Breughel Bière de Noël

Brewed by Brasserie Breughel
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
St-Germain de Kamouraska, Canada

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle (500ml). Shared with blankboy, my bottle. Poured cloudy ruby-amber with a HUGE fluffy beige head. Light aroma of sweet malt with dry stale spice and some vaguely perfumey hops. Taste - rotting apple, cheap booze and just stupid dry bitterness, not in any good way at all, I thought I’d eaten chalk. Watery, fizzy, incredibly foully astringent, with a harsh boozy finish and really unpleasant aftertaste. An ugly, ugly beer - do they make ANYTHING drinkable? - sure this might have been past its prime, but come on, 11% and already (6months cellared) past it? This was never any good.

500 mL bottle. Muddy brown with a decent, but short lived beige head. This was after it slowly oozed in the sink for twenty minutes. Smells off. Kinda vinegary. Tastes not so off, but still not right. Sweet early, but vinuous and dry at the end. This can’t be what they were going for, can it?

Originally rated July 2006. 2005 edition, well at least written 2005 in small on front label. Wow ! A huge head is created with a few millimetres of brew at the bottom of my glass. Beige creamy head which lasts forever. The colour is dirty caramel brown and quite cloudy. Head won’t go down, so lets do the aroma thing. Dark fruits like raisins, plums, then nut, caramel malt, Belgian yeast and some light sourness. Very active tiny bubble carbonation with a thin mouhtfeel. No burn what so ever, and quite mild taste. Actually, kind of like burnt rubber or plastic. Very weird. I will finish the bottle just to get loaded. Just this once.

Pours brownish black with a thin off-white head. Aroma is of sugar and vinegar? Flavor is acidic, metallic, sour grapes... pretty awful. Very disappointing... I’m rating this a two because its a lot like poop.

500mL bottle courtesy of manuchampions, pours dark brown with a towering beige head. Nose of candied sugar, caramel malts and a slightly acidic character. Vile, vile flavour, with a very acidic, nasty grape, artificially sweet and metallic body. Thanks Jon, but I’m going to have to pour this... gross.

Black colour with a frothy white head. Acidic aroma. Again very thin in body and flavour. Acidic. The beer has no balls, not very innovative. Disappointing beer.

Monster foam up, brown beer, 360 degree lacing.. all of this after I let this animal calm down for 5 minutes - took forever to pour it. Very good retention. The aroma is sweet with muddled red apples, touch of barn yard, chocolate, molasses, raspberry syrup, honey.. smells a bit like when you leave a bit of beer at the bottom of your bottle and accidentally smell it hours later. Spices as well... almost everything I could think of is all blended together. The taste is surprisingly sour - I did not expect that. Sour fruits, sharp but not overwhelmingly strong bitterness, more sourness, strong molasses, a touch of apple (not euro lager apple taste), a bit of roasted malts. Just a lot of sour. I had not tasted the alcohol until now. Medium bodied, lots of carbonation, cloves, spices, finishes with a dry bitterness that lasts. Not a fan of this but there is nothing really wrong. I take that back after I finished the review and just drank and enjoyed. I’m liking this much more now. Decent and interesting brew.

This thing blew up in the glass. Couldn’t drink it for 10 minutes after I started to pour it. Insane amount of almond coloured head. Aroma is sweet grape and alcohol. Taste is horrendous. Dry, acidic, alcohol and malt. Just in all bad proportions. I don’t wish this beer on anyone. Drink wine it taste better and is put together more properly as it doesn’t have this bitterness. As a beer, this fails miserably.

Okay, here’s an example of too much head. The ENTIRE glass was foam. Five minutes later, 1/4 liquid-3/4 head. Spotty lace. Neutral brown color with a significant haze. I’m torn between a 2 and a 4 for a rating. Bready and doughy with a hint of raisins and raw alcohol. Thin and mildly carbonated (must have gone to its head, pun intended). Highly alcoholic. Lots of wine and raisin flavors. Decent hop finish for the balance. The aftertaste is all throat warming alcohol. Since the beer is so dry, I’d describe this sensation as closer to a vodka warmth than a brandy flavor.

0.5 l bottle at PBF. Hazy brown color, very fizzy appearance. Perfumed, yeasty, chocolatey and alcoholic aroma. Dry, acrid, yeasty, berryish and coffeish flavor. Very yeasty, hard to drink.

Holy god this brewery makes Awful beer! The carbonation inthis is so ridiculous I can barely drink it. Its got an absolutely putrid bitter paper flavor. It’s like drinking paper soaked with water infused with Tylenol. The aroma smells of cheap cooking wine and rotten garbage. Goog god this is Brutal