Bottleworks Van den Vern Grand Cru

Brewed by De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Lochristi, Belgium

Aroma is raspberries, blackberries, caramel, chocolate, yeast. Body is a ruby brown with a very thin off white head. Taste is caramel, with some fruit, with yeast, and a bit mettalic. Very fruity.

750 ml bottled 2002. Pours out brown with amber tints, yeasty, malty, sweet, not many floaties. Taste is good, rich, sweet. Has a pretty large kick to it, not noticable at all. Decent beer, I would drink this again.

Pours a hazy dark amber with little head and many small suspended particles. Very earthy aroma, like dank wet soil. Strangely soil like in flavor also, with some cardboard and pomegranite. Flat on the palate with a flabby body and not enough carbonation. The finish reminds me of iced tea with some astringency but little bitterness. Odd beer that, while not horrible, is unfocused.

Thanks to Larry (Andre) for this one. Pours out a deep reddish brown color somewhat murky with a lot of sediment in the bottle and a little in the pour. Aroma is very sweet but also somewhat vinious. Taste is very sweet with a somewhat sour lingering finish. Notes of some apple, sugar and malts were there, but the lack of balance was the downfall of this brew. Not terrible, but really not my thing.

From the bottle.

Pours a fine murky light-brown, hazy but with only very small sediment particles. The aroma is carmelized sugar, apple vinegar, pepper, and hint of ocean debris. The flavor is neither as sweet nor as sour as I had antipated from the aroma; rather, it brings a decisive if metallic hop bitterness into the equation (along with a curious hints of smoked salmon and of overripe apples). Prickly carbonation bites at the tongue and the rather overt alcohol presence burns along the finish.

I’m afraid this seems young and unrefined. I’m certainly not moved by it the way that I have been by some others of the style.

Bottled in 2004. Beautiful pour.. deep murky reddish/brown with a tall, lasting cap of off-white headage. Swirly sediment and wonderful lacing ensued. Full and bold aroma of dark fruits (plums & dates), alcohol, and other assorted dark sugars. Flavors were similar, but not as smooth, and it felt like some artificial sweeteners were employed... there were also some chocolatey malts and alcohol warmth. Decent medium-bodied mouthfeel.. but a bit of a grainy feel to it. Alcohol warmth and dark fruit on the finish. Certainly enjoyable, just a little rough at times.

Very cloudy ruddy-brown colour, thin fast fading yellow head. Nice sweet plummy aroma, fairly heady oaky aroma as well, with some faint acetic notes in back. Decent malt complexity, nutty and woody with some dark caramelly malts. Flavour is pretty good, sweetish up front, some dark malts, loads of plummy sweetness. The amount of special B in here may be more than I’ve ever had anywhere else. There is a bit of a gritty/grainy astringency toward the back that I don’t especially care for. The yeast here is nice and perfumy, cologne, a bit of dank corky flavour in here too, but it adds a bit of complexity. Nice warming finish with a bit of bready and fruity yeastiness. There’s all kinds of stuff in here and it mostly works. Just a little too astringent, but the flavours are pretty well-developed.

From Bottleworks in Seattle...tasted in Tokyo. Poured thin and dark oak colour. Could not keep a head, but that is not unusual for the style. Aroma was thin and very very alcoholic, like rubbing alcohol. Dude, smelling it almost blinded me. Taste was as expected from the smell. Maybe to young, but I don’t have hopes for aging this one. Too thin. Malty tones were nice, a bit peaty and with a hint of round walnut taste. But the rest of it reminded me of the feel you get from an old chemistry set. Tastes like burning.