Affligem Noël (Christmas Ale)

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

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?).

Bottle sampled. Pours deep bronze with a small tight beige head. Aroma of Spices, dark fruit, belgian yeast, citrus, you know all the good stuff. The flavor is sweet, smooth at 9%, spices, dark fruit, citrus, and finishes with traces of hops. Beautiful!

This was a difficult one to rate. Anyway, here we go. Initial pour was dark reddish brown with a small head, bad lacing and retention. Aroma was stale cardboard with strong raisin notes with other notes of spices, yeast and caramel. Overall the initial aroma was stale and bad though. Flavor was however better and offered stronger raisin notes with a smooth typical Belgian brown mouthfeel, alcohol masked well. Once I poured more into the glass, the lacing and retention was much better. The cardboard aroma disappeared. Ok? WTF? I’ll guess that the glass was cleaned with soap or something (which is bad) and assume that’s why the lacing/retention was initially bad. However, the cardboard thing is a mystery to me, hence the 6/10 for aroma. (5 before, 7 after) Still pretty enjoyable, but never offered a level of complexity that I hoped for.

25.4 oz bottle-Light to medium amber body with a small ring for a head and an aroma of floral, hops, and a little alcohol. Taste of floral, light malt, and slight alcohol. A decent BS but a little weak. I’ve had this bottle aging for over 10yrs.

i do not like this type of beer. it tasted like a conglomeration of vegetables. whatever else that was going on was immaterial because the beer had a bad flavor...of....whatever the belgians like in these beers. nothing redeeming to me.

I had held this one for a while. Pours out like your typical BS and aroma and flavor are that as well. This one was a bit more spicy though. Not bad.

Bottle: Dark brown, slight hues of ruby, moderate to large foamy light beige head, fairly nice lacing.   Sweet bready nose, slight licorice root and earthly herbs.   Perhaps some clove in there as well.   Dull sweet malt flavor, lightly spiced, soft earthen herbs, a bit of the aformentioned licorice root and clove.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel.   Fairly clean finish, lingering spices.   Fairly good, solid, reminds me a bit of either the white or black Necco wafers.   Not heavy on the bready side, which is good, but any sort of dark pitted fruit was kept to a minimum on this one.   Not that I was looking for it, but a big Belgian like this I almost expected it.   Anyways, still fairly tasty.