The ’Q2015’ (last year’s) version, 75 cl bottle brewed at Gaverhopke, so the most recent embodiment of this beer. Strange it does not have a lot more ratings, I suspect many people mistook this one for the Gulden Spoor version of 2013? Anyway, reading the name ’Gaverhopke’ on the elaborately adorned paper wrap around the bottle prompted me to open this over the sink, and even that could not prevent my kitchen from being flooded: the beer literally spouted out of the bottle with a force I have seldom seen. I hate Gaverhopke: I cannot understand how they seem to be incapable of solving this problem, neither can I understand why Oude Maalderij turned to them for brewing this beer. The visual result is in line with the extreme gushing: first a towering, papery, inches thick, irregular, yellowish beige head collapsing in a short while and turning very irregular, with unequal patches of beige foam here and there and leaving irregular lacing; the beer itself is completely cloudy, like the content of a muddy pool after heavy rain, chocolate brown with an enormous amount of random yeast throughout, eventually sinking to the bottom of the glass and leaving a thick milky cloud there. The head completely vanishes after a while so that it looks as if I’m having a cold coffee with a bit of coffee cream in it. Aroma of butterscotch and a lot of caramel, milk chocolate, overripe pear, freshly fermented farmland and even slurry pit, strong paint- and shoe polish-like phenols, Irish coffee gone cold, hazelnut paste, banana, brown bread dough, grape peel, ’jenever’-like alcohol and a whiff of DMS (cooked Brussels sprouts) - in other words, good intentions ruined by a bunch of strong off-flavours. Spritzy onset, overcarbonated for the style but fortunately with ’small size bubbles’ like champagne so not too coarse in mouthfeel; estery fruitiness of peach, banana, blackberry and a hint of orange, brown candi sugar, sweet with a sourish edge, smooth and ’full’ malt sweetness, very caramelly, a tad nutty and a bit chocolatey, ’fluffy’ and somewhat honeyish as expected from the style; ends with ongoing malt sweetness overrun by a very powdery yeastiness, a dash of earthy hop bitterishness managing to balance out the sweetness quite well, (way too) strong retronasal phenols and warming, rum-like alcohol which could have been better hidden and even turns a bit wry on the root of the tongue. For as far as I remember, this seems a bit sweeter than the original, first version of itself made at Maenhout, but obviously the technical flaws make it hard to compare. The idea by itself is okay: a full, warming, sweet dubbel (or quadrupel, depending on how you look at it, since these two styles are essentially the same only differing in alcohol strength), made with genuine dark malts and with a correct basic flavour profile; but, as I have aptly described, it has been executed very badly by Gaverhopke, with refermentation gone completely berserk. The extremely violent gushing, the muddy look of the beer after that, the very strong phenols: all these things were absent in previous Qantelaar editions. A shame, that is very clear, and if I were in the Oude Maalderij guys’ place, I’d leave Gaverhopke behind as soon as possible, like White Pony did!

Bottle from LDW, Eke. Hazy brown, minimal head. Nose of vinegar, caramel and sweet malts. This beer is infected, not good and unbalanced.

Gushing alert! Spoiled almost the whole bottle gushing around. Dark brown colour, lots of foam. Aroma of red wine, sweet malts and dust. Bit alcoholic, light sour in taste, unbalanced.

50 cl bottle @ home. Bottled 07.11.2014
QOA 003
Aroma is sourish and a bit tart with red wine notes and balsamico. Also some chocolate. Foamy palate. Flavour has licorice, red wine, chocolate and some citrus-like tartness. Unique and interesting, one of the rare dark-n-tart beers I seem to enjoy.

