Augustijn Grand Cru

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

Citrusy, lemon, yeast, slight sourness in the aroma. Cloudy straw colour with pillowy white head. Very tart, sharp citrus, slight biscuity malt flavour. Finishes long and sweet while bitterness lasts in the background. Body is medium-light. Bottle (at Le Bistro des Bieres Belges).

Aromas of yeast, lemon, peach and malt. Light amber, pours a huge billowy white head, pretty lace as well. Flavours of malt, lemon, peach and a lovely breadiness.Full bodied, well balanced, such a dry finish. Very fine example!

Huge, lemon-yellow tinted head, dense; pale golden beer, highly carbonated, hazy at the end. Very dry nose, candi sugar, caramel, caramelsyrup. Liquorice in the haste, tons of it. Very annoying, burnt sugar taste - dry and citrussy acidity on top of the cloying malt/liquorice. Very dry indeed, but well bodied. The palate glides more and more to the citrussy flavour till the end. Burning sensation and alcohol warming. The first taste is terrible. When the dry-citrussy flavours takes over it gets tolerable - no, even better than that. But it's already ruined. It makes me think most of the "Gerulfus Merendree tripel", but with a nasty shot of malt syrup to start.

Hazy golden color with a nice white head. The taste is fruit, yeast and water. Been there done that.

Fluffy white head, which lasts well. Glowing pale gold colour. The appearance is the best bit. The aroma is rather stingy, with hints of honey and lemon (the cold remedy), with vinous alcohol blatantly unpinning it all. Curious aniseed (aniseed balls? and bitter lemon flavour. Sweet and sour finish, becoming sharp. Some alcohol burn. OK, but upfront, rather uncouth and lacking in finesse. There are a lot more interesting and refined Belgian strong ales out there. 330ml bottle (bottle-conditioned) from beersofeurope.co.uk

Clear, blond,large white head. Sweet aroma, like that of bread and honey, but not potent. Sweet flavor, but with some unpleasant off tastes as well. Not particularly appealing but drinkable.

Beer pours (in flute glass) a light golden colored liquid with little or no head. Aroma is of straw, grass, vegetal. Flavor is of a medium amount of hops, straw, grass. Nothing unusual or special compared to similar beers available. Sampled at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Blonde, with soft visible carbo. Slight haze, though served just a hair below cellar temp. Voluminous white head. Aroma is slightly bready, slightly plasticy (I've long felt this brewery's yeast is just plain dirty). Hints of mint & fennel have slightly interfered with what I've expected in this brew. Palate is heavy-sitting with oil and alcohol, sour rambutans, odd herbs. Slight lime note is a distraction (so much so that I swear my mind's palate drifted from lime to lyme). Finishes sweet. As van Steenberge goes, this is relatively complex but overall there are too many odd things here and I'm still not a fan.