Chapeau Fraises

Brewed by Brouwerij De Troch
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Ternat-Wambeek, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Appearance: Pours out a hazed, light amber-hued body with a thin, wispy, white head. Smell: From a distance, it has a highly sweet-scented aroma of strawberry. Given a nudge, given any agitation, and this’ll scare up vile notes of and that traditional Chapeau aroma of trash can seepage. Taste: Strawberry flavoring with a knee-buckling level of sweetness. A touch of tartness. Then, it’s all downhill from there. It’s a ninja assault of ill flavors on the tongue. Long-expired medicine, decayed logs, garbage juice, and pickled onions. So bad you’ll chortle! Mouthfeel: Medium-light carbonation. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Though they may think differently, it’s a horrendous beer that no amount of sugar can straighten out. It’s not the most horrendous of the Chapeau lot, I’ll give it that much.

( 12oz bottle) Poured a nice head that dissipated quickly, but the murkiness of this beer had almost a black quality to it, and the color was not appealing. Sort of a pink/brown/black that I can’t describe but not what I expected to see. Nose of strawberry pipe tobacco and pretty enjoyable actually. Unfortunately the beer also tastes like strawberry hookah tobacco, but didn’t taste like real strawberries. It was nicely carbonated and I enjoyed the palette. Despite the low alcohol this one burned a bit, and was somewhat unpleasant by the end of my 6oz sample.

Bottle. This one is a couple years old. Pours a murky brownish pink with white/pinkish fizzy head. Aroma is very fruit forward, strawberry, some barnyard, strong tang, musty. Flavor is exactly the same with a little cobweb and light malt. Mouth feel is light body with high, fizzy carbonation. Overall, I thought it was very good! Perhaps it takes a few years to mature in bottle.

375ml, capped and corked. Oxidized white wine color, orange / gray. Mustard seed, baby arugula, and tart attic aromas after the swirl. Before the swirl, there is an essence of strawberry jam. Very nice. Tastes like attic fermented wort, definite natural fermentation going on here with a strawberry puree essence under that.

(bottle - corked & capped 12 oz) Light pink pour with very light carbonation and nearly no head. Aroma is a very heavy strawberry concentrate along with some funky and dry earthen notes. Lightly tart at the beginning but with a very apparent strawberry puree flavor. Slightly dry and damp tasting in the middle with a sweet and fruity finish.

Bottle at toncatcher’s 2. Cloudy orange amber color. Nice lambic aroma. Sweet, which hides the sourness. Strawberries are hard to discern. Pretty good.

Pours a slightly hazy copper color with almost no head. Aroma is strawberry jam, moldy musty wood, some tart notes, and maybe a touch of brett. Flavor is sweet strawberry candy, musty, some old wet wood, some tartness, and a dry slightly funky finish.

Bottle. Aroma earthy-funky with lots of prune character. Flavor lightly tart with fairly artificial though not really unpleasant strawberry character. I guess the juice worked ok for me despite tasting obviously wrong. Kinda weird overall.