Affligem Noël (Christmas Ale)

Brewed by Brouwerij Affligem / De Smedt (Heineken)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Opwijk, Belgium

Pours a slightly cloudy brown color with a thin offwhite ring of lace. The aroma is sweet and spicy. The flavor is sweet and spicy with yeast and leather. The body is medium with a liqourous texture and gentle carbonation.

Pretty good. Pours brown with a small tan head. Aroma is sweet and fruity. Flavor is nice and full, mostly dark fruits. Full body. Not a spectacular beer, but good overall quality.

Bottle from Asheville. Aroma malty and near-cloying with raisins and molasses. Touch of juicy fruit bubblegum. Dark, dark ruby brown pour (essentially opaque) with a soapish light brown / tan head. Crisp, lightly alcoholic feel, lightly acidic and a little harsh to bear. Nice taste, though, raisins and weizenesque clove notes, plummy with a touch of honey and herb. Classy understated bitterness. Medium body feels fuller, with very light continental hop prickling on exit. A bit like a wintered-up Dubbel.

18 Jan 09 update: Picking up more citrus and candi sugar than before, seems a lot more refined this time, yeast and mineral water aspects pushing to the fore, creamier body, yeasty-grainy finish a little clumsy, but overall smooth and classy.

Bottled (Thanks diabel!). Amber colour, mediumsized beige head. Lots of Lacing. Aroma is a lot of spices, malts and some earth as well as yeast. Flavour is malts, spices, caramel, earth and some slight hints of alcohol. Also gets quite wooden when warming up.

Dark brown colored, cloudy appearance. Medium sized yellow head. Rather developed aroma: mild alcohol, cardboard, still some berries and licorice come up. Medium to full bodied. Flavor is better with vinous touch and licorice, toffee also with some alcohol. Aftertaste is rather sweet with also alcohol and some cardboard. Characteristic brew with developed sides.

Bottled 75 cl (vintage 2003? possibly even much older?)
Deep cherry red color, good beige head. Raisins, dates and toffee plus some papery notes in the nose. Very soft, cream liquerish palate. Not much alcohol - just toffee, fudge, vanilla and raisins. This beer has developed nicely.

Bottled (2003 vintage). Cloudy ruby, rich lively head. Aroma of caramel and cardamom. Sweet and syrupy with papery malt and caramel, notes of red berries. Fairly hard mouthfeel, though covered in syrup. Finishes with a light saccharine burn but no bitterness. Quite bold and and unbalanced.

(Bottled, 2003 vintage) Very dark brown with a small but persistent head. Very caramely-malty, somewhat yeasty aroma with some alcohol and vanilla. Sweet, full and pleasantly smooth flavor with some drier, mildly ashy hoppiness in the finish. Medium to full-bodied, smooth-carbonated palate. A nicely aged sample: smooth and nice dessert brew, maybe slightly cardboardy (not stored properly?).