St. Sebastiaan Golden

Brouwerij Sterkens
Brewed at Scheldebrouwerij
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Meer, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Hazy golden coloured. Weak aroma. Yeasty. Thin and boring flavour. Very one-dimensional.

(16oz ceramic bottle) Completely flat from the bottle, once again the seal of bottle cap to ceramic was inadequate from St. Sebastiaan. Particulate-hazy amber body. Aroma is very sweet, honey, flowery, peach. Taste is moderately sweet, maple, some herb, cookie dough, flowery, alcohol, light cantalope, grape. Watery, flat, medium-full body. I would be willing to re-rate with an intact bottle, but this rating will be factored in -- a bottling defect like this is on the head of the brewer.

Pours golden with a lot of bubbles and 60% white head. The head settles down in a few minutes and gives way to a lagerbier aroma dominated by cereal grains like an American pale lager. Its a little gummy and the lacing is weak. The flavor is light barley and a little coriander. Pretty boring for a Belgian.

Very light spice aromas. Typical Belgian yeast flavors with a weird raisin note. Overall it’s ok.

this beer pours a golden yellow with a thin white head. the aromas are Malt, bread and yeast, with a little more emphasis on the yeast. The flavors are subtle and not really all that great. This is NOT a very memorable beer, but it was drinkable I suppose. Cheers!

Clay bottle. Pours a honey golden color with no real head. Smells of fruity aroma, red grape and maybe a bit of citrus and sweet malt. Taste mirrors the aroma but the beer has a weak finish. It’s creamy but almost watery and a bit thin. Very lightly carbonated. Nice bottle but the beer is weak. Might be an outdated bottle.

The nose is flowery and promising. But the taste is so mild, it’s almost non-existent after the big scents. Left me asking "Am I crazy, or is there no flavour?"

Not as many flavors as other Belgian blonde ales, but quite well done all the same. Not too much alcohol tast, and a nice balance yeasty note.

Hazy goldish color. White head. Yeast, overripe fruit, old wood aroma. Flavor is yeast, oxidized apples, honey, rotten wood. Hmmm, nope.

Though a little pricey, the St. Sebastiaan comes with an unbeatable insurance policy. Dislike the beer? Keep the bottle. Classy and classic, this earthenware jug is perfect for home infused olive oils. It is still my hope, however, that it is a good beer too. Double down on the investment. Almost immediately after popping the cork my thoughts begin to drift to thyme infused olive oil. That’s because the rubber stopper released with not so much as a peep. Just a shallow exhale that loudly proclaims that the beer was "Loose and gone bad." What I call the street walker syndrome. My fears are confirmed when the pour finishes without a single bubble. Not even an inkling of a semisphere. Flat as puddle water. The body is a matching rust-water colored body and in the most displeasing of ways. The smell is more forgiving, somehow spared the atrophy of time and decay, much like the miraculously preserved bodies of ancient Chinese nobles that get dug up now and again. Creamed honey, sweet raspberry preserves and dark, but cheap and commercial chocolate flow from the dead still surface of the beer. I also catch milder sweets: toffee and peanut brittle. A shame that the beer is long since dead. I risk a taste. Offensive. The taste is similar to sewer water, and I am reminded that despite the Siren call of the aroma, this beer is veritably necrotic. A quick elegy, requiem, prayer and drain later the deed is done, but I can’t help but want to come back to this just for the vestigial smell of what this charming jug of beer tasted like in better days.