't Smisje BBBourgondier - Brouwerij Smisje

Billolick

New York

4.33/5  rDev +9.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Stuby Belgian small bottle, brewed in 2002 according to the label. Pours dark brown, cloudy, tan head, with yeast chunks floating around, nice lacing evident.
Nose is medicinal, earthy, hint of horse blanket, musty.
Notes of raisins, minty, yeast notes,alcohol evident but somehow kept in the background (even at 12%!), chunky malty center, spicy hoppyness clears things out for a long and complex finish. Get out the stinky cheese and crusty bread, this is a hearty brew, complex, flavorful and pungent. Belgian strong dark ale lovers rejoice

Serving type: bottle

09-25-2004 01:55:57 | More by Billolick

crookedhalo

Pennsylvania

4.33/5  rDev +9.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours a hazed copper with a big tan colored head. A careful pour from a snub-nosed bottle left lots of particles and protein coagulation left in suspension. Good lacing. Sweet, caramelly, toffee-like aromas as well as some faint old ale smells, like straight graininess, some hops and fusel alcohols and a light fruitiness. Good carbonation, which helps cut the high alcohol. Richly sweet, subtly grassy and botanical, and lightly tropical in it's starfruit-like fruitiness. Mild spicing evident, certainly not overwhelming, but hard to decipher any specifics. This beer certainly hides it's boasty 12% ABV pretty well with an array of sensations on the palate, but note it is an asskicker.

Serving type: bottle

09-04-2004 09:28:35 | More by crookedhalo

Gusler

Arizona

4/5  rDev +1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

The beer after its escape from the 11.2 ounce brown bottle sets in the glass a smazy brown, with a colossal head that is spumous in texture and the color a toothsome tan, the resultant lace forms a glutinous blanket to obscure the glass. Nose is that of very ripe plums, hints of yeast and a bit of fusel alcohol, start is sweet and thick with malt, top id moderate to full in its feel upon the palate. Finish has a staunch acidity, the hops pounce on your palate along with the 12 percent ABV to make it spicy, aftertaste quite dry and long lasting, a quite decent beer.

Serving type: bottle

07-02-2004 21:09:05 | More by Gusler

PopeJonPaul

Oregon

4.35/5  rDev +10.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Murky toffee brown with a massive puffy root-beer-float-sized head, smells like fermenting fruit and biscuits. Great lacing left behind in the glass.

Flavors of bananas, cinnamon, brown sugar, caramel, fruit pectin, gold raisins with an alcohol bite. A taste balanced between 2 extremes (sweetness and alcohol) with everlasting carbonation, the alcohol bite is not so much that it would put you off though, it's more of a compliment to the sweetness than anything. This beer made the hair on my forearms stand up. Not a cheap beer, this stuff is worth the price though.

Serving type: bottle

06-07-2004 01:52:44 | More by PopeJonPaul

GCBrewingCo

North Carolina

4.47/5  rDev +13.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

The beer poured clear then chunky golden deep amber. The head was large and in charge lasting to lace the glass.

The aroma was malty with deep dark caramel. The aroma almost had a graham cracker character. Definite biscuit and dark fruit aromas but no alcohol aromas.

The flavor was a different story. Lots of dark fruits and plenty of alcohol. Caramel maltiness with plums and raisins, but the alcohol lightens the body so it does not become cloying.

The finish was dry with raisin and caramel flavors lasting into the aftertaste and alcohol warming long after the last swallow was taken. The body was medium and well done.

This beer is very well done. The flavors work together in concert and even though there is alcohol present it is not overpowering to the senses and actually adds to the complexity and drinkability of this beer. I should have purchased more...

11.2 ounce bottle.

Serving type: bottle

05-12-2004 22:47:40 | More by GCBrewingCo

marburg

Michigan

4.47/5  rDev +13.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

A surprisingly excellent little brew, which I'd never heard of but found at a local store.

Thin, sponge-like head. Muddy orange-brown that ressembles a long island iced tea. Nose is very lightly laced with a peppery feel, not terribly complex but pleasant. Perhaps some pumpkin pie for good measure.

Flavor is much more interesting, oddly enough. Bitter mango skins, a slight roasty flavor, and grilled fruit move along in a sweeping and disturbingly apocolyptic finish -- that is, in the sense that it really cleans itself up nicely.

The 12% abv is nearly completely hidden in this beer, especially compared to other such large beers. Absolutely a delight to drink. I think this is kind of an "easy" but pleasant Belgian.

Serving type: bottle

08-27-2003 03:03:21 | More by marburg

stcules

Italy

2.8/5  rDev -29.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

The foam is thin, but persistent. The smell is quite variegated, from the fruity (even inclined to the too matured fruit) to the cheese?
The colour is mud, no other way to describe it.
It has a creamy flavour, fruity. The taste is even too fruity, maybe raisin. The hop is present in the carpet of flavour. The beer is unbalanced to the sweet. The bitter is noticeable just in the aftertaste. I've tryed this beer on tap at the 24 hour of Antwerpen last year, and I remember it very different (and much better...). Maybe it is the bottle.

Serving type: bottle

01-12-2003 11:00:35 | More by stcules