De Dolle Oeral

Brewed by De Dolle Brouwers
Style: Belgian Ale
Diksmuide, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

One year past the BB date, this is the Museum declination from Belgian shop. Superb mountainous white head thrones over an almost milky, cloudy golden body. Wildly yeasty nose, a beautiful strain, quite farmy and leather-like and tracing the path to those pungent, hypothetically Hallertauer hops, fully floral, clean, concentrated almost. So dry in mouth, the bitterness may have went aside a bit under the age to leave more room for the yeastiness to express, but the sheer dryness is stone-like, sandy, sprucey and tree gum like. This is not done yet, its mouthfeel may be the most attractive feature, feeling totally natural, hugely herbal of an almost unrivalled sweetness for a beer with such strong carbonation, but the very active bubbles are soft on the tongue, massaging the tastebuds. Spectacular offering, how can these guys offer this as a gateway or simple basic offering is a mystery for this is a gorgeous ale beyond the reach of 99% of this planet’s brewers.

From the bottle @ t’ Brugs Beertje, Brugges, Belgium.
Almost forgot to rate this one. Shame on me as it was a fantastic beer. Enjoyable from the moment the first waft leapt from the freshly cracked bottle to the very dregs of the glass. Yum!!!
Poured into its own stemmed tulip. Erupted in the glass to be ¾’s rocky white head and a little hazy, sunny gold beer in bottom. Head was bitter and creamy to taste and needed to be gnawed off before drinking. Distant waft of burnt plastic preceded deep candi, vanilla and house-yeast notes layered in fresh, summery fruits. Lightly tangy, even to the nose, with a good level of fruit spice and just a little shine of the modest alcohol peeking through. It was nice to whiff, nice to palate. In the mouth it is quite full, creamy and slides across the tongue with joyous ease. Prickly upfront, odd salty note shows, but the flavours are dominated by pale candi and bursting, tangy citrus fruits that fill all areas of the mouth. Grapefruit and oranges, some pear and apple, distant malts. Claps out in back with some levelled fruit tartness and follows into some under-ripe fruit bitterness before, yes, more fruit in the finish. Like a fruit punch with rock candi. Becomes spicy as it warms, vanilla overtones develop as does the famous De Dolle yeast notes which remain indescribable to me. This was lovely stuff. Another bottle asserted my views, "I Liked it!". Summery, fresh, quaffable stuff. (33cL, no date stamp)

Gold hazy colour, with a nice white head. Taste of honney, alcohol and lemon, with malty notes. Bitter in the finisch. very drinkable ! Like this since years..

Bottle @ Delirium Cafe 27/05/06. Pale honey colour with good size head, not really bitter, but just a little harsh, at first spice, alcohol nose and light body. Still I quite liked this.

UPDATED: SEP 2, 2007 Bottle from Bier Temple in Brussels. Rummaged around for all the beers I’d never heard of - lucky find. Light honey in colour, hazy, with glorious white fluffy head (particularly attractive in the Oerbier glass). Strong aroma of lime with orange and honey hints. Is this some kind of liquified pie? Tastes of lime juice as well. Mildly bitter, but eventually mellows out to a very long hoppy, citrus finish. Creamy texture, medium body. Should make a note that it has evolved significantly since I first opened the bottle twenty minutes ago. This rate requires a second go. Good stuff!

Hazy yellow color with a large, long lasting head. Notes of yeast, malt and fruit. Medium body with a biiter finish.

(33 cl bottle marked 2003, at The Rover in Gothenburg) Shady yellow color with a huge white head. Typical Belgian scent, though it also has a bit flowery spicy herbal note to it. Bitter taste, very surprising considering the smell. Medium mouth feel. High bitterness.

(Kavijaks edition). Hazy yellow colour with a large white head. Malty and yeasty aroma with some fruit and a faint spicy note. Malty, quite citric flavor with fruity and yeasty notes. Light dry and spicy finish.