Alvinne Melchior

Brewed by Picobrouwerij Alvinne
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Heule, Belgium

Pours a very cloudy yellow/amber, with an extreme off white head. Aroma is fruit, yeast, honey, and spices. Flavor is honey, yeast, spices, fruit, and alcohol. Thanks to hellomynameis for this bottle.

Bottle (2007 version) Hazy, amber/orange body with an off-white creamy head. The head diminishes fastly. Aroma of flowers, honey, hops, orange, citrus and has a touch like it would have been mixed with sparkling (which I don’t claim to be), it just has a lot of carbonation. Strong flavour of cinnamon with some malts (caramel), orange (peels), ... Heavily bitter, lightly sweet flavour. Quite complex, not perfectly balanced (perhaps somewhat too bitter), but very interesting and unusual. I like the latter, experiments which turn out great, like this one.

Bottle from Dranken Geers, Gent, Belgium Poured very hazy light amber with small white head flecked with the odd speckle of yeast. This had a real concentrated juicy fruitness about it, it burst through. The fruit was very much sweet, spicy, bitter seville orange quite glorious. The bitterness hung around for a little while and this was quite an unusual beer really concentrated taste. The alcohol never really got in the way and neither did the sweetness. Lovely beer that on another day I could probably have easily marked as a 4+.

Flaske. Ravfarvet uigennemsigtig øl, med et rigtig pænt skum. En smule metal i duften som åbenbart er et varemærke for Alvinne. Tydelig Alvinne gær er der også. Disse går igen i smagen hvor der er et kraftigt humlebid, og en god del alkohol. Det er lige ved at være en rigtig god øl, men metal duft + smag trækker ned.

33cl bottle: GUSHER! Hopefully that will come out of the couch without a problem. Huge pillowy, expanding off-white head on top of a very murky, muddy dark rusty orange fluid. Very yeasty aroma, but nice. Floral greenery like being in a florists shop. Green, but smooth with cheesy hops, citrus notes and an almost (but not quite) lactic edge. Some how white chocolate comes to mind too. Flavor wise there is again a cheesyness that almost turns to meaty that hides behind floral hop character. This sample is too yeasty to tell, but is this dry-hopped?... maybe not. Almost minty herbal quality coming through now. Slight toffee combines nicely with citrus zest. I need to try this again with a non-gushing bottle. I think this could be great!

Musky and spicy. Concentrated, like a distilled Czech pilsener. Not so sweet, despite the obviously high desity. The finish stood out, with great length and cameleon flavors - and less of that dusty musk.

[Vintage 2005] Hazy amber with huge head leaving laces. Aroma is sweet spicy with peach, plums, yeast and caramel. Flavor is sweet with loads of spices, fruits, madeira and caramel. Pronounced alcohol notes. Finishes light bitter.

Almost half of the bottle came out when opening. Coppery colored with strong hazyness, huge vanishing yellow head. Rich aroma with hops dominating, orange and spiciness come up also strongly, still surprisingly sweet with some brown sugar notes. Alcohol comes up only mildly. Medium to full bodied. Flavor is even more hopped with dominating bitterness, spices and lemony orange are also strong in the start. This added-sugary note also here, still it doesnt do any harm. Aftertaste turns to sour one with some appricot and strong lasting hops.