Piraat 10.5%

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

Dark gold with a rocky white head. Big yeasty, spicy, earthy aroma with some pale malt. Light/medium body and smooth. First taste is dusty dry pale malts with earthy musty yeast. Finishes with a bittersweet alcohol twang. Very good Belgian beer.

Bottle- Poured a hazy caramel gold with nice foam head and some good sticky lacing. Aroma of grain, caramel, yeast. The ale started off a little hoped and then mellowed. Bread yeast and a little sweet on the pallet. I think it’s a decent blend of alcohol, good drinker.

Poured an orangey amber with a big bright white foamy head. Aroma was a bit fruity, with some banana, perhaps mango (this seems to be common in the van Steenberge beers), a touch of spicy hops, and alot of grainy alcohol and raw sugar. The flavor was all grainy sugars and alcohol. Like a bad malt liquor, in fact I’ve had malt liquors that were more palatable than this. Harsh, raw, rough and grainy. Unfinishable. Some unsettling hop bitterness came through in the end but only added to the mess of flavors here.

330ml bottle (Pankki, Turku)
Orange, healthy tight head. Fruity and spicy aroma, guava perhaps, or perhaps even christmas cake, a little bit alcoholic. Sweet fruity taste, very soft, but some alcohol. Softer once the yeast is added. However, the alcohol is too prominent. Finish is heady and almost rubbery and liquoricey.

Yet another ale with a pronounced aroma of pear-banana baby food, but this one is more pleasant than most. Kind of nostalgic. Flavor has some complexity with other exotic fruits and spice and yeast. A good enough, and unique enough flavor that it is well worth getting again and serving to friends.

On tap at Zeno’s Pub. Light grainy pear nose, dappled with alcohol. Pours a pale gold, with a rim of white. Flavor is coarse and a bit harsh to me. Phenols bite the tongue through some subdued, crystalline tropical fruits. Bready, yeasty. A touch sweet and searing for me. Just too overwhelming in terms of heat, sugar and phenols. Not enough hop leaf or balance.

Draft @ my new favorite bar/pub The Dirty Truth in Northampton ma (http://www.dirtytruthbeerhall.com). The pour contained a thin fruit filled head and a cloudy golden body. One of the better tripel’s I’ve had in a while, had a great fruit/spice taste and a rather complex hoppy palate.

Bottle. Medium high white creamy and lasting head. Hazy golden body. Fruity aroma but alcohol is definately present. Flavor dominated by the alcohol otherwise fruity and salty. Low carbonation. Long aftertaste with alcohol. Generally speaking: Alcohol is way too dominant.