Bottle @ home. Lightly hazy orange color, average sized white head. Aroma is lightly malts, orangepeel, lightly yeast. Taste lightly malts, quite fruity, a hint of orangepeel, lightly yeasty. Decent body, average carbonation.

Strong Belgian ale with off-white head and deep orange blond colour; restrained fruitiness (apple, orange), yeasty, caramelly malt sweetness, not cloying, with mildly hop bitterish finish. I would not be surprised if this was the same as Zottegemse Grand Cru - in fact, I’m almost certain it is the same beer.

Another of the delightfully old-fashioned Crombé beers continued by Strubbe, after a regional Zottegem tradition. Thick, moussy, yellowish white, stable head, deep peach blonde colour with amber hue, misty. Aroma shows fruitiness, maltiness and hoppiness, with impressions of melon, pear, orange, flowers, caramel, cheese, almond and cognac. Fresh fruity taste, sweetish with a - deliberate - sourishness as well as spicy yeastiness, well balanced finish, soft, grassy but not really bitter. Actually quite complex and to my opinion a bit underestimated - but I hasten to add that this rating concerns bottles still brewed by Crombé themselves, need to revisit this to see if the Strubbe rendition honours the original (and I have the impression it doesn’t, considering more recent ratings of this beer are quite consistently on the low side...).

Very old-fashioned top-fermented cherry beer, taken over by Strubbe after Crombé had to cease brewing. ’Dirty pink’ head, loose with large bubbles and not very stable. Cherry red colour with an orangey hue, hazy. Aroma of sour but also candied cherries, apple sauce, raspberry, earth, yeast, old sherry, Brussels sprouts, cooked rhubarb, beetroot. Subdued fruity taste, light maltiness, very yeasty, straw and sourish accent, a bit sulphuric, thin mouthfeel, herbal bitterish hops in the finish. I suspect this is made with added beetroot juice for colouring, a practice often applied to top-fermented cherry beers, especially in the old days. The sample described here was old and showed some yeast autolysis; when young, this is (or was - haven’t head it in many years) notably sweeter and fruitier. Quite complex and interesting fruit beer.

Strong Belgian blond beer, with a crispy taste of aroma hop, herbs and of course malt. Nice one.

This was a blonde Christmas ale brewed in Zottegem until the brewery lost its environmental permit and ceased to exist, though Strubbe continued production for a while. Soft, sweetish main character spiced with coriander and curaçao, well-balanced. Too bad it doesn’t exist anymore.

One of the beers Strubbe took over from Crombé; firm, rocky head, dried fruits, soft maltiness, ending in a dry hoppy finish. Something I should re-rate - if it still exists, that is.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Cezarken (by Brouwerij Crombé):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 10/20, MyTotalScore: 2.8/5

29/VII/14 - 33cl bottle from De Bierloods/Zytholoog (Adegem) @ the seaside - BB: 17/II/11 (2014-853)

Clear orange beer, small aery off-white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very oxidized, some honey, sweet, metallic touch, banana peel. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet start, pretty oxidized, some citrus, bit malty, cardboard. Aftertaste: caramel, malty, metallic touch, soft bitterness, almonds, marzipan, bit sugary.

33 cl. bottle sampled @ Barley Legal Tasting Room. Thaks to Kraddel! Clear golden, fizzy white bubbles. Smells chemical, light esters, sweet, something that makes me think of pesticides. Tastes of chemicals, pesticides, esters, sweeteners, sugary. Fizzy, faint metallic. Bad to manageable.