Melchior - Picobrouwerij Alvinne / Den Bierzolder

wl0307

United Kingdom (England)

3.9/5  rDev +8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Bottling date: 01/05, served lightly-chilled in a large Burgundy bulb wine glass.

A: pours a murky, brown-ish amber hue; the 2cm creamy beige beer head settles elegantly to a rimmed foam, leaving uneven sheets of lacing behind; ve...ry gentle carbonation.
S: like a well-hopped barley wine, the smell upfront is full of flowery and sweet citric notes of EKG and Challenger hops (as specified on the beer label), backed by a semi-alcoholic base of strong and thick barley candy. The composition is not complex enough, though, in favour of a sweet, jammy note of melted crystal sugar and plenty of rough and sharp yeastiness as the beer breathes.
T: yeasty yeasty~~ an assertive aroma of pheonolic, ash and old wood barrels prevails upfront, fast bringing abroad a surprisingly light, crystal-sugary maltiness on top of a tremendous flow of hops, with tannic and pheonolic bitterness creeping down the tongue and lingers to continue its chemistry with somewhat licorice, bitter-sweet aftertaste of Munich(?) malts. The lingering, flat-bodied hop bitterness gives the whole palate a "niche", which, along with that tannic touch, skilfully softens the strong profile by a good margin. Only in the very end does a warm flow of alc. emerge deep down the throat.
M&D: the carbonation is quite creamy on the mouthfeel with a semi-sharp fizzy kick at the back at the initial stage; pretty moderate-bodied for a 11%abv. strong ale, and alc. is very well hidden. The more I sip it, the more I find similarities with English Barley Wine, although the malt flavour is pretty different. Not the most complex offering from Alvinne, but I personally find it quite approachable. Might keep another bottle for a longer period before trying it again.

Serving type: bottle

10-06-2006 02:48:50 | More by wl0307

paterlodie

Belgium

2.38/5  rDev -34.1%
look: 1 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Bottled 10-05. Massive expirience when opening this one as this is my second bottle that massivly gushed and made me clean the floor. Flush stop after about 30% was out of the botle. But enough about that now, this beer has a nice nice head that lasts very well but has scary beercollor as this one is defenitly heavily tainted but shows from a distance as chocolate milk with this enourmous amount of yeast or whatever it is. Nose is hoppy and caramellic malted and smells highly alcoholic and if someone would tell this would burn i'd believe him. Taste is alcoholic and yeasty, bit of alcohol and heavy hopped. Massive in taste but unbalanced and with this gushing, alcohol- and yeastlevel undrinkable IMO. Hopefully this were just a couple of first or last bottles or that they get this gushing and yeastproblem in hand cause this way I can't give them a hands up for a brew that actually has potention to be a great beer.

Serving type: bottle

12-03-2005 20:46:43 | More by paterlodie