Alvinne Gaspar

Brewed by Picobrouwerij Alvinne
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Moen, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Pours hazy/opaque golden copper with a huge sea-foamy off-white head. Aroma is a bit musty, with a bit of citrus, peppery spice, and earthy hop notes. Flavor is fruity and bitter. Grapefruit juice, pine, herbal/grassy notes, earth tones, and some pepper towards the finish. Palate is medium, slightly spicy, with a smooth mouth-feel, and some lingering bitterness. Very nice, and well-balanced, but all in all this might as well be an IPA.

Bottle: Hazy deep orange pour with a dense off-white head which is consistent. The aroma is strange. Has some damp carpet, dried leaves, lots of plastic/phenolic notes, very subtle herbal hops/tea. Fizzy carbonation in the mouth feel. The flavor is very spicy; and by that I mean peppery spicy. There’s lots of plastic in there too. Tons of phenols, with an herbal middle. Doesn’t have much hop character that it suggests on the label. There’s maybe a hint of thyme in the middle, with more plastic, and a very peppery spicy finish. Not very appetizing, but it gets credit for being unique and different.

Freshly imported 330mL bottle, drunk on 9/13/07
Absolutely massive off-white head is very stubborn in receding, leaving plentiful lacing on the glass. Mostly clear, leaving the sediment in bottle. Peach-apricot is the body, with very fine bubbles rising.
Assertively hoppy in the nose and you can well believe the 115 IBU claim. Impressive that they got this much aromatic bitterness out of the hops. Lush and juicy, with crisp, fresh-cut grass, dill, oregano and even some resin suggestions. Crackery, dry medium malts keep things on the dry side, but with warming and breathing, some pale malts deposit a fair amount of sweet dough and honey on the nose. Light perfume on the end, as the hops mix with some apparent alcohol vapors. Surprisingly clean yeast, though it’s probably all drowned out by the hops. Medium-high strength of aroma.
Lime and lilac are cut with lemon and orange bitterness, with a strong stripping effect on the palate, on the finish. Sweet, creamy vanilla-honey malts are supple and the fine carbonation gives a creaminess to the texture (along with some hop oiliness), but the sweetness seems a bit excessive as the beer wears on. Furthermore, caramel-like flavors disrupt what I’d like to see an all-pale-malt grainbill. Very low yeast apparency, surprisingly. The hops are fun, sure, but it’s too forceful and slightly messy here (and the alcohol dosent help). I’ll take quality (Orval, Christoffel Blonde, Burgerbrau Helles, etc...) over quantity (this) any day.

33 cl. bottle. Cloudy soiled amber color with a substantial and sturdy off-white head. A slight mustiness in the aroma (kind of uriney even), along with sharp grassy notes and cake. Prominent hop bitterness blankets a cookie/cake malt body. Earthy and spicy, leaving a resiny aftertaste. Love the overall concept of uberhopped Belgians, but this seems off-kilter, with its respective parts not playing nice with one another.

Aroma seemed malty, had a light smokiness, and some euro hoppiness. Flavor was pretty balanced and easy to drink but was a little weird. Not a bad beer though. I could probably drink it again.

Pours bright gold into a tulip. Fluffy off-white micro head with excellent retention leaves sheet lacing as it concaves. Grass and earth aromas. Heavily carbonated and full with upfront pepper, which turns candi in the middle. Lasting bitter resin hop finish.

UPDATED: JUL 8, 2008 Pours lightly hazy copper with a very large beige head. The aroma has lots of musty citrus, fruit juice sweetness and light yeast. Medium / thick body with some semi-soft carbonation. The flavor starts off with some fairly sweet malt, bold spicy / earthy hops and household cleaner. The finish drops out the sweetness and is cleaner with some hop resin. An odd beer, but enjoyable. Hopefully I can find this again. (6/3/7/3/14 - 3.3)
Rerate notes: Got a known fresh bottle so I thought I’d jot down notes on a fresher bottle. Quite similar to the other bottle I got. This one has less of a household cleaner aspect and more overt hops. Easy drinking for an 8% beer and has a good deal of complexity. Well worth trying, but I doubt I’ll be getting this in bulk.

Hazy orange to amber color with a overflowing white head. Candi and caramel in the nose along with a earthy floral scent. Caramel sweetness followed by a grapefruit rind and citric flavors. LIght alcohol in the linger along with some more earthy flavors. Seems unclean.

hazy orange with a huge frothy white head. aroma of yeast, hops, marshmallow, peach, grapefruit. lots of vigorous lacing. bubbly, bitter, sharply carbonated palate. flavors of bitter hops(grapefruit). palate is much too carbonated for me.

Little squat bottle @ Sputyen Dyuvil. Pours orange with a faded bright white head. The nose is light and hoppy, very intriguing sugary sweet cereal nose. The taste is slightly cloying, sweet, hoppy and bitter. It tasted ok, but for the last beer of the night my stomach said no.