De Horste Signature

Formerly brewed at Brouwerij de Horste
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Nederhorst Den Berg, Netherlands

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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A complex brew for an 11%er. Avoiding candy sugar dominance at this level is something more and more rarely achieved. The flavor complex included distinct honey, anise and mace on a luscious body with perfect medium effervescence, even at 3 years of age. Very good, but in my book not at the level of their Beatrix beer.

This was a 1999, WOW. Thanks so much. I loved it. Sweet and aged beautifully I thought. Not too much off flavor to overpower the goodness. Rich and thick and nice and sugary.

1999 Vintage and a thanks to Dickonsonbeer (not his real name). Poured a light hazy deep amber color with a small off-white head. The aroma was sweet and fruity with oxidized notes of browned apple flesh. The flavor too had browned apple flesh. Sweet and sugary with a light-medium body.

Thanks to Dickinsonbeer for sharing this at his gathering, 1999 bottle. Deep brown in color with some ruby highlights. Aroma is cardboard, some dark fruits, light molasses and rubbery phenols and some dirty yeast. Taste is sweet with rotting apple, cardboard, raisins, some plastic phenols and overall oxidation. While this didn’t hold up very well it was still nice to try. Thanks Paul.

Vintage 1999 Bottle at P1HG. Pours tarnished ruby brown and cloudy. Aroma is wet paper, sweet candy sugar. Flavor is sweet and wet paper, this bottle is past prime.

1999. 750 ml bottle. Opens with a slight hiss. I was hoping this would hold up ok due to the high alcohol, but no- it has been oxidized to hell- not like it is the wost thing in the world- there was still some nice things about it, but whatever. Pours a deep ruby brownish with a thin diminishing head. Aroma is paper- wet cardboard, estery- but not fruity- more of a coconut acid ester- linoleic, and some sugary sweet molasses and plasticy phenols. Fruits in the flavors of old stale raisin and prunes, more wet paper and cardboard, plastic, earth, dirt, cobwebs, tons of sherry- but low on the soy oxidation. Finish is a bit astringent and has some residual sweetness but dries out with more char and papery oxidation. Cool find of a beer, but nothing great left here.

Sampled at Dickinsonbeer’s Hoboken gathering - dark amber - smells of cork, cardboard, damp and rotting vegetation, oxidation, metal - tastes of butterscotch, diacetyl, fig, prune, over-ripe apples - a lot of moist, rotting things - past its prime, but an interesting curieux to add to the ratings collection.
Earlier Rating: 3/4/2007 Total Score: 3.6
IPA? No freakin’ way - dark amber with some brown - large, off-white head - strongly herbal aroma, with hints of caramel - fairly robust flavor, with more of a spicy flavor than it is hoppy - slightly roasty, with background bread/cookie and brown sugar - I might have guessed an English Strong.

Bottle, shared by dickinsonbeer. Cloudy dark amber pour. Aroma is oxidized malt, some sweet candy sugar and other fruit. The flavor is a little better, still very sweet and lightly oxidized (tobacco like), but I liked it anyway.

1999 Bottle at Paul’s Hoboken Gathering: Hazy amber with a tan ring for head. Very oxidized in the aroma. Stale water, dust and rotted apples. Smooth, slick texture, but the flavor is sweet and oxidized. Rotted apples, sherry and stale papery notes. Didn’t hold up well.

UPDATED: MAY 16, 2008 [1999] Poured a murky brown color with a thin, off white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma was heavily oxidized, with some sherry, caramel malts, green apple, brown sugar, a bit of cocoa, and some alcohol as well. Taste of dried fruits, some chocolate, oxidized sherry, tobacco, with some earthy yeast, cardboard, sweet brown sugar, and alcohol in the finish. On the sweeter side.

Bottle into Duvel tulip. Courtesy of the generous Sam at Stuffed Sandwich, San Gabriel CA. Sampled with cquiroga and some non-Ratebeer beer geeks. 1999 bottling. Van Gogh mastered the painterly brush stroke and then cut off his ear. The Mad Brewer of De Horste is comparatively sane, as he simply committed himself after brewing this masterpiece. I don’t know if the story accompanying and enshrouding this beer is true or apochryphal, but it makes for an appropriate mystique for an incredible beer. Stale yeasty funk wafts from the glass, but in a good way, with heavy notes of brown sugar and dandelions of all things, with some caramel malt. Glittery spacious lacing, quick but not deep racing is less than impressive, and the worst thing about this beer by far. Has a characteristic Belgian Strong character: golden raisins and malty all over, with currants, brown sugar, sugar cane, and orange rind in the flavor. Slightly stinging alcohol on a dry finish that contains an indescribable combination of acidity and sweetness at the end, something I noted as "sour honey" or "figgy honey" in my tasting notes. A perfect balance between the fruity sweet and smooth malts with an amazingly good dry finish. Knowing that I’ll probably never have this again adds to the total experience, the fleeting product of a savant but insane brewer whose talent was thwarted by an infirm disposition. What if Mozart would have died at 16? What if Michelangelo had maimed his hand with his hammer and chisel while carving David? What if the Mad Brewer had been just insane enough to never have brewed this beer? It is good that we do not have to know the answers to these questions. Carpe Signature, if you can.