De Ranke Père Noël

In bottle. Sweet smelling and delicious. Appeared to be a hazy brown, and that’s even without swirling the yeast in the bottom of the bottle. I appreciated the amount of malt, and the sugared fig flavor.

Bottle shared by PP. Cheesy, dry, celery, yeast and dough aroma. Cirspy, celery root and bitter greens flavor, nice yeast and dough, very fresh and clean and easy drinking. Lovely.

Bottle. Yeast hop aroma. Cloudy amber orange with a white head. The flavor is a nice mix of bitter hops, sweet malt and sour yeast. Medium bodied with an average carbonation and a dry finish.

Bottle from Belmont Party. Poured hazy orange color with an average frothy off-white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Moderate yeast and resin hop aroma. Medium body with a dry texture and soft carbonation. Medium bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. My expectations where met with a change of pace brew.

Bottle from Knightly Spirits. Pours an orange colored body with a small white head. The aroma includes grain and a pleasant hint of pine tree. Distinctive Belgian horse blanket and subtle bittter hops are present in the flavor. Subtle dry finish complements the medium carbonation and medium body. An interesting X-mas ale to say the least.

Pours a cloudy amber color with an off-white head. Aroma is a little earthy with some yeast, candied sugar, and some floral hops. Flavor is also earthy with caramel malts and just a hint of hops and spices. Strange after taste on the finish of this one as well.

Bottle immediately gushed upon opening. Pours a murky orange color with a big, fizzy, white Belgian head that fades quickly to a thin layer of lace. The aroma has lots of spicy and peppery phenols blended with grapefruit, banana, alcohol, yeast, and candi sugar with a faint graininess. The flavor is much more muted than the aroma. There is some hop bitterness but it’s more sharp and piny than the grapefruit aroma would suggest. Somewhat sour, acidic finish with an odd metallic/vegetal quality lingering on the palate afterward. Dull grassy, wheaty, slightly burnt caramel malts make up the background of the flavor. Sticky medium body with soft carbonation. I’m guessing this was potentially infected judging by the off flavor and the gushing.

bottle, pours light gold, tall frothy white head. Aroma is spicy malt and hops with a hint of alcohol. Light malt backbone turning moderatly bitter with a touch of light spice(pepper?) in the finish. Pretty refreshing.