Another Oude Maalderij beer made at Gaverhopke, so I carefully open it over the sink, and lo and behold, upon removing the cork, the beer literally spouted out of the bottle neck like a fountain. I have no idea what is going wrong with Gaverhopke these days, but this is really ridiculous and hugely annoying, practically every beer coming from their brewery is a heavy gusher these days. Sigh... Anyway: very coarse, papery, pale greyish beige, irregular head towering inches above the beer but gradually collapsing; colour is a hazy very dark chestnut brown, murky with deposit; I also found bits of semi-solid ’mud’ in the bottom of my glass. Aroma of glue- and shoe polish-like phenols (very strong initially but fortunately fading after a while), dead leaves, coffee grounds, old dusty cocoa powder, fondant chocolate, elderberry, nutmeg, toasted brown bread, bayleaf, black pepper, walnut, fresh mushrooms, pear. Sweetish and sourish onset of elderberry, redcurrant, hint banana; very clearly overcarbonated with an even somewhat numbing effect on the tongue, distracting from the flavour. Dusty yeastiness shows up early and carries all the way to the finish, over a caramelly and toasted malt body with roasted bitterness in the end, cold black coffee effect with certain chocolatey aspects; earthy, peppery hop bitterness further dries the finish and as expected, the phenols return retronasally, but less intrusively than I feared based on the aroma. Deep redcurrant sourishness persists (a bit too strongly) alongside the caramelly and toasted malt bittersweetness. The idea behind this is good, like most Oude Maalderij beers, but it is very obvious that it has been very badly executed from a technical point of view. I will temper my disappointment over this because the basic flavours are okay but I highly recommend this beer company to take their beers elsewhere!

Bottle from Hopduvel. Brewed at Gaverhopke, so I open it over the sink and indeed it gushes, but manageably so. Deep mocha beige, medium thick, moussy head slowly dissolving in the middle and completely vanishing in the end; jet black colour with mahogany edges, leaving a yellowish ’film’ on the glass afterwards. Strong aroma of chocolate liqueur, charcoal, kahlua, cappuccino, candied cherry, dried banana, strong shoe polish- and even paint-like phenols, cloves, Belgian chocolates, calvados, toffee, liquorice. Intense taste of dense candied sweetness, dates and raisins, deep blackberry sourishness, meaty umami flavours, lightly above average carbonation for the style, very thick and oily, ’fat’ mouthfeel, creamy, consisting of a big caramelly and nutty malt body with bitter chocolate properties and increasing roasted, coffeeish bitterness in the end, while (too) apparent, wodka-like alcohol already manifests itself in an early stage and burns a bit in the end; apart from that, the finish also yields strong glueish phenols and some spicy hops, but the thick, oily malt bittersweetness keeps dominating along with that initial, liqueurish candied sweetness. Quite an intense beer to pour down, not entirely flawless but in this thick a body, the overly strong phenols and very obvious alcohol are covered a bit so the end result is still agreeable. Clearly inspired by Struise’s Black Albert and the like and in that sense a very ’Belgian imperial stout’ if such a thing already exists, but lacks finesse and restraint; still, if you are into imperial stouts, this is an interesting one to try. Given the previous experiences I had with this brewery and especially with beers made at Gaverhopke, this is better than I expected, or in fact probably the best Oude Maalderij beer I had so far.

Dark brown colored, hazy, small beige head, non lasting, floaters. Aroma is of caramel and dark fruits, oak and winey, sour and roasted. Taste is medium sweet caramel, some brown sugar, moderately sour, dark fruits, winey oaky. Medium bodied, soft to average carbonation, chewy. The sourness takes the magic away...

Bottle from Belgiuminabox shared with Craftmember. Irregular, moussy, pale greyish white head leaving a bit of lacing and dissolving in the end under the influence of the alcohol; colour is a hazy orange amber, completely ochre ’mud’ with deposit. Aroma instantly attacks the nose with sharp brandy- to even methanol-like alcohol, after which other impressions appear: damp dishcloth, mouldy orange, joiner’s glue, fig, chlorine, roasted hazelnut, wet wood, dried porcini, turnips, mouldy leaves, overripe papaja, cigarette tobacco, red apple. Sweet onset, marmelade, strawberry, mango, candi sugar sweetness lingering, sourish accents of gooseberry or redcurrant, soft carbo, smooth and strangely lacking a bit of body, honeyish and remaining marmelade-like sweet, finish adds mostly wry alcohol, clearly badly hidden and even rising up retronasally, but little of the wood drought I was hoping for; I get a deep, late, brief earthy hoppiness too, but not adding (enough) bitterness. Very earthy with deposit too, big starchy yeastiness; a kind of raw beet sugar sweetness lingers. This is a very weird concoction indeed, I guess you’ll either like it or hate it, but to me this lacks the finesse, elegance and ’nobility’ I expect from a 14% barley wine. Not the first time this brewery promises a lot but ends up disappointing me, and it will probably not be the last time either.