t Smisje Wostyntje

Brewed by Brouwerij De Regenboog
Style: Belgian Ale
Assebroek-Brugge, Belgium

Bottle. High fluffy and quickly disappearing off-white head. Hazy thick looking milky orange body. Bitter sweet slightly acidic mustard aroma. Flavor though pretty sweet mustard without much acicity or hops bitterness. Low carbonation, short aftertaste.

I’m not gonna lie.. I’ve been a bit scared to try this. Poured a lovely shade of medium orange with a short cap of whitish head and large sticky bubbles on the side of the glass.. good start. The aroma picked up a whole bunch of sourness.. rather along the lines of a (Flemish) sour ale.. some spices (faint mustard along with some moderate-intensity-but-I-can’t-place-‘em spices) paired with hay and more sourness.. not quite right. The flavor also had a pervasive, dry sourness throughout.. some toffee sweetness, and a bunch of spices again (mustard was light).. dry, vinegary, not-so-pleasant finish. Too sour on the palate (infected?) and perhaps medium-bodied.. just a wholly unsatisfying experience, but not in the way I feared.

On-tap at The Belgian room, NYC. Light body, sourish, three weeks old, yellow body without head. Not too great a Belgian.

Bottle (330ml). Mustard beer. Why the hell not. Poured bright slightly cloudy amber-orange with a very small fizzy head, lots of bubbles. Aroma of yeast and malt, but mostly pungently floral/fruity - is this the mustard seed? If so, there’s an almost marigold funky bitterness to the scent - quite sulfurous - interesting but a little daunting. Taste is incredibly medicinal and sour/pungent herbal - almost made my eyes water - like bandaids with yeast and a little witbier flavour trying to compete - not pleasant; I’m sure this is what it’s supposed to taste like, but cripes, I’m never having it again. Very bitter/acidic mouthfeel, watery and quite carbonated, very hot and spicy. I didn’t like this, but I guess it hit the mark it was aiming at - not for me, anyway. (3 points for palate for having a lot going on). Not quite a drainpour, but beware .... update: by the end of this bottle I’m starting to dig it - like a peppery/funky bier de gard / sour.

Sampled 9/15/08. This spiced ale pours a medium orange color from a 33cl bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head with nice retention and good lacing. The aroma is malt, yeast and a hint of mustard. A medium bodied ale. The malts are caramel and dark fruits. The hops are floral and spicy. Kind of yeasty and bready tasting, with a candi sugar finish. The mustard seed adds an interesting flavor, kind of spicy but more seed/husk tasting. An interesting beer. Lively carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet with some mustard flavors.

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange amber body with a tan head. Sweet alcohol latent fruits, candi sugar, unrefined malty sugars. Dry spicy mustard seed and a dry woodiness. Pepper spice. more spices. good brew.

This bottled brew poured a large sized head of fine to medium sized white colored mostly lasting bubbles that left behind a good lacing. The body is hazy carbonated and light orange brown colored. The aroma was described to me as mustard, but not being a mustard lover, I could not agree or disagree with that. To me it was strangely different and musty. The mouth feel weird and kind of shocking at first. I did not know what to make of it. There is a slight tingle and a very different weird aftertaste. Not bad, not good, just strange. The flavor is mush like the mouth feel, weird and different. Words do not seem to come to me as to how to describe it. Bottom line, would I buy it again? No, I would not it is just too strange and different from the palates I do like.

(Bottled, BBE somewhere between 2006 and 2008) Hazy amber color (muddy with yeast poured in) with a surprisingly small, bubbly, white head. Fruity and malty, slightly sweet, acidic and bitter aroma with spicy herb hints. Mustard can certainly be dug out, although it’s not evident. Slightly sugary-sweet-malty flavor with fruity hints, and somewhat more clear mustard than in the aroma. Nearly medium-bodied, acidic palate with a bit fizzy, but reasonably low carbonation. Can’t say this is enjoyable, but still clearly more drinkable than the Honing. Halloween has been the only really pleasant Regenboog brew so far.