De 3 Horne Wiegeleir Grand Cru

Recommended from a small beer shop in Amsterdam. Surprised by the fact that it holds 10%, very comfortable, although the ABV begins to shine through after a while - normal though. Overall a great beer.

Bottle from Cracked Kettle. Dark orange body. Slight head. Malty and spicy nose. Quite sweet, with flavour of caramel, roast malt and fruits. Quite smooth and full-bodied. Alcohol level quite well hidden.

thanks to jbrus for this dutch rarity. according to label this contains: pils, munich and crystal malts, saaz and good old aussie POR (?!) hops, orange peel, APRICOT (?!) and yeast. so it’s fairly idiosyncratic in ingredients. unfortunately this wackiness seems to have translated into a mess of flavours rather than a cohesive whole. (not that i care about those silly German ideologies of organicism - but it’s a mess). the beer is a clear amber with a small head of coarse white bubbles that is quickly detonated from below by the heady alcohol fumes. the smell is super-fruity - a mixture of orange zest, tinned fruit salad and raw alcohol that makes it resemble punch more than anything else. in the mouth it’s grievously short on the palate for a beer of such strength - sweet malt and fruit for an instant, then an empty, alcoholic dryness. a weird sort of reconstituted orange juice taste sticks around - they oughter lay off on the orange peel. doesn’t even taste like bitter orange peel - more like navel or something. overall this beer takes more out of you than it gives back.

Bottle. Deep golden color with a white head. Fruity bodu with light citrus, yeasty and spicy notes.