Grimbergen Dubbel

Grimbergen Dubbel
750ml
6,5%

Yes dear reader, I have indeed not written much and even todays entry will probably stay a short one.
I am working a lot and haven't been following my hobby that much. Much to my dismay.
This is part of the delivery I have gotten from Belgium from my beloved Brother.
So yes, a nice 0,75l bottle with a classy cork and the rather famous Grimbergen logo.

The brew is dark red, seems almost black.


Lotsa caramel colored foam that stays in the glass long.

Aroma is sweet - tart. Not as sweet as I had expected it from a Dubbel. Faint rhubarb and berry tones.

Tastewise it's full of surprises it starts sweet but expands with fine bitter notes and a very full mouth feel. Distant Sherry tones and faint chocolate notes are definitely present.

I do like this a lot!

Prost!

Spalter Edel-Export Dunkel

Spalter Edel-Export Dunkel
0,5l
5,5%

You might remember my start of a series about the brews of one of Germanies last communally owned city brewery in Spalt. I have another baby from this charming small brewery, a dark Export.
For those of you not familiar with that beer: Here is a small article about it.

Anyways I do like dark roasted beers and I like the beer from Spalt so I hope that this might be nice. I apologize for the darkish pictures but it is already 11 PM.

It has a standard Spalt label, mainly red and blue, showing what I guess is the city of Spalt and in front of it the apparently well known hops that they grow there.

Simple beer so simple glass. Nothing fancy like a tasting glass for something down t earth like this brew.

Though the picture might make it appear reddish, it is more of a light hazelnut color. Nut as red brown or dark brown like the dark beers I am used to, also filtered and very clear. I can easily look through, which speaks for itself when it comes to the color. A nice big bubbled caramel colored head, dissipating mediocre fast.

The aroma is almost meaty. I have had his before on some brews, it reminds me of fresh raw meat... no idea why. There are faint roast aromas and the carbonation tickles my nose, which speaks for a certain tartness. Somehow the images I get are a classical German pub with a lot of smoke in the air.

Ratebeer doesn't seem to be too convinced and rates it lower than its lighter sister the Export Hell.

The carbonation is strong in the beginning and stings a bit. The first facets of the brew that strike me is a side taste of non alcoholic malt beer that is common in Germany... a bit like Finnish koti olut.
The second aspect is the rich roast aroma which sadly dissipates fast and leaves an unsatisfied feeling. The alcohol is definitely there and as you know I really don't like it when I can taste it. It's missing more umami. While it serves a nice bitter dark it is not very fulfilling in other categories. The aftertaste is there on the back of te palate but all in all this is rather mediocre.

Prost!

DMW

Ichtegem's Grand Cru

Ichtegem's Grand Cru
330ml
6,5%

The more expensive brother of yesterdays Oud Bruin, this Flemish Red Ale has been matured in oak barrels and has one label more than the red capped brother from yesterday. The label is more or less the same and as already mentioned, the cap this time is white not red. I was thinking of saving this baby but it has been in the fridge for over 24 hours and I truly can't be arsed to wait for another one to get cold so this one it is.. also it fits as I had the brother yesterday.

The color is lighter than yesterday though the pictures don't show that very well. The foam again is light caramel and dissipates very fast though I did my very best to conjure up a nice head.

Ratebeer also has a very high rating for this, more than double than the smaller brother from yesterday.

The aroma at least is a lot better than yesterday. I can detect spices, the wood tones from the oak barrel and a fine tartness. It reminds me of Glögi or Glühwein with cloves and cinnamon. Complex aroma indeed. that makes me wanna drink this now!

This is awesome. It takes yesterdays aroma but tops it. It starts sweet only to warp into tartness and end with wine like aftertaste and decent bitterness.

I have said this before but this definitely is one of the best brews I have had the last few years. The aftertaste is complex with delicate bitterness and very fine yeast tones, coupled with the fruity tartness of gooseberries topped with warm spices.

Absolutely worth trying!

I dedicate this post to Turo! Great work running the Amsterdam Marathon!

Prost!

DMW

Ichtegem's Oude Bruin

Ichtegem's Oude Bruin
250ml
5,5%

So my little brother who happens to be 12 years older than me went to atrip to Belgium and brought back some babies for me. I cut back my beer drinking so my posts might be less in their intervals.
The task I gave my brother was to bring some Oude Bruin which is a sort of beer I learned to like a long while ago in Dutchieland.


So Ichtegem's isn't rated too high on Ratebeer but then again I haven't tasted one in ages so I prolly wouldn't recognize a good one if it hit me in the face.
As the weather is getting bad it is also time to take the pictures inside .. Winter is coming!

The small bottle is really simple in design. A small plain bottle with one simple label and a red cap. Nothing special so far but I don't drink the label but the beer so...

So seriously as a first impression this smells vile... like strong liquor or sherry, sweet, heavy and very sour... I might even guess that this yeast has gone bad but we shall see. I do like sour/tart beer so it might be a challenge. There is a cork smell mixed with a sour something...

Thew brew is very dark black with mediocre caramel colored foam that was hard to conjure up and dissipated even faster.

The taste is reaaaally nice (though my mum just said that it tastes like vinegar..) I find a complex mixture of sweet and sour with a fine bitter end note. It is very nice and fruity with many sub tones. Fresh sweet cherries mixed with very faint wood tones that leave a nutty feeling on the tongue. The bitter side notes fill  the whole mouth and palate in the after taste.

This was a true surprise, especially as the aroma is truly not very appealing.

Prost!

