Bruegel Amber Ale

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Belgian Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Pours cloudy amber with a good tan fluffy head. Sweet malty yeast aroma with a sour hint. Alot of flavors going on sour/tart/pear/ light malt. Finishes a little dry and sour. Overall was hurt by the sour finish. I like it but will try again maybe in the summer.

Foggy amber body, with a thin white head that goes away fast. Red Apples, colonge, and yeast in the aroma. Taste is watery apples and yeast, with a slight taste of white wine.

Part of Belgian gift pack. Orange body, small white head. Aroma: Malt, peppery, some slight yeast. Flavour: Mild, slight pepper, a little yeast. Quite bland. Nothing incredible but I’m happy I had it.

bottle. pours golden with a medium off white head, and lively carbonation. The aroma was something on this that I was not expecting, was either coffee, or a butterscotch, and it was heavy, possible diacetyl? not sure. Taste however was a bit more tart with some grainy and butterscotch flavors pushed towards the back of the beer. weird.

In my last year of college I was amidst my falling in love with belgian beers and belgian style beers, I was presented at one point in a Dubuque liquor store with the opportunity of purchasing a six pack of this beer at a price that wasn’t remarkably outrageous or unaffordable for me at the time, but thrift and the unknown must have gotten the better of me and I opted for something less expensive and I had always kind of wondered if I made the right decision. That is to say that I’ve been waiting in a manner or speaking to try this beer for a number of years now. I was actually meaning to go get a bottle of this with a few other things at a store across town last weekend when my wife put the kibosh on the whole deal insisting that we could buy beer closer to home and that she wanted to go get some Chinese food as opposed to watching me poke around a beer store for half an hour. It was with great surprise and joy that I beheld a bottle of this ale in my good friend Dan’s hands when he came over to hang out/brew a batch of homebrew last evening. It’s not that I had great expectations for Bruegel, it was a long curiosity with the beer that piqued my excitement in seeing a bottle of it in my very kitchen. In all honestly my coming to terms with what something of an amber session ale from Van Steenberge probably offered to me sort of made me think that I had made the right decision years ago. This is to say that my expectations of the beer did not match my excitement over finally trying it, with one whiff both were quickly forgotten. The beer poured an unassuming enough orangish gold color with a small head, nothing exciting but it looked nice enough none the less. The aroma of this beer is easily the thing I liked the least about it, like weird burnt plastic, burnt caramel, butterscotch, with some floral notes present and some raw maltiness. This is the sort of thing that you would expect from a not quite failed first homebrew attempt, but far from my already wavering expectations of a beer from Van Steenberge. The flavor is a little better but where it lacks apparent infection and general disgusting characteristics it is alas very boring. The beer is lightly salty which is kind of cool in it’s own right and the caramel is just right, the beer is generally malty and has that dreaded diacetyl butteriness. The palate is thin and the carbonation leaves something to be desired. My score is pretty low, but I honestly feel like I’m being a bit generous here, this didn’t seem too great at all.

Bottle in Honolulu: Pours amber with a large rocky beige head. Streaming carbonation. Lightly sour aroma. Slightly metallic.Very carbonated. Light sourness in the flavor. Sure tastes "Belgian". Pretty good.

I got as Christmas gift (Brouwerij Van Steenberge mix 6 pac). Honey blonde, not amber, small head. Aroma of sweet malted barley. Bland malted barley taste, water aftertaste with citrus notes. I know he’ll be better in this 6 pac!

First pour was entirely a large-bubbled, mostly white head. Eventually revealed was a thick, auburn body with particles in suspension below a tight, retaining head. Weak aromas to start... milky malts, progressing to a nice, earthy caramel when warmer. Lemony-flavor to start, proceding to salty bitter, but held together with a hearty, malt fullness. Medium-bodied with a creamy texture and a spicy finish.

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