The tripel in this first series, dedicated to Belgian brewing traditions and created by Hans Dusselier, who intends to experiment with wild fermentations for the next series - so let’s get this one over with and look forward to what follows next... Thick, egg-white, tightly ’papery’ lacing head, dense moussy edge but opening quickly in the middle, over a warm, pure golden blonde beer, lightly hazy with visible strings of sparkling, turning misty and a tad more peachy with sediment. Clearly very spiced nose, lots of dominant white cardamom, ginger and a vague reminiscence of aniseed (though only two spices have been used - I’m therefore guessing cardamom and ginger), lying heavily on top of a classic tripel profile involving apple peel, white bread, banana, pineapple, pear juice, gin, wild summer flowers, grass, chewing gum. Sweet onset, bubblegummy banana ester mixed with hints of pineapple, pear and apricot, light underlying sourishness providing some balance but still the residual ’white’ sugariness runs through the whole beer, adding something honeyish on top of a smooth, rounded, bit creamy, lightly bready and cereally pale malt sweetish base. Mouthfeel is full and slick, carbonation is on the sharp side even for this style, with lots of minerally effects - but actually not bothersome to me. The spices - I could be wrong but I’m still betting on cardamom and ginger - are apparent early on and add a quite intense, sweet-and-ethereal effect to the finish, while the malt sweetness below is softly bittered by a dash of floral, mildly spicy hops. A heating but not wry, long wodka-like alcohol glow ensues after this but the ethereal sweet spiciness lingers in the nose. I personally do not like overly spiced beers, I guess I just had too many of them having grown up in Belgium, but I understand that in this case, they have been applied to differentiate this tripel a bit from the vast pool of more ’classically’ spiced (coriander) tripels. Spiciness is strong here, but I must admit that they have been applied in a bright, even refreshing way, adding a lot of aroma but not too much wryness in the mouth. Not my personal cup of tea, but well made and interesting nonetheless. In any case I am hugely looking forward to Hans’ next series, if my intuition doesn’t fail me, I am confident that very interesting things will come out of that.

28/07/2017 @home - 33cl bottle shared by jerre. Very light colour for a dubbel. Kind of clear dark amber, light tanned head. Nose is dark malts, caramel, sweet. Taste is dark malts, caramel, hints of roast, dry ending. Not that overly sweet as lots of other dubbels (and less than the nose). Classic styles yes, but this is next to Hoppegeluk a second beer in a classical style I tried which was less sweet than normally.

Bottle from the brewery’s webshop. One of the three first beers from this new micro brewery started by Hans Dusselier, who is originally - and still - a specialist in spontaneously fermented (’natural’) wines; the intention of this first series is to underline the importance of Belgian ale traditions, but I am more looking forward to the next series, which will involve wild fermentation, his first and foremost area of interest. Anyway, this one has a thickly ’papery’ lacing, egg-white, frothy, dense and stable head and a pale golden blonde colour with slightly khaki hue, lightly hazy at first but cloudy and eventually all murky with sediment. Aroma involves a lot of spicing (five different ones having been used), difficult to tell them apart, but coriander seed is certainly among them, my other guesses could include white cardemom, star aniseed, ginger and perhaps thyme or rosemary; soapy, ethereally spicy impressions rule, over more ’common’ aspects of banana, unripe pear, white bread, grass, pineapple, old cloves, dry earth, baker’s yeast, green apple. Crisp onset, banana, pineapple, green apple acetaldehyde and a touch of yellow plum, vaguely sweetish with sourish edges, sharply carbonated - to the point where it numbs the tongue and distracts a bit from the actual flavour, but acceptable for its saison intentions. Pale malt sweetish core, lightly ’white’ bready with sharper grainy edges, while the spices do their work in becoming increasingly dominant, providing a lot of soapiness and retronasal ’perfume’, aided by a dash of spicy, drying, floral hop bitterness down below. Ends dry, a tad earthy and yeasty, with lingering malt sweetishness, some fruity aspects and - again - this strong, very soapy, bittersweetish, ’high’ spiciness. I don’t know why a mixture of no less than five spices has to be added to a beer profiled as a saison; this beer does have the crispness, effervescence, dryness and quenching properties of a classic saison to a certain extent, but the spices drown everything and distract too much to my personal taste. Way overspiced (and overcarbonated too), but technically certainly not bad as such. Could go well with Indian cuisine, I think.

Bottle from Geers. Cloudy brown colour, nose of caramel, cocoa powder, roasted malts, ripe plums. Taste is sweet with some roastiness and caramel. Not too sweet, enough bitterness. Not a bad Dubbel.

Bottle from Geers. Hazy yellow colour, white foam. Nose of banana, spices. Taste is refreshing, light sweet, bitter. Well balanced. Nice tripel.

Bottle from Geers. Hazy yellow colour, white foam. Nose of citrus, spices. Taste is refreshing, lots of spices (but balanced). Light tart, citrussy. Refreshing. Nice beer.

