Gaverhopke Extra Special Vintage 2011

Brewed by ’t Gaverhopke
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Stasegem-Harelbeke, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle sample @ VBPF ’13. From what I gather this is an attempt at an Oud Bruin. Acajou, col beige disparaissant vite. Arôme à un côté malté caramel, fruité rouge assez agréable avec une pointe de brett. Palais garde une effervescence moyenne-haute pour un palais un peu à la ramasse. Fruité noire, pomme caramel, et ce côté tanin, pelure de fruits. Malt est modéré donnant une pointe de whisky très fine avec un sucré en arrière bouche. Le tout se mélange à un profil restant moyennement aigre.

Bottle: No real head, just some creamy off white bubbles and islands floathing here and there on top of a flat looking murky bloody orange res colored beer. Aroma is quite sour ale ish, as is it looks, deceiving... Sour, ashy, malty, vinous, wood, fruit like berries, hay and barn. This beer has a balloon rubber flavour with a vinous and yeasty fruity mix as well as hints of barley malts, light bitter, the use of some vinous spices and older hops which is not bad per se. Aftertaste has that rubber and vinous touch too. Also malty, porridge, corn, some fruits and yeast. No carbo, soft silky mouthfeel, medium to full body and an oily ish texture. Strange beer, intentional? Not bad (alcohol is well hidden, mouthfeel is good), not good (bit unbalanced, no carbo) either. A barrel aged Barley Wine meets a barrel aged Sour Ale with Belgian yeast... :-S

Bottle @ home. Aroma is winey, vinegar, glue/solvent, red fruits, port, all a bit sharp and swampy. Not very nice. Flavour is weird, light sourness, some red fruits, a bit sweaty, oxidation, murky something. Bad infection, yet not undrinkable. Somehow I think it has made it better than the base beer :S

33 cl. bottle @ home // purchased @ Hopduvel // not expensive // I mainly got this because I heard it sucked almost unbelievably had #curious // pours a red wine / ruby / touch muddy brown with an unnerving lack of head // smells spoiled sour, fermenting grape juice, mouldy, rotting, unintentionally fermenting, sickeningly sour fermenting // taste like rotting grains, chocolate powder, unintentionally fermenting grape juice, mouldy wet rag, cheapest wine gone bad, almost bitter tannins to it, uneatable rotting wild berries, lasting bitterness in the mouth, very cheap hobo wine booze // pretty much flat, clearly non-intended // are they serious about this beer? this is not a sour beer, this is an intentionally infected, rotting, fermenting liquid – this crap is not meant for human consumption // they weren’t brewing this, they either failed or did just did something, sold it as a Belgian sour, probably for export // there is brewing & there is just plain trying to rip off people // one can understand someone brewing a bad beer but selling something like this almost feels criminal // this tastes like something someone brewed in jail // or maybe I am being too harsh or unfair

Just a little prickly pearling, insufficient to raise a head; flat muddy red-brown beer. Sharp vinous nose, also slightly acetic, bacterial. Tad fruity. Flat, slightly vinous and chocolatey, but above all tasting tired & lame. Again fruity-sweetish finish (the alcohol? It certainly doesn’t feel like 10% ABV...) Warming up, solvent to acetone wafting up. Somehow, there is still some carbonation, MF proving. Thinnish body, but somewhat slick. Somebody has tried something - ’what they all do, and are praised for’. Don’t think this result was the idea, however valuable it might have been at the start.

33cl, at 10%Vol, as ’t Gaverhopke Extra ’Vintage 2011’, new exclusive brew, from De Hopduvel Gent, complex brew, malty/fruity and slightly vinous/spicy, not too heavy, balanced, cloudy, nearly no head, good brew