Philly sour flavoured with rhubarb from this adventurous new one-man microbrewery in West-Flanders - the fact that he knows and uses Lachancea yeast, rather than classic lactic bacteria, demonstrates that this guy is well aware of recent developments in craft brewing. Quite an aggressive gusher, so be ware. Thickly foamy, dense, rocky, tightly plaster-lacing, off-white head diminishing but finally resting stable on a cloudy deep peach blonde robe with 'dirty' ochre-brownish tinge. Aroma of unsugared fruit yoghurt, stewed rhubarb rather than raw, milk, violets, daisies, tulips, Pink Lady apples, goat cheese, sawdust, mashed green banana, roux blanc, green garden weeds. Gently but persistently sour onset, the soft lactic acidity of the Lachancea enhanced by the oxalic acid of the rhubarb, with side notes of unripe banana, green apple, ripe gooseberry and some vague pear; medium carb, smooth, bit 'milky' mouthfeel, feeling fuller than its modest ABV would suggest. Soft milk-bready core under ongoing lactic and oxalic sourness, with this green fruitiness travelling along and turning into a more 'weedy' kind further on; grassy to even peppery hops provide an important background bitterness (a bit more so than average for a sour even) while the Lachancea continues to add its restrained lactic sourness. Somewhat 'dirty' in the end and in need of cleaning up, while the rhubarb, even though recognisable enough, could have been a bit more outspoken for me; the gushing is of course not a plus, either. Still, if you are looking for a special sour in the below average ABV range, this is quite enjoyable - I think well-chilled on a benign afternoon in spring, this may be a very tasty quencher indeed. Not entirely my cup of tea - I have not been very impressed with Philly sours in general so far anyway - but within its own concept, not badly done and certainly original especially in a Belgian context.

Superstrong dark ale by this young microbrewery in West-Flanders, extensively aged on an Irish whiskey barrel. Steinie bottle straight from the brewery. Loose, pale beige, open 'head' fizzing away in instants like the foam on a glass of coke, hazy deep chestnut brown robe with ruddy-coppery glow. Strong aroma of very pronounced whisky (even including peat though not overwhelmingly so), caramel, raisins, brown bread, toffee, old wood, marmite, pecan nuts, dried figs, cane sugar on fried pear, vanilla (oak!), hints of clove, floor polish and fried oyster mushrooms. Dark-sugary sweet onset, fig, pear, raisins and a touch of fried apple with a very subtle mushroom-ish umami accent on top, paired with this continuously sourish undertone (blackberry); soft carb as expected, rounded vinous mouthfeel. Brown-bready, lightly hazelnutty, deeply caramelly malt core with a very light toasty edge (though hardly bittering) and mildly leafy hop bitterishness, increasingly soaked in heating, very boozy yet 'pure' whiskey, with a dash of peat thrown in for good measure as well as a whiff of vanillin-like oak wood - but also a lot of rather 'rough' alcohol and a somewhat 'dirty' earthiness (problably more from the beer itself). Seriously warms the throat; this is rough around the edges and in need of some finetuning - a bit less whiskey booziness could already help, and when I read that its congener General of Disarray is apparently even boozier, I hesitate to open that one... Reminds me strongly of Jopen's Verloren Zoon series which, though not lacking in complexity and certainly pleasing those who love a very strong, robust beer, had the same crudeness and was drowned in alcohol to the exact same extent. Interesting one, nonetheless, but in its basic structure more a Belgo-Dutch style quadrupel than a true barleywine in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word.

