Christoffel Nobel

Brewed by Sint Christoffel Bier
Style: European Strong Lager
Roermond, Netherlands

A very nice orange color with a small head. Cannot see through the beer, too dark and hazy yet glowing. Aroma is sweet malt and sweet yet green and noble like hops. Its weird, lots of sweetness but not in the caramel manner. Just sugar and strong green/noble hops. Flavor is less sugary on the malts and more noble hops coming through. A strong bitterness finishes it off. Especially for a lager, this is still very unbalanced, which isn’t always bad but here it is not good. I was hoping for an awesomely clean and hoppy lager but that is not what I got.
11.2oz flip top bottle in Delirium Tremens snifter/goblet glass.

Bottle. Pours hazy copper with a small, fizzy white head, somewhat diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is malty and hoppy up front (caramel and chewy malt, floral, citrusy hop) with a lagered yeast character at the end (bready and sweaty). A bit of hop sweetness attempts to permeate the aroma and flavor, but becomes dominated by the malt character. Finish is somewhat dry; a moderately attenuated beer with a little sweetness left to counter the hops.

Swing-top. Pours an unclear murky dull orange??? with a nice dense white froth. Aroma is sweet and bready, with some caramel notes to tie it all together, smooth, very hoppy, piney cheesy, red apple, light bitterness, sour dough, yeasty, has a nice weird kick to it. Flavor follows, very unique, cheesy and softly sweet, very bready, sour dough, apples and pears, light caramel, yeasty, very interesting, lightly nutty, lime, juniper berries. Medium bodied, a bit chalky full, spread out medium sharp carbonation.

From the Bottle at RBESG Harlequin, Sheffield 19/07/2009 Hoppy aroma. White head. Amber golden coloured and hoppy with a crisp and bitter malt finish.

Bottle - Pours cloudy, hazy amber with a white head that’s gone quick. Nose is real sweet, with apples, honey, plums, red wine, and a bit of yeasty funk. The complexity of the nose is confusing, as the taste is rather bland--lots of lightly spiced, grassy hops along with a boozy bite and a bit of sweet malt. Not balanced very well. Finish is grassy, herbal, and mouth-coating. It’s rare for a beer to seem so promising on the nose and tastes so bad.

Hazy straw yellow color with huge white head that, almost never diminish fully, which was quite surprised me. Aroma of dry, resinous hops with faint corny feel. The flavor is absolutely dominated by the dry herbal hops. I cant feel any malts. The body is medium to full with oily texture. Long, bone-dry hop leaves in the finish. Interesting, robust one, but not as balanced as the blond one IMHO.

Bottled sample. Hazy orange in colour with medium carbonation. Aromas are of lemon and lime zest, orange, pale malts, and booze. In the mouth, more lemon and lime peel, yeast, mild stewed fruit, wheat germ, earth, and a slight medicinal note. Quite hoppy and quck to finish. A real oddball. The fuit and medicine flavors ruin it for me.

0,33 l bottle.
Nice golden appearance with a creamy and stable white head. Fine floral-herbal hops lead the malty and fruity aroma with some sourish yeast. Smooth mouthfeel with fine bready malt, the floral-herbal hop is the leader in the flavor too. Dry but malty aftertaste. Fine lager beer....