De Ranke Père Noël

Soft ester yeasty fruit aroma distinct but not strong, grainey, lite fruit ,slight pepper spice with a hint of hop bitterness in finish ,decent but rather tame

Bottle (330ml). Shared with blankboy and tupalev, blankboy’s bottle. Cloudy amber, large lasting fluffy white head. Dry, sharply spicy Belgian yeast aroma, sweet malt, light banana esters. Initial taste - pungent raw crushed green peppercorn, then it fades to pungent green dry bitter hops, yeast, spice and sweet malt are completely overwhelmed. Average body, nice carbonation, very heavily astringent, with a long tongue-coating bitterness. Weird, but interesting.

0,33 l Bottle from Bier Tempel. Murky brown beer. Spicy and fruity. Full malt and a little sourness. I prefer their full hop version.

Yeasty, fruity aroma with something like chocolate or tobacco. Orangey amber color with a decent white head. Thin to medium body with mild creamy carbonation. Flavor seems a bit earthy or herby, light roasted caramel, dry spice. Almost cayenne for just a moment. Something like sucking on a light piece of wood. As it goes on the earthy becomes more floral. In the end it is something rather dry with bitter hop. Puckers the mouth in a nice way. This rating is all over the place, but so are the flavors. Damn good.

Pours copper / orange with a decent off-white head. The aroma is earthy and funky with amber ale style malt, green onions and lavender. Medium crisp body with lots of carbonation that hovers between soft and sharp. The flavor starts with lightly toasted malt, tons of phenolic spice, light caramel and some spicy hops. The finish has some earthiness, more hops and some medicinal astringency. I expected much more from this one.

This Belgian Ale pours a cloudy deep brown color from a 33cl bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is fruity and sweet, with some hops and some spices. A medium bodied Belgian ale. The malts are fruity and sweet. The hops are herbal and floral. A nice mixture of fruit, spice and hops combine to make an interesting beer. Nice hoppy dry finish. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is crisp and dry. Aftertaste is slightly bitter and spicy.

A bitter, spicy pale ale with a juicy center. 33 cL bottle pours orange-amber with sizable beige head. Big fruity aroma -- apple, pear, tomato -- with grassy hops. Flavor is quite bitter with a touch of sweetness, dryish finish and those hops last into a bitter aftertaste. Classic De Ranke stuff: bitter and lots of depth.

Bottle. Hazy orange color, quite nice lasting offwhite head. Grapfruit aroma, yeasty, spicy, hoppy and peppery. Spicy, peppery flavor, fruity, hoppy, maybe with some alcohol showing. A good belgian beer, but I cant say its a typical x-mas beer.