Piraat 10.5%

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

$3 330mL bottle from BevMo. Pours a light yellow amber with a soapy looking mixed bubble head that fades fast to thin mixed bubble layer. Initial aroma is a little bit of skunk or Saaz hops..BMCish, but then a few seconds later the aroma becomes very nice malty hints of banana and bread dough like the description, a bit of orange and maybe a bit of corriander. A bit of a plastic Brett phenolic as well. Very powerful aroma. Taste is dry, maybe a hint of sour. My first guess was the taste would be sweet until I detected the plastic brett phenolic, which then made me think it would be dry. I’m not sure if there really is brett in it, but I guess not, because the carbonation is a little low, but it sure is dry and a hint of sour. Not really my thing. Meh.

Copper color with a hazy look. Big bubbly off white head. Smell is sweet, fruity, some alcohol, candi sugar, and corn. Taste is some alcohol, sweetness, and fruit.

Unusual beer. Pours from the bottle into a snifter, hazy golden and hints of orange, with an absolutely enormous, fluffy head. Nose is orange and pineapple candy...Turkish Delight comes to mind! Taste is similar, a bit biscuity in texture, very mellow yet distinguishable citrus notes. Finish is clean. A bit sweet at first, but it definitely mellows as you get into it.

Massive foamy white head. Golden in color. Aroma of bread and alcohol. Initiallly sweet with a alcohol burn in the finish. At times the alcohol was a little too prevelant. Overall not a bad beer but was extremely expensive.

This beer pours a light amber/gold with a medium tan head. aroma is light banana and alcohol/yeast. This is also in the flavor. Not a very bad beer, but could have been so much better. Cheers

Pours a deep amber with a decent sized of white head. Aroma of banana, alchohol. Taste is the same with some other things in there I can’t quite put my finger on it. Not my style, but nice complexity.

Strong alcohol, apricot aromas. Dull amber with floating debris. Alcohol is hidden pretty well, sweetness upfront, more apricot, a little banana, figs and a slightly bitter finish. It’s a little thick but not too much.

From bottle. Pours a dark apricot, with a nice Belgian-style head. Aroma of dark fruit, malt, and sourdough bread. Mouthfeel is full-bodied with prickly carbonation. Flavor was too forward for me: it had nice fruit notes, but what struck me as odd was the mid-palate and finish, which were overwhelmed by a certain sourdough-alcohol-bitter flavor. Perhaps my bottle was bad, but this flavor did not fit my description of a delicious Belgian strong ale. Pound for pound, I prefer Gulden Draak, Duvel or Chimay.