Dubbel in the first series of beers from this new brewery near Wetteren in Eastern Flanders; if I understood their website correctly, this brewery will produce three series of three beers, but only the first series has materialized now, under the moniker In the Name of the Father - referring to traditions and resulting in a dubbel, a tripel and a blond intended as a saison. I hope the second series, In the Name of the Son, referring to ’new’ beer styles, will produce more exciting concepts - what then the third series, In the Name of the Holy Spirit, will bring, remains unclear to me for now. The brewery fits in a larger concept of artisanal beverages (also including wine, sake and pastis) made in the Heilig Hart-church of Kwatrecht, hence the name, but haven’t we had our share of religious connotations in Belgian beer history by now? Anyway: fairly thick, egg-white head, dense and moussy but eventually breaking open in the middle, over an immediately cloudy, if not murky, peach-hued bronze-robed beer, not as dark or brown as one would expect from something called ’dubbel’. Aroma of fermenting plums, soggy brown bread, banana, ginger powder, caramel, overripe peaches, dry liquorish candy (with actual liquorish effectively used here, mind you), potato soup, cloves and other spicy phenols, a hint of manure (FFF), soggy apple cake, moist white pepper, sweat. Estery onset, a bit disorderly and ’dirty’, banana for sure but not exagerratedly so, sweetish and (more) sourish, hints of peach, ripe pear and dito gooseberry, medium carbonated, with minerally side notes and a soft, fluffy mouthfeel. Malty core of soggy brown bread, sweetish cereals and a hint of caramel, while the wild and rather ’untidy’ array of fruity esters rules above, pairing up with an overload of spicy phenols (cloves) which are so tightly mingled with the added liquorish that it becomes hard to tell which spiciness comes from the actual spice and which comes from phenolic yeast effects. Ends expectedly very earthy, dirty and estery, with very bready and malty ’sogginess’ being dried by an admittedly fair amount of spicy, leafy hop bitterness, clearly more so than usual for a dubbel, drying the back. Some warming alcohol too - something I do not tend to expect from a below 7% beer, but it does accentuate the spiciness of both the liquorish and the hops in an admittedly quite pleasant, bit peppery way. I’m intrigued by the concept of this Heilig Hart (Sacred Heart, a common name for churches here in catholic Belgium): their webshop sells beers from, among others, Baird and Barbera as well, weirdly so, since their own brews probably all pale in comparison with those names. This ’dubbel’ reminds me a lot of old Wallonian spice beers doubting between styles and making use of spices: dirty and very earthy, overly spicy and ’untidy’ from a technical point of view; a murky look from the first pour is never a good sign, even in beer styles which are intended to look cloudy (think witbier or NEIPA). A Belgian dubbel should even look as good as clear if properly poured without the sediment and that clearly went wrong here; the overdosis of spicy phenols and the ’wild’ stewed fruit-like esters are usually consistent with this appearance and that is no difference here. I consequently cannot give this a high score for appearance here, but since the subscores are apparently no longer shown - could be an ominous sign but I hope I’m wrong - this will make no difference to anyone reading this review... In conclusion: enjoyable in all, spicy, more bitter and paler than average for a dubbel, but technically not well-executed with murky looks and certain off-flavours, and conceptually way out of date (reminiscent of Belgian beers I had fifteen or more years ago - apparently it remains very difficult to direct the Belgian consumer towards the current international trends, but that’s another issue). I hope they manage to acquire a higher level of technical skills before they embark on their Name of the Son or Name of the Holy Spirit adventures.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Heilig Hart in de Naam van de Vader Dubbel (by Heilig Hart Brouwerij):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5

14/IV/17 - 33cl bottle shared by the brewer @ home - BB: III/2019 (2017-443) Thanks to Hans for sharing the bottle!

Clear deep orange to light amber beer, creamy dens off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: malty, caramel, sweet touch. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: slightly sweet start, caramel, some chocolate, slightly bitter. Aftertaste: fruity notes, some dried fruits, pretty bitter, caramel.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Heilig Hart in de Naam van de Vader Tripel (by Heilig Hart Brouwerij):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 3.1/5

14/IV/17 - 33cl bottle shared by the brewer @ home - BB: III/2019 (2017-442) Thanks to Hans for sharing the bottle!

Little cloudy blond to light orange beer, creamy white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: quite some almonds, fruity, ripe banana, ripe pears, yeasty, sweet impression. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: very fruity, some banana, soft bitterness, bit sweet. Aftertaste: some banana, alcohol, soft bitterness, yeast, bit sugary, ripe banana.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Heilig Hart in de Naam van de Vader Saison (by Heilig Hart Brouwerij):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5

14/IV/17 - 33cl bottle shared by the brewer @ home - BB: III/2019 (2017-441) Thanks to Hans for sharing the bottle!

Slightly cloudy pale blond beer, creamy irregular white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: bit sourish, little funky, some vegetables, fruity touch. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty bitter start, spicy, fruity touch, hint of banana, slightly sour. Aftertaste: dry, citrus, yeasty, soft bitterness, some grapefruit.