Another of these 'twisted' Straete brews: a witbier flavoured with not the classic coriander-curaçao combo Pierre Celis introduced to the genre in the sixties (and which has been slavishly followed in the decades that followed), but with eucalyptus, a seasoning found only very rarely in beer (yet all the more so in cough syrup). I recall a Berliner Weisse with eucalyptus concocted by Alvinne many years ago and I also recall being pleasantly surprised by it - unexpectedly - so I figured this one too is worth a shot. Very thick and foamy, egg-white, thickly plaster-lacing, audibly crackling, uneven-bubbled yet stable head on an initially clear, warm golden blonde robe with lots of visible sparkling, quickly shifting to a hazy, honey-yellow golden hue. Aroma of eucalyptus oil from afar, long before the other components shyly arrive: dried apple peel, bread crust, green banana, unripe pear, white soap, raw quince, chamomile, wet sandpaper, limestone. Spritzy onset, rather harsh carbonation distracting from the flavours and adding a souring aspect, painfully numbing the tip of the tongue before hints of green pear, Granny Smith apple and unripe peach unfold; slick, slender mouthfeel, coarsened by the (over)carbonation. The eucalyptus gradually creeps in over a cereally, thinly white-bready core, with some clear wheat sourishness but less clear wheat soapiness, only to become dominant in the end, with this minty, perfumey, cough syrup-like effect one can expect. Soft but persisting floral hops provide dryness in the end - as does the general dryness of the beer as such - and even establish a bit of bitterness, though this may well be due to the eucalyptus as well. A whiff of old dried citrus peel seems to linger at the back, reinforcing the aforementioned bitterness which lasts for a while - more 'deeply' so than is averagely the case in this style. The wheat is there, but the 'ensemble' does not shout 'witbier' to me - it seems to lack this typical soft soapiness and slickness it usually has, and therefore lacks a bit of elegance, tilting everything to a more grainy side, which is - unsurprisingly - dominated by the eucalyptus. That said, this spicing seems to dominate less than I was expecting: it is clear from half a yard away when the bottle is opened, but in the mouth it only spreads after the middle point of the flavour 'parcours'. The overcarbonation bothered me more than the eucalyptus, which is a bold find, but I am not convinced it really works in this kind of beer. An oddity for sure, but somewhat 'off' in comparison with the other Straete beers I tasted so far and definitely below their average quality level (at least from what I can judge up till now). Interesting effort to make witbier appealing again - after its popularity seriously declined in the past decade or three - but neither the classic Hoegaarden lover (now usually aged) nor the craft beer enthusiast will get wild about this, I think.

'Oud bruin' by Straete, a one-man operation which has pleasantly surprised me in the past weeks (and which coincidentally is more or less situated in the historic region of 'oud bruin' - or 'Vlaams rood' as he calls it, Michael Jackon's pioneering style guidelines in mind); the odd thing here is that this one is apparently flavoured with meadowsweet, an indigenous marsh plant with beautiful white flowers I have encountered in culinary contexts (both food and drink) several times, but never in a Flemish red. Quite thick, pale yellowish beige, densely moussey, regular head resting stable on a misty deep chestnut brown beer with burgundy hue. Aroma of wild blackberries, balsamico, wet wood (no vanilla though - rather the peppery character of chestnut wood, which is the kind used here), dry caramel, passionfruit, sour cherries, damp earth, forest floor even, oxidized red wine, apple vinegar, red plum, homemade yoghurt, cranberry sauce, rhubarb, moss, freshly fermented farmland, sweat, stale orange juice. Crisp, estery onset, lots of red plum, blackberry, redcurrant and passionfruit with dashes of pear and medlar here and there, sweetish core edged by a yoghurty, sharpish lactic acidity which never becomes harshly vinegary but instead adds a line of colourful, tart fruitiness that runs through the entire beer, piercing through its caramelly and brown-bready malt bowels and connecting with a noble woodiness in the finish. I cannot say I can taste the meadowsweet, its delicate features must have perished in the sourness, softly spicy chestnut wood effects and ageing process (even though I do believe it adds a certain background herbaceousness and in that sense resides in the same depths as the hops), but tart red and dark fruits do continue till the last drop, carried by this rustic oakiness and the overall lactic sourness. The ending phase has a deep, 'rural' farmland aspect to it, a 'dirty' earthiness seen in other artisanal representatives of the genre as well (think Verzet or Alvinne), only adding to its authenticity. Feels a lot more 'artisanal' than the classic, familiar brands (Rodenbach Grand Cru, Duchesse de Bourgogne) and, importantly, omits the added sugars so that the esters and acids can fully develop. Well thought-out, 'genuine' and characterful example of this waning but ancient Belgian style, which as a whole is to be considered the grandfather of a whole spectrum of elaborate, barrel-aged, mixed fermentation sour ales; Straete, for the fourth time in my case, does not disappoint so allow me to repeat what I have stated here before: this brewery is one to watch, especially in a time when the great global craft beer hype is silently declining, with more and more of these postmodern breweries ceasing operations lately. In that context, Straete comes as a late but very welcome refreshment. Very credible, very honest and - for an altogether notoriously 'difficult' genre - very well done.

