3/I/21 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte), shared @ home, BB: X/2024, lot A (2021-10)

Clear deep orange beer, huge creamy dense yellowish head, stable, adhesive, leaving a very nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: lots of toasted malts, grains, biscuit, caramel, touch, little spicy, overripe banana, cow fodder, nice! MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, some caramel, lots of banana, grains, hay. Aftertaste: more banana, caramel, grains, hay, cow fodder, little sourish, nice Spéciale Belge.

Bottle from LDW. Hazy blond colour, lots of creamy rocky foam. Nose of grass, hay. Taste is dry and bitter, grassy. Nice and refreshing bitter blond ale. Not bad for this ABV!

The blonde counterpart of the new Tielts Kloosterbier Bruin - quite predictably - brewed with wheat and allegedly based on some old recipe from the local (now closed) monastery. Audibly crackling, very frothy, thick and cobweb-lacing, off-white, stable head on a misty 'old gold' beer with peachy tinge, turning hazy with sediment. Aroma initially dominated by the dreaded 'lightstruck' effect (mercaptans), but as usual this fades quickly, revealing the 'natural' aromas of banana, honey, coriander seed, freshly cut apples, chewing gum, bread crumbs, dried peach, sugar loaf, grass, hints of cooked cloth, cold French fries and rain falling down on hot rocks. Fruity, sweetish onset, clear and strong banana ester, peach, slight pineapple, red apple; fizzy carb, bit numbing even, adding a streak of sourishness. Quite full and supple, white bready malt sweet middle, soapy coriander in the end but not too exaggerated, leading to a florally hopped finish with a soft, medium long, nicely balancing bitterness followed by a faint glow of 'jenever'-like alcohol. Peach, banana and apple fruitiness lingers about. Predictable cliché tripel in all respects, but admittedly well done from a technical point of view, sweet and malty but streamlined and sufficiently hopped to counterbalance the sweetness a bit. Fits completely in this style without adding even the slightest detail to it - but no doubt it will appeal to a general audience. In its particular class, better than the Bruin version for me.

New 'semi-authentic' abbey beer inspired by a 17th-century text, with the proceeds being earmarked for the renovation of the old Friars Minor monastery in Tielt, so there is a link with an actual monastery - but since there is no living monastic community that had to license this beer (and its blonde counterpart) or gets profits from its sales, it does not officially count as 'certified abbey beer'. Which in itself does not mean much to me, as a few of the more interesting abbey-themed beers in Belgium have no real relation to any abbey whatsoever, and those who do, are mostly bland 'macro beers'. Anyway: medium thick, irregularly paper-lacing, small-bubbled, greyish white head, opening here and there in the middle but generally very well-retaining; initially clear, burgundy-brown beer with deep vermillion hue, turning misty with sediment so fortunately not filtered. Aroma of hard caramel, dried fig, soapy coriander seed, bubblegum, old tea bags, wet toast, iron, coffee filters that have been used multiple times, hints of old dry liquorice, nutmeg, dried bitter plants, mineral water. Sweetish onset with a dash of candi sugar, but nothing cloying, and even refraining from too much outspoken sweetness; relatively clean, with only very subdued esters, hinting at banana peel, apple peel and medlar, medium carbonated with lively minerally effects. Supple, lean, bit resinous mouthfeel, on the thin side for a beer of this strength; hard-caramelly and cereally maltiness with clear metallic edges, gaining a bit more depth towards the finish as a very light toasty-nutty accent sets in, but generally remaining superficial and bland. Rather simple finish, with the maltiness dominating, though not too sweetly so and bittered by a leafy, herbal, late and deeply buried, yet quite effective hop bitterness, while the dreaded coriander seed effect remains limited to a welcoming spicy effect and is less strong than what the nose would suggest; meanwhile the alcohol - even if noticeable enough - remains well in place and generally well masked. The metallic effect, however, keeps resounding till the very end, in a way that is hardly appropriate for any beer and certainly not for a dubbel or 'massieve ale'. Talking about style: the toasted-bitter malt edge and relative cleanness with only restrained yeasty effects unambiguously point at the old Scotch style (once popular in Belgium), but since this is labelled a 'bruin', I respected brewer's intent in adding this beer and considered it an abbey dubbel. Simple, metallic, easily drinkable and easily 'understandable', this is very clearly a beer for the average Belgian consumer, with nothing to offer to the more experienced artisanal beer drinker, whether it be postmodern international 'craft beer' or traditional Euro beer styles. I cannot be enthusiastic about yet another unnecessary dubbel even if it has more or less 'sincere' abbey beer ambitions, but I'm sure the casual consumer in and around Tielt will be able to enjoy this.

Bottle @Bir&Fud Bottega (Rome). Bruna, tonaca di frate, schiuma avorio media. Al naso note di caramello, frutta secca, castagne, cioccolato. In bocca è dolce, monodimensionale, poco equilibrata. Corpo medio, carbonazione medio-leggera. Non un granché.

28/III/20 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte), shared @ home, BB: 1/III/22 (2020-284)

Clear orange beer, big creamy irregular off-white head, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, grassy, some banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty sweet, malty, grains, bit sugary, lots of ripe banana, lots of yeast. Aftertaste: sweet, yeasty, esters, soft bitterness, banana peel, malty.