Sloefmans (15389) reviewed Toutatis from Brasserie Philippe 4 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Head gone in seconds over metallic yellow beer. Perfumey malts & grains. Some limepeel, kafir lime, oranges. Bitterish, and as the blurb says, not unlike curaçao. Lime again as well. Light body, good carbonation, long lasting spices. Nice beer.
beerhunter111 (50581) reviewed Macha from Brasserie Philippe 4 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
A clear orange golden beer with a white head. Aroma of red berries, red malt, yeast. Taste of belgian yeast, red malt, caramel, moderate bitterness.
nathanvc (6963) reviewed Macha from Brasserie Philippe 5 months ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Bottle from Spar Houffalize.
A: gusher! Hazy dark golden, big, frothy, off-white head.
A: tea leaves, hibiscus, chamomile, rose petals.
T: sweetish-sourish cranberry, bitter herbs & tea leaves.
F: herbal hops, tea & rose petals.
P: light to medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation.
Quite messy and the base beer style is also dubious.
Sloefmans (15389) reviewed La Boule de Noël from Brasserie Philippe 8 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Small, receding yellow head over veiled reddish brown beer. Typical Walloon, bit spicy/herbal, dark malts' intoned stronger beer. In the background obvious spices with combined aromas. Bitterish-malty. Here the spices are even more obvious, lending extra dryness. Orangepeel, and apparently, apricotmash, coriander (not disturbing). Good carbonation, medium bodied at least, slick-oily. I despair about a majority of Walloon breweries, even new ones - they seem stuck in an ultra-classical frame (blond, dark, tripel, wit, X-mas...). There's almost never surprise possible. Txs to Stef!
nathanvc (6963) reviewed Belenos from Brasserie Philippe 9 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Bottle from Spar Houffalize.
A: clear to hazy dark golden, stable, foamy, white head.
A: green apple, pear, plum, cake, minerals.
T: sweet apple & pear, sourish wheat, spices.
F: floral hops, ripe (almost spoiled) yellow fruits, spices.
P: medium body, slick texture, fizzy carbonation.
Been too long since I've had a Kölsch, but this doesn't look like one. Overall a bit too dirty as well, I suspect.
Bbcplux (311) ticked Bultroll from Brasserie Philippe 11 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Belissima from Brasserie Philippe 1 year ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
IPA from a new microbrewery in Houffalize deep in the Ardennes (same region as Achouffe), bottle from Drinks4U in Deinze. Some slow gushing but nothing to worry about. Towering high, very foamy, egg-white, lacing, pillowy head initially filling the glass almost completely even with careful pouring; hazy yellow blonde robe with apricot tinge, more milky and orangey in the end. Aroma of green mango, lemongrass, soapy wheat, pomelo, brioche, lime peel, dust, lemon verbena, hints of field flowers, tulips and grass. Sweetish fruity onset, green mango and a touch of nectarine, with pomelo-like citrusiness early on; medium carbonated with slick mouthfeel. Clear wheat soapiness with grainy edges, evolving into a long hop bitter finish with citric notes of grapefruit and pomelo yet not as vibrantly so as they could have been, hints of lemon thyme, wormwood and grass, bringing a lovely bitterness. Confidently hopped, with enough New World hop aroma and bitterness – I have seen much worse in Belgium, with this one remaining quite clean and sleek; style-wise, like so many present-day IPAs, a compromise of hazy fruitiness and oldskool bitterness – a generic ‘international’ IPA of sorts, I guess. In any case tasty enough, though the true IPA afficionados will probably find it insufficiently aromatic and too one-sided.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Forêt Noire from Brasserie Philippe 1 year ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Pastry stout by a new microbrewery set up in Houffalize - very close to Achouffe - in the end of 2020 already; intended to evoke a dessert as befits a good pastry stout, in this case Schwarzwälder Kirsch ('forêt noire' in French), by adding not only the obligatory lactose but also cocoa and cherries... Thick, foamy, densely plaster-like lacing, greyish beige, very irregular and rocky head on an initially clear very dark caramel brown beer, bordering on black, with bronze-brown hue. Aroma of ground walnuts, forest floor, wet caramel candy, cherries straight from the tree, brambleberries gathered in a damp forest, soggy Pumpernickel bread, black tea, coffee grounds, sweat, kefir, old cocoa powder but no actual chocolate experience, 'Koetjesreep' perhaps, forest mushrooms, wet leather, nutmeg. Fruity onset, clear cherry tartness in a very 'natural' way, adding acidity to a sweeter core with notes of pear, medlar and fig, spritzy and minerally carb (a bit sharp for a stout), light umami notes here and there (mushrooms); supple body, some creaminess at the edges from the lactose but limitedly so and not very sweet either. Caramelly, brown-bready core, feeling a tad thinnish for a 6% ABV stout perhaps, with the cocoa - as it tends to do when not used properly - adding more earthiness and 'grittiness' than actual 'chocolateyness'. Damp forest floor effects in the end, 'dirty' and very earthy, but the acidity from the cherries brings a form of balance and keeps things lively and interesting; dull leafy hops underneath a layer of equally dull coffee grounds-like roasty bitterishness, but a restrained sweetishness and soft cherry tartness remain key till the end. By no means do I have a Schwarzwälder Kirsch experience here (this has been done so much more accurately by other craft brewers): there is just not enough creaminess, not enough sweetness, not enough chocolate and not enough 'fattiness'. With some goodwill, one could still associate the Black Forest with it I guess, but in a much more literal way: the forest floor extending into what is generally a typical Walloon stout, with lots of earthiness and a touch of 'dirtiness'. Putting all that aside and ignoring the pastry intentions, however, this is still a tasty beer for me, if you can take this amount of earthiness; it is the cherries that make this rather mundane stout interesting, almost turning it into a sour stout of sorts, in a mild kind of way. Not an unpleasant beer if you look at it that way - but expect a slick, sweet, round, desserty pastry stout and you will certainly be disappointed.