De Ranke Père Noël

Cloudy orange with a big and lasting off-white head. Strong herbal hop aroma with fruity yeast notes. A touch of grapefruit and other brett qualities. Dry and hoppy flavour with a solid and lasting bitterness, and again a delicious touch of brett.

Big bottle. Cloudy orange-amber. LIght foam and lacing. Soft restrained fruit aroma. Flavour: pepper notes some Saison qualities, lemon and bursts of orange. Aftertaste leaves a cloud of soft pepper and cherry blossoms in your mouth. Like someone dressed up the XX and told it to behave.

In short: A hoppy (woody hops)
How: Bottle 33cl. Consumed relatively fresh more than 3 years before expiration date
The look: Cloudy dirty orange-brown body topped by a medium off-white head
In long: Nose of Belgian yeast, candy sugar and some spices. Unexpected taste. This is a surprisingly hoppy beer for Belgian offering, and even more so considering this is a so-called Christmas beer. Interesting taste blending crusty bread, dry wood, dried fruits, dirt, woody hops, candy sugar, more wood, a little resinous, light spiciness. I know the beer is sweet but it doesn’t feel like it and it leaves a dry dirty after-taste. Not unpleasant, just very dry and dirty. Overall a decent beer I wouldn’t mind having again if served to me. Just not something I will go buy again. Named after a dude that works one more day a year than my cousin Louis.

Really, really bitter, at least compared to my expectations. I smells crackery, spicy and hoppy, but the flavor is really hop dominated. Some yeasty, malty sweetnes, then a big hoppy finish.

Cask at the white horse belgian beer festival. Alround rating: Very very eyasty, floral and grassy iodiney very unapealing bitterness, the sweetness seems fairly wheaty. Its just not worked as a cask beer at all, so unclean due to the massive amount of yeast that you cant taste the beer properly.

The aroma is caramel, yeast, citrus, booze. The appearance is a nice hazy reddish brown, off white head. The flavor is fruity, raisin, alcohol. The fuinish is sweet, with a slight booze warming in the throat, maybe a lsight hoppiness, but not what was advertized for this beer. Medium/thick mouthfeel. Very nice. This guy was a lost relic in a beer shop, probably has some age on it. Not bad at all.

Draft at Ebenezer’s. Pours a pleasing amber with small head. Nose is continental hops and spice, some light caramel undertones. Taste is quite bitter and reminiscent of XX. Lightly sweet and very clean. Mild caramel notes. Tasty.

On tap at Ebenezers. Dark brown pour with small off white head. Aroma is roasty with some caramel sweetness and moderate spicyness. Flavor is raisin, dark fruit and some alcohol with a pleasant doughy malt facet. Palate is medium with dry finish. Very enjoyable.