Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Scotch from Brauerei Nova Villa 1 month ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
The Scotch in a very local brand I discovered four years ago in a café in Sankt Vith, where it is created - and stumbled upon again during a recent revisit to the German speaking part of Belgium. Thick and foamy, pale yellowish beige, frothy, moussey head on top of a dark and deep chocolate brown robe with burgundy-ruddy glow. Aroma of caramel candy, dry forest floor, fried oyster mushrooms, dried figs, toast, prunes, overripe medlar (pronounced), damp earth, clove, 'jenever', tea, dry moss. Sweetish onset, dark-fruity, hinting at prune, medlar and pear, medium carbonated with smooth mouthfeel, quite full in comparison with many other examples of this style - but not in a satiating or 'heavy' way of course. Caramelly core with brown- and eventually bitter toasted-bready edges, the latter reinforced by a dose of leafy hops; dried fruitiness lingers along an earthy touch, a glimpse of phenolic clove and a very subtle accent of warming, 'jenever'-like alcohol, but everything remains quite gentle and well tied together. Technically well made - Scotch ale is still relatively popular in Ostbelgien, I have noticed, and this certainly is one of the better examples of the region, if not the best.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Witbier in a new brand of Belgian beers including all the 'obligatory' variants, which nowadays also includes a non-alcoholic one; this brand pays hommage to a legendary king of Mallorca named Sigis, whose tomb stone is kept in the museum of the Groeninge abbey to this day - but who, according to modern historical research, never really existed. In any case this brand seems to be intended for export and considering how stylistically cliché all its beers are, is all about cashing in on the "Belgian beer brand" - as if the craft beer movement never took place. Can shared by tderoeck, cheers Tim! Snow white, medium sized, opening head on an initially clear yellow blonde robe, turning misty with sediment. Aroma of banana peel, white soap, coriander seed of course, dried orange peel, cooked turnip, apple peel, something very faintly anise-like and a background whiff of DMS (overcooked broccoli). Fruity onset, green pear, banana and a touch of peach, medium carbonated with slick wheaty sourishness in the middle (quite pronounced), complemented with white-bready pale barley malts and of course the obligatory coriander spicing, though perhaps not as dominant as in many other traditional Belgian whites. Curaçao (dried citrus peel) is present as well, while a floral hoppiness provides a very basic, very 'silent' bitterish touch and the DMS comes back retronasally. Very average 'blanche' in the old Hoegaarden style we have known since the sixties - and loved until the eighties or so, as consumption of this type of beer has significantly declined since then; as predictable, cliché and boring as it gets even within this style, which is rarely innovative anymore these days. I guess the same goes for the other members of this export brand - maybe I will encounter another one of those some day, who knows.
Alengrin
updated a beer:
The Stone of Sigis Abbey Blanche
brewed by The Brew Society
1 month ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Concordia Hell's Pils from The Brew Society 1 month ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Pale lager honouring the defunct Concordia brewery in Geraardsbergen, closed in the early eighties; seemingly an idea from the local Lions Club. Thanks tderoeck for sharing the can. Dense, egg-white, creamy and thick, stable head on a pale orange-tinged apricot blonde beer with tiny dots of protein floating around everywhere - not looking very much like a 'pils' at all. Aroma of banana, honey, peach, raw broccoli somewhere, brandy without the alcohol, pronounced 4-vinyl-guaiacol (clove), touch rusty iron. Sweetish onset, fruity banana, peach and pear notes, lively carb with smooth body; soft bready malts with a very thin biscuity edge (explained by the darker colour hinting at cara malts) carrying phenolic spiciness (clove) in a mildly bittering, floral finish, where this rusty iron element returns too. 'Pils' is a fairly narrowly defined genre and this is certainly not one - the phenols and esters betray its ale nature, and the addition of caramelised malts has nothing to do with the genre either so once again, we have here a mislabelled beer style-wise... Ignoring this style issue, it is not an upleasant one to drink, but I wonder how far the relation with the original Concordia brews really stretches. Not too far, I reckon.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Albert Stoemp from Brouwerij Belgoo 1 month ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Beer developed in 2024 in collaboration with Albert "Stoemp" Verdeyen, a well-known Brussels chef (with heavy Brussels accent from what I recall from television), dubbed 'export' for some obscure reason - I will get back to this. Shared by tderoeck, cheers Tim! Snow white, opening, medium thick, edge-retaining head on a clear yellow golden robe. Aroma of old bread, halfripe banana, raw potato, straw, dust, white pepper, a hint of sweat and something radish-like, but also a faint background note of DMS (overcooked kale). Clean onset, halfripe banana again, hints of pear and green apple, sharpishly carbonated; cereally pale malt white-breadiness with a slick, bit soapy wheat effect at its edges, also bringing a dim, underlying sourish accent. Some retronasal DMS, fortunately not dominant, along with floral hops, though the aromatic charms of the used varieties (Simcoe and Azacca, no less) sadly do not come to full development. Some bready yeastiness lingers along with this gently drying, bit peppery hop bitterness. Too bad for the expressive varieties of hops being used in a non-expressive way, too bad for that touch of DMS as well, but otherwise solidly made. As for that 'export' qualification: in a (now largely forgotten) Belgian context this typically means a standard pale lager in a 33 cl bottle, whereas in a German context the term is associated with Dortmunder, which is not the same as standard pale lager (but often very close to it, admittedly - and in practice very hard to distinguish from Helles). This beer is neither: it is probably not even a lager to begin with and neither 'pils' nor 'dort' contain wheat... I guess the word 'export' has been freely used here for nothing more than nostalgic reasons, but I maintain that it is confusing and better removed from the label. Granted, a term like 'export' can have other meanings as well (think of 'export stout', for instance), but even then I see no specific meaning of it which can be connected to this beer...
