Malmedy Brune - Brasserie Lefèbvre SA

wl0307

United Kingdom (England)

3.25/5  rDev -0.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, BB 21/02/09, served lightly chilled in Westmalle's broad-rimmed goblet.

A: pours an ultra-elegant deeply dark mahogany hue, coming with lightly hissing sounds of apparently lively carbonation and a thic off-white head retreating fast to a thin cap. There's no trace of yeast sediments in the bottle - likely filtered and pasteurised?
S: the sour edge of black prunes and a sharp edge of lactose-drink-like yeastiness intertwine with dark candy sugar, leaving the faint touch of roasted malts behind. Integrated, but slightly simplistic.
T: a very mixed flavour of dark stone-fruit jam and aromatic Munich dark malts is slowly followed by estery and honey-ish aftertaste, scattered with plenty of Chinese grass herb-jelly, a bitter edge of black sugar and lingering aromatic grassy hops... The beer label says "spice"(?) is used, but I really can't find any trace of it.
M&D: quite fizzy upfront, though softening quickly in each sip. Medium-bodied, clean (very likely pasteurised), and easy-to-drink Belgian Dark Ale. The aftertaste is remarkable in terms of the herbal and grassy touch; but apart from this the flavour needed better complexity if it was to elevate to the next level - maybe bottle-conditioned might help?

Serving type: bottle

02-13-2009 17:24:58 | More by wl0307

dogfooddog

Panama

2.55/5  rDev -22%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

best before 02/08. have not seen this in a while.

pours with very large light tan head, over half glass volume is head.

smell is malty, makes me wonder if there are any adjuncts in this beer - the ingredients include 'malt extract,' whatever that is.

taste is malty as well, not much hop character at all, and there is still this background hint of corn or something. there is some dark/fruity sweet taste as well.

i actually remember liking this and the blond a few years ago, but this current production beer is quite unremarkable.

Serving type: bottle

10-20-2006 07:55:22 | More by dogfooddog