De la Senne Equinox Winter Beer

2006 Zinnebir labeling; stable animals drinking up while the manger baby cries. Robust mahogany appearance and firm froth of beige. Dense pecan nuttiness and wholly earthy chocolate aroma; hints of salted caramel, semisweet chocolate in pancakes, and walnuts; full of bitter nuttiness and generally fulsome maltiness. Graced with just a touch of the gorgeously floral de la Senne character, amidst anise, and vaguer herbs. The sweet, but autumnal tartness of apples glazed in cinnamon couldn’t be more effusive. Decadent caramel malts saunter in lazily.

The herbal farm-ish character and generally soft sweet-tartness suggest a dusty amalgam of pear and apple flesh in the flavor, somewhat simply at first, though hidden under an aged wooden raft of light spice flavors, potpourri, and basement must. There’s a quiet coffee-roast quality, quite acidic, and quite bright, but also meaty and rich, like a tanzanian bean barely seared before the brew. The apple fritter and lemon juice-dipped french toast sweetness is most prominent though, with a uniquely seamless conjoining of tartness and sweetness; a touch of dried pineapple. It’s a bit tired out in the middle, with a dominant flavor of hay and cardboard, like an old gourd of yerba mate, though its flashy herbal qualities are easily and brightly compensatory; that woodiness has a thick anise and black tea and allspice character. This cold spicy bitterness of wood and spices tends to weight itself down somewhat in plainness; still, the creative character of the beer is far surpassing, even if the depth of detailed sweetness found in the aroma is too absent. It’s purely evocative of November, and that’s pretty cool. Rainy, misty, and new-tasting.

There’s a freshness of wildflower honey sweetness preceding the finish; fulsome, expansively deep palate, still short of full in body, and even perhaps on the shallow end of medium, but so velvety and firm. Minerals. Tea. Still some wood and spices. And quite clean, before a dank and bitterly dark finish that suggests walnut skins, perfumes, and distant ginger. Another classically underrated offering from this detail-attentive and nuance-minded brewery; I really wanted to find it less than inspiring. Alas, we can’t always get what we want, and sometimes that’s a quite satisfying thing.

First, I love the label art here. What art style is this? Ah, but I mustn’t let googly eyes for pretty packaging get in the way of fair beer reviewing. The centimeter of caked, tan head sits atop a dark auburn body, with a creamy, woody and vegetative aroma poking through. I find this aroma soft and smooth, even calm, though fairly dry. It’s something of a beer sedative, and makes for a great drink at the end of an unnecessarily stressful day. The flavor is curious, and later, incredibly drinkable. A dry woodiness combines with a dark chocolate flavor and a mild tweak of alcohol to give an addictivley sippable buzz. The star quality here is the wood flavors. The flavors here lend themselves to food pairings simply because they are plain, though tasty, but drinking this with good conversation will make it just as satisfying.

Sweet maltiness, some scant red fruit, some funk, licorice, and that’s about it. Not an overwhelming aroma, perhaps it is too cold. I’ll come back to the aroma. Taste is chocolate, alcohol, more cocoa, nuttiness, caramel/toffee. Finishes fizzy and intensely bitter (for this brew) that is not hop derived. Different.

33cl, from Geers Oostakker, complex, balanced, cloudy, good head, good Winter brew

Dark brown color with a medium to strong light tan head. Aroma is rich and fruity, lightly yeasty, bits of caramel. Flavor is well balanced, like a big brown ale. Not sweet, not too bitter, hints of Belgian heritage. Nice, but not great.