Caulier Bon Secours Blonde de Noël

Brewed by Caulier
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Péruwelz, Belgium

Bottled 33cl. It pours a murky light golden beer with a tall, nicely remaining head. Very spicy nose with hints of orange, cider, cork, melon and vinegar. Complex taste. Beautiful lacework. Melon, cider and cork showing up in the taste too. Full bodied. Quite a lot of alcohol appearing with the swallow. Some fennel in the finish.

0.33L bottle, courtesy of fonefan. Thanks! Pours a slightly hazy, golden color with fine particulates; white head with fine-bubbled lacing. Lots of intricate honey, yeastiness, and Belgian sugars in the aroma; intense, gently sweet. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: chewy honey, Belgian sugar, and yeast; nicely dry at the perimeter, with plenty of complex Belgian character throughout; solid, generous, big Belgian beer. Lengthy finish: Belgian sugars, honey, and solid yeastiness; nicely dry.

My Bottom Line:
Inelegant honeyed super-sweetness crashes into alcohol torrents in this nearly flat and certainly flattening Belgian Strong Ale.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A fleeting head of foam fails to decorate the cloudy blond.
-The low carbonation is surely a symptom of these illness-prone swing-top bottle.
-Pear esters are perceived underneath the sweetness and the heat.
-I fear the age of this bottle has little to do with the decidedly unpleasant experience it offers.
-There must be lots of added sugars here?
-Like a lot of artisanal meads around here, there is no finesse to be found in this product.

Bottle; best before August ’08.

Bouteille de 330 ml, avec bouchon de céramique, obtenue via Importations Privées Bièropholie. Arôme: Forte odeur d’alcool à friction. Apparence: La couleur est blonde orangée voilée avec une faible densité de bulle. Saveur: Goût d’alcool à friction. Longue durée de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est mince avec une texture huileuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Présence d’alcool à friction en arrière goût. Il y avait définitivement un problème de contamination avec cette bouteille. (Rating #1871)

Bottle courtesy of fonefan, pours hazy blonde with medium white head. Aroma is sweet dark fruits and alcohol. First taste is sweet raisins then a slight alcohol burn. Carbonation is perfect, not to strong. The finish is sweet with linger of alcohol. Pretty good.

33cl, from De Hopduvel Gent, not complex X-Mas brew, not balanced, hazy, rocky head, nice brew, but needs to be revised

Hazy amber-honey hue, with an off-white head, super sweet honeyed pale malt nose, with a spicy vanilla accent, with a kind of a warming maple syrup note, from the candi sugar, and a faint floral hop aroma follows through on a full-bodied palate with an a big sweet honeyish pale malt alcoholic character, with a touch of vanilla, a bit buttery too, still has his maple syrup kind of sweetness, from the huge amount of candi sugar added, with a fruity hint of caramelized ripe apples, leading towards a sweet warming honey finsh.

Pours a hazy orangey blonde color with a thin white head. As soon as I put my nose over the glass I felt the repulsive aroma of strong, sickening sweetness with alcohol. As weird, as it sounds, the flavor is worse and after a sip, I’m not sure I want a second, sickening sweetness, alcohol and other bad stuff in there, yuck.