Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 9
Pours blonde, small white head fades within seconds. Smell is bit bitter, somewhat yeasty. Taste is sharp and bitter, very much helped by the aggressive carbonation. Yeastyness in the back. Very blank, appart from the bitterness/carbo combination that is not only a taste, but reminds of the actual feeling you get when drinking something really sour. Its not sour though. Ok
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
The obligatory sweet cherry beer in this series, aimed at the ladies I suppose, a sexist cliché which is unfortunately still very much alive in Belgium. Creamy, sticky, stable, very regular, light pink head over a deep ruby red beer, clear with quiet fizz. Aroma of cherry jam and cherry yoghurt, a hint of white bread, refined sugar and a light sourish lemon touch. Straightforwardly fruity onset, cherry juice which gives a hint of sourishness but otherwise very sweet, but fortunately more in the form of cherry jam rather than cherry candy; somewhat syrupy too though, smooth but a bit sticky, bit bready in the background but the cherry sweetness remains with sugar as the last impression, though luckily not too cloying. I had much sweeter and stickier sweet cherry beers than this, but it is still one-sided, bland and boring. Could be the Blonde (perhaps in a ’downtuned’ version) flavoured with cherry juice and lots of sugar...?
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6.5
The ’original’ Cambron abbey dubbel in its new form, with creamy, regularly structured, light beige head - the brownish hue of which reveals that actual dark malts are used here and not just syrup. Colour is a pretty deep, clear bronze with a ruby glow to it. Aroma has a lot of butterscotch and home-made caramel, biscuit, gingerbread, banana, toast, dried orange peel, brown bread, some coriander and a hint of iron. Caramelly sweetish taste, dried fruits with hints of pear and sweet berries, somewhat resinous, supple mouthfeel, candi sugar sweetness but not over the top, light sourish accent, medium carbo, nice nutty and toasted malts, very caramelly with a subtle but unmistakable hint of roasted chocolate bitterness in the end, very soft leafy hop bitterishness with caramel malt sweetness lingering. A dubbel with a remarkably high drinkability in spite of the dark malts - technically, this is more than decent, I’d prefer this over many mass-marketed dubbels any time. For me, the best of the Cambron beers so far.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
From tap at Pairi Daiza. The blonde in this series, with a creamy, stable, sticky, snow white head and clear, deep orange blonde colour with vivid sparkling. Aroma of white bread, dried apricot, perhaps a touch of coriander, some iron, apple peel, bitter honey. Soft sweetish taste with ’controlled’ fruitiness, peach with a touch of banana but less so than Cambron Blanche, light metallic hint and some dull graininess but both these features are backed up by a pleasant bready and somewhat honeyish maltiness, finish with a hint of drying coriander and light grassy hop bitterishness, but primarily bready malts. Enjoyable blonde with no true flaws - not worth the trip to Pairi Daiza only for this (or their other beers), but while you’re there, this surely serves its purpose as a straightforward quencher, I recently had a lot of new Belgian blondes of much lesser quality! I have also tasted this from a 75 cl bottle (thanks Marie!), probably a bit aged, in which form it showed more sourish grainy flavours and, strangely, a bit less breadiness; the difference is however small and it was still a very quaffable, albeit simple Belgian blonde.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Cambron’s wheat beer, with a thick and very regularly shaped, dense, snow white, stable head and lightly hazy golden colour with fairly strong fizz; a tad darker than the Hoegaarden standard. Aroma of dried orange peel, freshly baked bread, grains, coriander but subtly so, dried leaves, grass, apple and a hint of iron. Sweetish onset, pear, hint of banana, touch of sour berries, tingling carbonation, subtle sourish wheat presence, not as ’soapy’ as usual with more emphasis on bready barley, some drying coriander in the finish but (fortunately) remaining subdued, very light, leafy, bittering hop accent but it is a subtle yet refined, lemony sourishness which remains as the last impression, very quenching. Not another Hoegaarden clone, I’d rather dub this a typically more malty and bready ’Wallonian’ witbier interpretation. Pleasant surprise, actually, without any obvious flaws.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Imported from my RateBeer account as Abbaye de Cambron Brune (by La Brasserie de Cambron):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 3.2/5
8/IX/13 - 75cl bottle from Pairi Daiza (Brugelette) @ Blakken PicNic - BB: IV/2014 (2013-839) Thanks to Stijn DL for transporting the bottle!
Clear red brown beer, big aery beige head, unstable, non adhesive. aroma: caramel, bit spicy, citrus, metallic. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: caramel, liquorish, cloves, brown sugar, bit metallic. Plain and boring, but correct and much better than the blonde anyway.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Abbaye de Cambron Blonde (by La Brasserie de Cambron):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 2/5, Taste: 5/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 10/20, MyTotalScore: 2.6/5
7/VIII/13 - 75cl bottle @ home - BB: XI/13 (2013-701) Thanks to Stijn DL for transporting the bottle!
Clear blond beer, aery white head, little stable, dissipates immediately, non adhesive. Aroma: chemical, overripe fruits, hay, grains, bit sugary, something's off. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: lots of grains, hay, some citrus, sugary, overripe banana. Aftertaste: little bitter, sugary, some orange peel, grains, bit stale. Nope, this ain't good. I hope they're still experimenting.