Bottle, thanks Fin! Chestnut, slightly amber. Funk, brett, herbal, tea, juicy fruity, tart. Fresh, surprisingly clean and light. A nice tart fruity sweetness, orange peel. I like.

On tap at Kaffee Bazaar, Markt Sq, Ypres, Thursday 9th October 2025 after a 917km drive from nr München yesterday and finished today. We walked the short walk from Urban Gardens Campsite. Pours hazy amber with a large off white head. The nose is huge brettiness, it's like an Orval sour combo' , Loz suggests next level Orval and I know what she means it's like a new style, anyway ratings are getting lazy, this is good.

Hazy dark reddish brown colour, beige foam. Nose of oak, red wine, balsamico, taste is fruity, tart, woody. Not acetic and well balanced. Good new Oud Bruin!

New 'oud bruin' made the traditional southern Flemish way, with oak ageing (on wine barrels) and blending - not quite the easiest option for a beginning brewer, so kudos to that alone. Bottle from the brewery. Thick, frothy, egg-white, densely and regularly structured, stable head on an initially clear ruddy dark amber beer with coppery highlights and a steady column of fine but fierce sparkling rising up from the bottom; misty and deeper ruddy brown with sediment. Aroma of sour plums, dry caramel, old brown bread, red wine vinegar, redcurrant, dusty old wood, some less flattering but faint and volatile hints of old rubber, worn out rubber bands even, dust and farmland. Spritzy, tart onset, a tad puckering even but not really vinegary in spite of a certain red wine vinegar flavour somewhere, very estery in a sour way with notes of redcurrant, sour unripe plums, unripe nectarine and a dash of passionfruit, with a slight touch of sweetness hidden within; fizzy carbonation but in a 'fine-bubbled' way, yet perhaps a tad much still for this style. Supple body, hard-caramelly and brown-bready malts strongly dried by sharpish but fruity and colourful lactic acid; vague and deeply buried hop bitter touch all the way at the back, almost hidden in a vinous, woody, fruity, tart and fairly complex finish. Wood and dry red wine notes linger along with this bitter touch and continuing fruity sourness. Some very small cosmetic flaws here and there, but generally speaking, this is indeed a very credible, genuine Flemish red, as the style is often called in English (thanks Michael Jackson), with a fair amount of complexity and a lively estery fruitiness; feels very traditional and authentic in spite of only having been in existence since this year. Not a bad effort at an unforgiving style - have a point for daring to tackle it, but I am more interested in how this interesting project will further develop.

‘Wild pale ale’, dry-hopped and refermented with Brettanomyces (an idea undoubtedly inspired by Orval) by Westkwartier, a new microbrewery focusing on mixed fermentation – interestingly, considering most of these countless new microbrewing initiatives in Belgium debut with a simple blonde or tripel. The brewery name refers to the region it is situated in, ‘Hilleveld’ is the local pronunciation of Geluveld, the village where the brewery is located. Off-white, thick and foamy, plaster-like lacing, thickly moussy, bit irregular but firm head on a misty amber-tinged orange blonde beer. Aroma of wet leather, damp autumn leaves and even ‘horseblanket’ so indeed clearly ‘Bretted’, dried orange peel, old biscuit, rusk, cranberries, fried tomato peel, persimmon, unripe apricot, dry hay. Sweetish-fruity, estery onset with sourish edge, hints of pear, persimmon, tomato, apricot and strawberry with a hint of gooseberry, medium carb with slick bready-biscuity, slightly toasty to even ‘non-sweet’ caramelly malt character, smooth, dried by Brettanomyces effects which bring their familiar retronasal funky aromas of wet leather, urine, old jute and haystack, working well with an earthy hop note and ongoing estery fruitiness. Some citric effects from dry-hopping appear as well but clearly the wild yeast triumphs over the hops; I was hoping for a somewhat more outspoken hop character, but as a wild ale and certainly considering it comes from such a young microbrewery, this works very well, remaining refreshing, elegant and fruity without losing its Bretty-funky character. Not unlike Rebelse Strop by Roman, but even more ‘wild’ and funky than that one. I must admit that I am quite impressed by this choice for a first beer by a starting brewery and with the other firstborn being an ‘oud bruin’, I think this Westkwartier is one to watch – it would not be the first time some small brewing operation deep in the West-Flemish countryside evolves into something ‘artistically’ influential and popular amongst beer connoisseurs…