First beer in a new brand developed by Jef Pirens, elaborately explained on their website as being the starting point of no less than thirty different beers - clearly he is following the commercial ways succesfully launched by the American craft brewers, in making countless one-offs in order to keep the fan base happy, and paying. Irregular, pale yellowish white, bubbly head leaving behind some loose dots of lacing and breaking quickly in the middle, yet retaining well as a thick, frothy, moussy rim; initially clear, dark but fully translucent burgundy robe with beautiful purple hue. Aroma of stewed plums, candi sugar, damp earth, diluted coffee grounds, wet leather, caramel, medlar, overripe pear, blue grapes, sugared tea, some FFF (freshly fermented farmland), damp tree leaves, brown rum, banana, black cherries, nutmeg, glue, liquorish candy, soggy brown bread. Sweet onset but not cloying, residual brown sugary sweetness mixed with quite a lot of fruity esters involving banana, pear, plum and peach, underlying brambleberry-like sourishness, smooth but full mouthfeel with softish carbonation, tad oily. Rich dark maltiness in the middle, very caramelly and toffeeish with a nutty side note and a slightly metallic edge somewhere, acquiring some mellow toasted bitterness in the end, pairing up with herbal, leafy hop bitterness, lingering fruity esters and some clearly warming but non-astringent, rum-like alcohol. This is a dubbel with Scotch-like features (the toasted bitter aspect), thoroughly Belgian but technically more than decent, apart from that FFF sensation. Could have been a bit cleaner for me but as a ’massieve ale’, this works fine - though it does not quite motivate me to start keeping track of all thirty variations, I’m afraid. I heard the second one, made with hibiscus flowers, is already on the shelves - I’ll check it when I happen to encounter it.

On tap. Klare rötlich braune Farbe, geringe beige schaumkrone. Geruch nach rotem malz, rote Früchte. Geschmack ist mild fruchtig, rotes malz, rote Früchte, leicht würzig hopfig, insgesamt langweilig.

Dunkler malziger, leicht metallerner Antrunk. Wenig bitter, etwas Schokolade, eher dumpf. 10/8/8/9//8

Draft at the source courtesy of Jef, thank you sir! Hazy straw color, white head. Light lemon and straw aroma. Taste has subtle citrus and straw. Nice.

Draft at the source courtesy of Jef, thank you sir! Hazy amber brown color, white head. Aroma of light roast. Taste has cocoa, caramel, light sweetness. Decent.

Draft at the source courtesy of Jef, thank you sir! Clear yellow color, white head. Aroma of straw and subtle spice. Taste is peppery straw. Ginger like addition is subtle.

Bottle. Dark clear maroon brown color, tan head. Aroma of licorice, raisins, dayes. Taste is slightly sweet and malty with plums and dark fruit. Tasty.

04/02/2017 - 33cl bottle @ Gainsbar, Kortrijk. Dark brown, with nice tanned head. Nose is dark malts, bit licorice, bit herbal. Taste is first a bit abbey dubbel like (dark malts, caramel) than some coffee giving it a "stout" touch, creamy, bit bitter ending.

Thank you for sharing! Bottle sampled @ MEUG 2017. Apparently this one is a blend of Kraken and Leviathan. It is definitely better than the 2 base beers which I utterly hatted but unsurprisingly I am still not a big fan. Nose is varnish, peat, raw industrial alcoholic medicinal peat, flat. Taste is fizzy chemical peated industrial, rubber, chemical, luckily some malt base here, orange. Fizzy body, nail polish, industrial. It is definitely better than the 2 base beer, Jef appears to be a skilled blender, still a fan.