First beer after Covid, smell & taste starting to come back… this well known classic of this year‘s vintage is a good way to start. As earlier years, it pours dark brown in glass, with massive head on top. I get hints of nutmeg, sweet (Caramelly) dark fruit and woody notes in the nose.

Tastewise it is fresh ‘n bubbly, with that typical belgian yeast-driven interface, if you will. Entangled in somewhat spicy/herbal notes, fused with the given heat from the solid ABV, the 2021 version stands out with a much thinner body than all previous years.  Almost a bit watery(?) Still, the overall taste is nice. Regardless of the season.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

Bright golden visuals, pouring a beautiful, elegant head. Nose is bulging with fruityness; Here we can find citrus, peach with a small dash of seaweed on top.

As far as for the most interesting part goes, this is pretty much as good as it gets: over ripe green apples, presented by a flirtatious, quickly-passing sweet intro, develops into a freshly balsamico-sprinkled green acidic salad. But all in such smooth balance! Sharp, elegant, complex and clean.

Perfect after having been aged for 2-3 years. This is about as good as a gueuze gets… Close at least.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

This is an interesting one as I’ve had this particular beer several times before. However, when you strike a bottle from 2009 (that’s 10 years back in time from when writing), one simply has to try. This also means that this bottle came right before craft beer became hip in Norway (and partly Europe). Visuals: Murky brown color. Very little carbonation. Pours no head at all! Lightly boozy nose with oaky, caramelish notes. Highly ripe, perhaps on the borderline to what’s optimal. Let’s dive in…

The sweetness is at first present, before a small flame of heat. Taste of figs and dark fruits and dates. Further on, small bubbly action (surprisingly!) going on in there, and really really mature malt-driven taste that has developed beautifully in the bottle over the years. Long, warming aftertaste. Nice recap with this classic legend.

Photo: M.K. Burheim

Well, this beauty has been a long time coming… After years of storage in the cellar and more recently laid cold. Now the time is up; no more days of temptation in the fridge! With its lush looks and elegant sofistication packaging (a brown nude bottle with the label in a noose around it’s neck), it is with great excitement that we’re getting acquainted tonight. The beer looks stunning, carrying a deep red colour (almost blood-like) and traces of carbonation, despite the fact that this is a limited edition dating back to the year 2013.

Oh my god! The nose is just… I’m totally floored. That ripe fruityness, delicious cherries and other red fruits, such as raspberries and even cranberries are present, even just by smelling. The mateurity og oak-aging has helped tremendously.

Lots of bubbly action going on. Sweet candy’ish start, then transforming into tingly, teasing acidity of greatness before it’s long lasting aftertaste. Vineous and dry, this is beyond good taste, no wonder that the beer carries a gold medal award in it’s year of making. Wish I could swim in a sea of this, forever!

Photo: M.K. Burheim

With a sophisticated outfit looking more like a bottle of the finest Champagne, exitement-levels rocketskies until otherwise proven wrong. This extravagant fine brew started it’s journey in Belgium, and there’s no such thing as a rapid way to get these bottles out on the market. After a thoroughly long process- or more rightly put: a chain of processes, in both the homecountry as well as neighbour France, we have this fantastic brew to consume. 

At first it seems to have a lot in common with many fellow brews of Belgium, but soon it shows signs of more complexity than so. The nose giving subtle hints of spices and mateurity, the transparency reflects a very clean, undistorted profile. My tastebuds then reports of cinnamon features, a highly secrecy-spun web of anise. There’s caramellish undernotes and a subtle sour hint here, covered by a velvet of sweetness and a longlasting delicious almost nutty aftertaste.

The heat from the well-hidden ABV does not reflct negatively at all in the taste, just warming at wintertimes. Very clean tasteprofile.

Absolutely stunning.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

Well, isn’t that a close-to-perfect Saturday refreshment? The always so lovely Kriek from Lindemans is one that I know well from before, so I’m hoping that this years edition won’t disappoint. It sure looks like delish there, lying… Shining blood red in the glass.

A whiff of sharp, sour cherries immediately caresses the nostrils, accompanied by sweet rose notes. The thirst is becoming stronger now… i… must… have a swig!

At first, bubbly and a quickly passing sweet microsecond, before it’s almost shocking acidity tingles like a knifestab to the palate, and from there on through the spine. Sour berries, in it’s more raw fruity taste than what I could remember from before, corrodes throughout my mouth and down the throat. So, followed by that dry aftertaste. It’s this one… Just so easy to sum up in a few words: Delish, refreshing and tingling. 

If you’re a fan of sours: Go get it on!

Photo: M.K. Burheim

Photo: M.K.Brochs

I am familiar with this type of beer and this brew especially, but I haven’t tried this year‘s edition yet. What we have here is a fruit Lambic Belgian beer with a nose giving clear references to blueberry and blackberry, highly fruity and somehow sweet smell. It pours a big, deep red head- on the verge to red wine both in looks and colour. 

So, what does it taste like? For starters, it starts off mighty sweet before turning into that proper face-twisting Lambic-style, giving references to berries of the kinds red currant and black currant. I get real shivers down my spine midway through the mouthful here! A delicious, acidic twist to this fruit punch. Albeit and OD of fruity taste, it is easy to say that the beer though seems somehow young, in the terms of ageing. Perhaps it’d not lack much at all, had it been aged another half year in oakbarrels. Still, a very nice and summery drink which I could have again.

I know when opening this bottle, that I’m in for a treat. I’ve tasted quite a few flanders now and I never seem to go tired of a good one… Which brings us to this magnificent gold-awards winner.

The colour is strikingly ruby red, on the verge to light brown, but still letting shimmering light through. As for the nose: Here we are faced with ripeness all the way; nice notes of cherries, red currant and it has a strawberry-like sweetness to it.

So, lets get down to it and what one really is waiting for: Tasting. There’s bubbles giving the first fresh introduction, natural sweetness, exiting sour elements comes forth and tingles the tongue, even more so strawberry than in the aroma. A massive fruit infusion combined with mateurity.

Absolutely splendid, this is it!

So, another one from De Molen is what we are faced with here. The actual beer has a smooth wooden-brown colour to it and pours a small creamy head on top. I am usually very fond of their brews, at least what I have tasted from this brewery so far. This one is a lighter type though, so there’s some degree of excitement “in the air tonight».

With regards to aroma: There’s a fruityness of figs/fig jam, some oak and quite distinct malt character. I find some nuance of coffee too, even more so defined in the taste, which enhances the previously observed wooden impression. There’s also taste of roasted chestnut here, very suitable for this time of the year, at which it’s consumed. Santa would’ve sled right down the chimney for a taste of this.

At first, it’s got a sweet malt-orientated introduction and dried dates, before evolving into more powerful, dark roasted beans and at the end, rounded off with a very hoppy bitterness.

There’s not much bubbly action going on here, but that’s not missed either in this type of beer. Nice one, De Molen!

(Photo: M. Brochs)

Rubyred colour, subtle head when poured. A quite new brewery from the Netherlands, which gets promising hails from the bartender. Nose is hard to detect, but there’s a weak caramelish hint in there… some deep fruity notes, perhaps the matuerity. It develops a much richer aroma when temperated. As far as it goes for when the beer & taste buds collide, I find it to be very Belgian tasting, starting off sweet without much bubbles at all, before evolves into dry figs, lightly hopped on the tongue, followed by toffee high end.

This angle is also affected by letting it achieve room temperature and provides even more depht to it, mainly of dried fruit, tickling the tongue. Very rustiqe albeit modern beer, could do well with barrel-aging for a bit.