DMW

Schwaben Bräu Das Echte Märzen

Schwaben Bräu Das Echte Märzen
0,5l
5,7%

Yet another beauty gotten for me by my brother. I am currently doing a full time internship which is rather taxing on me so my updates might come a tad bit rarer than usual. Now Märzen usually means a stronger baby and indeed 5,7%. They tend to be on the sweet side but I'll wait and be surprised. The bottle is one of the fun ones that do not need an opener. The labels are classic and rather easy, the color is disputable ... yellow brown isn't to everyone's liking but it does work with this bottle -  at least for me.

I do like the clear, very golden color, though it isn't red at all... well there are very faint red hues but...
Bit sad about the foam which dissipated as fast as it rose but hey, you can't have it all, right.

The aroma is very heavy, spicy. I do like the musky tones that have very faint IPA aromas in it. It holds metallic aspects but it blends in nicely with the heavy spicy parts.

Ratbeer sees it in the mediocre range. We shall see what DirkRatesBeer decides ,).

I like the carbonation, the taste though is something I have to get used to. It starts sweet pepperish with an awkward metallic palate after and side taste. The overall feel and vibe I get from this brew isn't too awesome. It's a definite different experience but the side taste experiences, the mouth feel and the after taste just can't make this a grand thing for me. Still it's awesome that micro brews are keeping the pressure up so yay.

Prost!

DMW

Grozet Gooseberry Wheat

Grozet Gooseberry Wheat Fraoch, A
Historic Ales from Scotland
Heather Ale Ltd - Williams Bros.
0,33l
5%

Now some of you might remember that some year(s) ago I had a series of 4 titled Historic Ales from Scotland. The package holds 4 of a series of 5, depending on the time of year. The covered beers are Fraoch, Ebulum, Alba, Kelpie and Grozet. Now the alst 4 pack didn't cover Grozet and when I stumbled over the 4 pack of Historic Ales again I thought hey let's see and this one had it.. so as I liked the other brews in itI bought another 4 pack only to get my hands on Grozet. I am a huge Gooseberry fan though not a huge wheat fan but I simply had to see how this turned out. Ratebeer didn't seem to like it but like always I didn't read the comments so I wouldn't get biased in my own article about it.
Apparently nowadays there are two versions of the label.. a more modern one and the one I got. I like the old style look of it, the brown label explains that a nearby school designed it and it depicts a spiral with a cross in it. I'm a huge fan of the almost medieval looking labels in the series and am a tad bit sad that they appear to have introduced new shinier ones... but hey.. what can one do.

The documentation and the ingredient list states that it is fermented with bog myrtle and meadowsweet then secondary fermented with gooseberries.

This again called for the certified beer tasting glass so that it was...

It pours easily, slightly orange gold in color and slightly cloudy as well with very little sediment. A small head of fine and big bubbles is present,

The aroma is very fresh and fruity, reminding me of an IPA without the hops. I imagine to smell the gooseberries but that can, of course, be only my imagination. There is a tart tone present and it makes my mouth water indeed.

Now I do have high expectations simply because I remember the other members of the series so fondly.

It is sweeter than I imagined at the first taste but then gets added bitter tones only to change to the fruitiness of the gooseberries which balance it nicely between sweet and sour. The carbonation is nice and the whole brew is very light and refreshing with an ample amount of different taste aspects. Alas, it is missing the certain something. It's like a pyramid without the top, like the Sphinx without its nose. I definitely love the gooseberries but with all the great taste aspects that are present none can decide to be the dominating one and that is the problem of this beer. It is tart, it is bitter, it is fruity and mellow, alas it is all of this at once and thus ends being too well balanced.

In any case though an excellent brew to try!

Prost!

DMW

Spalter Zwickl

Spalter III
Spalter Zwickl
0,5l
4,9%

Ahhhh a Zwickel, a Kellerbier.... my grand lover. Sadly tis bottle seems to have misplaced its label.. a sure sign that I bought it in the brewery directly, alas a sorry picture but it cannot be helped.
As this is part of a series, turn for the first entry for further brewery information of this amazing city owned brewery.

A brown bottle, just like I expect ot for beer.. as mentioned I can't say much about the label as it is lost somewhere but yeah.. the back label shows a retro poster saying (in old German writing called Sütterlin: Our dads only drink Spalter Beer).

My apologies for the less than optimal pictures, alas I was attacked by a vicious wasp (yellow jacket? I never got the difference...) who also seemed to like my brew... It won and I retreated.
It pours easy middle gold yellow with slight red hues. It is unfiltered which is always a plus. A nice head of uniform mediocre bubble foam makes it truly nice to behold. The head stays nicely and doesn't dissipate fast. That's how I like me beer.

As you might have noticed I'm usually staying with the tasting glasses I bought for almost all brews, as I find them indeed to be the about perfect glasses to get the most out of my beer.

The aroma is mild and not super pleasant I must admit. It reminds me of raw meat somehow. Slight yeast tones but most of it is overshadowed by that smell that I would identify as raw meat.. and as I am a vegetarian... maybe slight floral tones but ever since I started thinking of this as meat I can't smell anything else. Oh woe is my brain.

Good carbonation. Bitter umami starting taste, first getting more bitter in the aftertaste but then opening up to nice facets of yeast and spices mixed with hop flowers. It does hold a lot of aroma on different scales, alas it doesn't fully convince me. It's too watery in the end and I am missing the true WOW effect. It's a decent beer with good craftsmanship.
Ratebeer holds it higher than I do it seems. To each their own.

Prost!

DMW