hops, malty, overall sweet impression. MF: rather lively carbon, medium body, smooth creamy texture. Taste: bit sweet, caramel, ripe banana, soft roast, pretty hoppy. Aftertaste: bitter, soft roast, hoppy, some caramel, dark chocolate, indeed "refreshing", despite the more roasted and sweet character. Quite lovely if you ask me!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
F: huge, light tan, good retention. C: deep gold, hazy with some yeasty debris. A: malty, orange peels, bit DMS-like cooked vegetables, fruity, banana, yeasty. T: malty, orange peels, rainwater, rough bitterness, bit peppery, apple peels, phenolic, not good balanced with some flaws, medium body and carbonation, not really enjoyed, 33cl bottle from Bierwinkel De Hopduvel in Gent.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Draft glass @ Beerlovers Bar. Hazy orange, very hazy off-white head. Nose is BE overripe peach, grainy sweet, overly big band-aid, dull grainy stale candy & sugar. Taste is BE moldy, fruit, grain, overly grain, far too much band-aid, stale BE fruits,.... Body is grainy, overripe peach, band-aid. Too band-aid, stale, moldy BE fruit,.... Doesn’t appeal to me. Hard to drink.
Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
New Verzet beer, actually a reinstallment of a long forgotten beer brand from Oudenaarde, but only in name since the original seems to have been a dubbel. Recreating ’extinct’ beer brands is a regularly recurring theme in Belgian brewing but in this case, apparently an attempt has been made to carry it into the 21st century - not a bad idea, considering the vast changes that have happened in beer culture since the original version was last made. Medium thick, moussy, snow white head, densely structured and slowly breaking in the middle, over a lightly hazy, deep ’old gold’ coloured beer with deeper orange hue; turns an equally hazy, more peachy and amberish orange with sediment poured into the glass. Aroma unfortunately suffers from a lot of DMS (overcooked cauliflower) and something rainwater-like, otherwise breathing more flattering impressions of red apple, banana (even some bubblegum), white pepper, field flowers, sweetbread, dried orange peel, moist chicken spices, grass, raw potato, unripe peach. Fruity and estery onset, hints of apple, pear and banana with a sourish redcurrant touch, some residual white candi sugar, medium carbonation, slick and lean body. Light malty and cereally middle, a bit bready and soft, but a tad metallic as well; fruity yeastiness is accompanied by light spicy phenolic notes and the finish brings some refreshing, hayish, floral, even very subtly grapefruity and lightly spicy hop bitterness with drying effect; a very late toasted malt bitterish touch, very softly so, goes down along with this hoppy touch as well as ongoing fruity esters. I am very sensitive to DMS and that is basically what bothered me the most here, but admittedly the flavor is decent, with a slight American touch to it - typically a Belgian ale with certain 21st century traits. Many good beers have come out of this kind of ’compromise’ but in this case, the DMS really has to go, as it is quite strong in this one and ruins an otherwise perfectly decent, carefully hop forward Belgian ale (rather than actual APA though - this style designation is not mentioned on the bottle either so I wonder how this beer got qualified as one here, though there are indeed certain similarities with it). Tastes a lot better than it smells, briefly put.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 10
Pours rather unclear amberblonde. Small white head. Smell is bit grainy, fresh. taste is sharp, bit bitter, very malty. Really mellow towards the end. malty, some hops. Sounds like another boring Belgian ale, but it’s quite a bit better though. More ’fresh’ , more balanced. Not as yeasty. wouldn’t concider it an APA myself ( not hoppy enough ), i think this could be advertised as a very nice Belgian ale though !
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
This is dangerous!! I can state that I tasted the original Petre Devos from Oudenaarde and it was Oud Bruin - certainly not IPA! A risky tasting for this birthday! Huge, towering very fine and dense faint yellowish head, lacey, over old gold coloured beer. Sourish nose, lemony, nearly hinting @ lambic, but also quite spicy/herbal, turning into a totally different direction. Bitter, spicy - again in yet another direction. Hardly any sourness in the flavour. Seriously fermented out, yet som underlying sweeter malts. Still, quite bitter for only 32 IBU. Light body. Looks undercarbonated, but the feel is OK Noch vis noch vlees...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Petre Devos Audenaerde (by Petre Devos Audenaerde bvba):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.7/5
28/X/16 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker) @ home, BB: 22/IX/18, bottled: 22/IX/16 (2016-1242)
Little hazy deep orange beer, big fizzy off-white head, unstable, falls down quickly, non adhesive. Aroma: pretty sweet, quite some banana, some tropical fruits, mandarins, yeast, sweet caramel. MF: soft carbon, light to medium body. Taste: pretty bitter, lots of grapefruit, citrus, pretty sweet touch, yeasty, spices. Aftertaste: grassy, spicy, coriander notes I think, fruity touch, yeast, grapefruit, very bitter, some tropical fruits, bit of banana.