De Koninck

Perhaps my expectations were a bit high upon sampling this on tap in Antwerpen. Sure enough, it’s good. It’s got a malty, bready and perhaps toasty aroma. Palate is medium. Fairly complex flavour (nori?) and some herbal hops as well. Overall, a very good brew that I think I’ll have to try again soon.

Interesting brew, not what I expected. The pour is mahogany, no real head and traces of spiderlace. The aroma is of nuts and sour grain/mash, like a country silo... almost can distinguish some fruit notes. The flavors are similar, but lean toward nuts, burned toast and hay. The finish is crisp, and the brew is well-bodied. As the beer warms, I pick up more beans in the nose and toast in the finish. Overall, it’s not a bad beer, but not my absolute favorite, although it does get extremely better as the brew warms up. Best seved after sitting for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.

Draught - Red dark amber body, clear, very creamy head; Very pleasant complex nose, little malty sweet; Soft, a bit to clean lab. like (to clean) body, sharp carbonation, a little bitter; Long quite bitter finish, complex with nice aromas. This beer really is one of my all time favorites, I do think that is has become a bit to clean over the years.

From a 33 cl. bottle. Poured clear amber - no sediment or floaties. Nice head that thinned out fairly quickly. Laced down the glass as I drank it. Ok up front with a carmel maltiness. A from the can metallic aftertaste that degenerated into a boiled beef that had been left in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks too long with maybe a hint of marjorum. I was disappointed for $2.18 plus taxes.

Had it on tap for the first time my friends raved about it. I thought it was that good. Tried it a few more times since then, its not a top belgiun beer by any means. pungent taste and not in a good way. chunky yeasts seem to be present. Dissapointing

Much little full and fading head. Reddish clearly color with darker reflexs, extinguished, limpid and a lot little bubbly. Simple and little intense scent with light flowery, alcoholic and of dry malty notes. Decidedly vanished taste, little pungent and indeed, rather smooths and nearly mellow. Simple fruity aromas: ribes, toffee and little more. Disappointing.

The aroma is like biscuits, pears, raisins, yeast (basement like), and caramel. The appearance is amber/gold with huge chunks of yeast floating about and a small head. The flavor is only lightly bitter with all the elements from the aroma but not as much sweetness as it should have. The palate is thin. Overall it’s pretty good but the massive amount of floating yeast, the weak aroma, and thin palate hurt it a lot.

It seems a bit precocious for any one beer to be called the “king”, but it’s downright rude for a beer to assume the throne itself. I don’t care how much elegance, tradition or primogeniture the beer claims a right to; no one could be the king of them all, especially something like De Koninck which is much more appropriate as a jester than as a self-professed member of regal stock. Still, it’s no serf, and makes a pretty presentable beer to people who wouldn’t know the difference between itself and something more elite, like Orval or a Rochefort. The occasion on which I had it was at the famous Denver tap house Falling Rock. My friend desperately wanted a bottle of his faux-highness on tap, even though I remonstrated vociferously. Still, he was a guest of sorts, and would have been rude to insist he drink the better stuff when his heart was wrapped around De Koninck, so we agreed to split a glass. It reverberated a warm, deep red in the pale light of the taphouse. The head cast an illusion, looking almost pale green like a light pistachio shell. Between fusillades of words coming from across the table I took casual whiffs of De Koninck, detecting raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, apple, banana and, a little later, Bosc pear. Though it did present itself as an ornately fruity beer, the taste failed to live up to the aroma’s promises. De Koninck’s flat and watery texture fails to help the semi-sweet apple, malts and caramel flavors to make for a palatable drink. The character by itself doesn’t make for a bad beer, but it doesn’t make it a good beer either. I’d expected something more drinkable from a tap at Falling Rock, but I guess you need riff-raff to make the real fine stuff shine.