Bourbon barrel aged strong stout by this young one-man brewery in Desselgem (West-Flanders), from a steinie bottle straight from the brewery - filled up to about one inch below the crown cap, less than I am used to from this type of bottles (hopefully the content makes up for that). Some light overflowing but no real gushing so no worries. Thinnish but regular, greyish pale beige, open, moussey 'ring', gradually dissolving into nothing over a very dark chocolate brown robe - as good as black, but with a burgundy glow visible around the edges. Aroma of pronounced Kentucky bourbon (too pronounced for its own good, perhaps), toffee, wet milk chocolate, Brazil nuts, oak wood (vanillin), coffee grounds, bayleaf, dried prunes but also ripe red plum (fresh), raisins, fig jam, black pepper, wet leather, liquorice (quite pronounced warming up), walnuts, almond cookies, some solvents (varnish) but subtly so, dry earth, bread crumbs. Sweet, dense onset, prune, raisin and dried fig notes, hints of (even green) pear and red apple, with a dim sourishness underneath reinforced by surprisingly active, finely but vividly tingling carb (in spite of the label explicitly stating "low carbonation") - an effect which, together with the alcohol, even thins the mouthfeel a bit. Pleasantly dry-caramelly, walnutty and toasted-bready core with a dark chocolatey edge, a tad less chocolatey than the average consumer expects from an 'impy' these days I guess, but nevertheless pronounced enough to fully convey the strong stout feel; roasted bitterness enters soon, becoming coffee-like in the finishing stage, where drying (even astringent) woody tannins set in, carrying along the bourbon, which heats up the throat in a peppery way, bordering on wry and harsh but managing to keep itself more or less in check. Leafy hops and lingering roasted malts prolong the bittering effects, but the booziness of the bourbon gets the last word. A touch less bourbon, with its bittersweet, thinning, astringent, heating effect, would have worked better for me personally, but I must admit that all things considered, this is not a bad attempt at the classic U.S. formula of "BBA stout", especially considering that this brewery has been operational for only a relatively short time (and has already churned out a whole bunch of potentially interesting brews). My third Straete beer so far and the third time I am not disappointed, in the end.

Strong dark ale by this young microbrewery in Waregem, shared with Priscilla. Thick and frothy, very creamy, pale greyish beige, stable head on a very dark chocolate brown robe, almost blackish, with ruddy-bronze glow and greyish protein sediment near the bottom of the glass. Aroma of dry caramel, dried plum, hard toffee, coriander seed, dry autumn leaves, nutmeg, clove, Ersatz chocolate, hints of dry old cookies, liquorice, dried thyme, coffee cream, dates, crushed hazelnuts gathered on the forest floor, toast, treacle. Estery-fruity onset, cooked apple, medlar and some pear, sweetish yet nowhere outspokenly sugary, with a dimly sourish undertone; medium carb, softish fluffy mouthfeel, rounded and full. Brown-bready, caramelly dark maltiness then fills the mouth, sweetish yet not utterly sweet - a kind of pure malt sweetness rather than the candi sugar sweetness one more often finds in this kind of beers. Coriander, clove and vague liquorice adorn a yeasty, earthy finish, in which the promised toasted malts do their thing and add late, yet pleasantly mouth-filling malt bitterness, while hops and considerable bready yeast ensue. The alcohol remains remarkably well hidden - I thought I was drinking a dubbel the whole time rather than a quadrupel. Pleasantly yeasty-bready, malty and 'pure' Belgian strong dark, one I liked a lot more than I was expecting even - it seems this Straete brewery may be one to watch in the near future.

Sour ale brewed with wild yeasts 'caught' in the brewery and containing a portion of whisky malt (hence the "smoking"), by a rather creative and prolific new brewer in the Waregem region in West-Flanders - one I have been watching for a while before I actually took the step to obtain a series of his beers. Medium thick, egg-white, rather dense and creamy, somewhat pillowy, tightly membrane-lacing, irregularly edged yet stable head on a misty peach blonde beer with amberish tinge and lots of lively sparkling sustaining the head. Aroma of raw rhubarb, green gooseberry, wood sorrel, indeed a light but clear smoky-whisky-like hint (even very vague burnt paper somehow), wild apples, sourdough, sedge, unripe plum, unripe orange, yoghurt, hint of red wine vinegar. Crisp, fruity onset, quite colourful, with lots of gooseberry, green apple, unripe plum and redcurrant effects - generally notably fruity-sour, in other words, even a tad puckering but not overly vinegary and somewhat mitigated by a peach-like sweetish element within; lively carb accentuating this sourness, but in a very fine-bubbled way so satiating without painfully stinging. Smooth mouthfeel, dried by ongoing crisp and fruity, but also sharply lactic acidity, piercing consistently through a slender, bready and cereally malt core; the smoky element of the whisky malt, already much softer than Rauchmalz and certainly when used in a small dosage, gets a bit lost in this overall sour fest, which concludes with a dash of very soft floral hops (only distantly bittering) and more puckering, at this point downright lemony sourness, accompanied by something notably lactic retronasally (buttermilk-ish). In spite of the rather complicated premise, the net result here is a brightly fruity, 'yellow-summery' sour ale - almost like one of Alvinne's basic blonde sours (think Phi and the like) but without wood and less complex. Functions well as such, but the acidity, though of a 'happily' fruity kind, may be a bit too sharp for some, I reckon - let us say that the average American sourhead would love this...