Battignies Fromenthine

Brewed by Brasserie de Battignies
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Battignies - Binche, Belgium

Bottle: The appearance in the bottle was not fresh, my landlord made the comment this beer looks bad. When I pop the top, you couldn’t tell I had used an opener. The poured seemed a murky yellow with sediment and chunks. The aroma was stink butt from a day of sitting in a vinyl seat mixed with the burnt rubber boogers of a racecar tire. I hesitated, half of me urging not to even sample this because the smell alone made my stomach turn. The taste was of firewater, tons of vinegar and alcohol with no real substance. My hope is that this was a bad bottle/infected, or this brewery might not make it long. I ended up pouring it down the drain, which probably helped clean the clumps of yeast that has formed in the pipes over the year.

Good, fine yellowish irregular head over fully hazy chromate beer. End of bottle solid yeast. Rather very penetrating smell of sewage water, organic solvent, and something really chemical - more than probably a sulphur-component. Absolutely... ’stunning’. Surprisingly little flavour. A discreet sourness, and in the background, the dreaded chemical compound lurking - ominous. Very carbonated. No real aggressiveness in the MF, but still. Light body. I cannot help it, but despite the fade taste, I fear that what my nose is telling me. This went down the drain. 5/20 is in fact even too generous, but for a new baby-brewery... I truly hope these first bottles available are a trial run, that will be corrected; for this is, plain and simple, undrinkable.