gave a cheers!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Rubbens, so far having ventured in classic Belgian ale styles (after and parallel to a much longer history of liquor distillation), now surprises with this peach- and pepper-flavoured kettle sour, something I never saw coming from them... Steinie bottle from the local Delhaize supermarket in Zele, where the Rubbens company originated. Snow white, thin and loose, open and dissolving 'head' over a near-clear yellow golden robe with olive-greenish tinge. Weird aroma of lemon-scented cleaning product, peach-scented body lotion or perfume, over subtler hints of dry green peppercorns, apple slices, white bread dough, fruit yoghurt. Softly and straightforwardly sourish onset, a bit lime-like, superseded by a peachy sweetness with rather artificial character; lively carb, smooth body. Cereally core under ongoing simple sourishness and peach sweetness, lactic in an almost 'industrial yoghurt'-like way, with a green apple-ish side too; the pepper acts oddly cheesy more than spicy, and otherwise does hardly anything at all. Very soft sourness, soapiness (or that typical Berliner Weisse-like chalkiness perhaps) and this perfumey peachy sweetness quickly fade in the end. A very strange creation if you ask me - nothing like I was expecting, a bit artificial, very soapy and perfumey and hardly delivering on either (real) peach or pepper, but I guess one could theoretically get used to this concoction after a while...
Alengrin
added a new beer
Peach Punch! Kettle Sour
by
Stokerij - Brouwerij Rubbens
1 month ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Rosema Pilsener from Cervejeira Rosema 1 month ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5.5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5
The 'national' standard pale lager of the São Tomé and Principe island country off the West-African coast, produced by a local brewery apparently owned by an Angolan businessman since the nineties. Thanks to tderoeck for the sample! Apparently showing a moussey and thick snow white head when young (but no head on my sample), pale golden blonde robe with vague greenish tinge. Aroma of ripe pear, cereals, pineapple, faint hints of cheese and sweat. Neutral onset, sweetish thin cerealliness with an apple-like sweetishness to it (likely the result of oxidation), softly carbonated (most of the carbon dioxide has escaped by now at least in the sample I got); grainy finish with a waferthin grassy touch perhaps but hardly any discernible hop bitterness. Typically sweetish, grainy, overly simple and smooth, thin African pale lager - but one interesting country tick!
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Rosema Pilsener
brewed by Cervejeira Rosema
1 month ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Annada Apple Malt from Alzahra Group 1 month ago
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5
Malt beverage - unfermented so technically not a true beer - flavoured with apple, as one of at least six flavour variants in this brand, established by Alzahra in the Libyan capital in 2009. Thanks to tderoeck! No head, pale golden translucent robe with vaguely greenish tinge. Aroma of apple juice in a sugary, industrial and bland way, hints of honey and powder sugar, perhaps a whiff of oxidation and something distantly sweaty. Sweet, sugary and simple apple juice flavour, very slick, thin and superficial, with a very vague cereally touch in the middle - but otherwise the apple juice dominates completely, until it - quickly - fades away in the 'finish'. I am not the greatest apple lover (I do not even like ciders all that much) so this is not for me, but I guess as a softdrink there is nothing wrong with it; very difficult to impossible to rate in a beery context, though, considering there is no beer flavour in this product whatsoever...