Bottleworks Van den Vern Grand Cru

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

Pours a hazy brown color, small white head. Aroma of musty apples, hay, vinegar. Flavor is sour gummy bears, fruit punch, and a little hop kick to it.

Thanks to Chuck! Very woody aroma. Bananas, leather, cherry, toasted malts, yeast. The appearance is a fully lasting offwhite head with decent lacing atop a semi-opaque nut brown color. The flavor is oddly bitter that goes into a sweet maltedness. Oaken raisins, sour cherry, yeast.

botl’d 2004 pours an off copper color w/ a big fluffy thick white head that laces very well. Scent is very mixed... I got some nice citurs hop a doughy/bready piece some wheat and a light carmel malt and some fruits I couldn’t pull apart. Palate is very carbonated nice body fairly creamy. flavor started out like a punch in the tongue then pulls out some sweet malts some plums light raisesn and alcohol that first punch was a big sour. Overall a wierd beer but not bad.

Purchased @ Sam’s in Chicago. Turbid rusty orange and brown, rocky light tan head. Complex nose on this one with notes of sour cherry, dark fruits, toasty caramel and grains, with lighter tones of wood. Flavor was more subtle, yet still very nice with soured cherry, caramel, and grains in the forefront. Just a hint of oak encompasses all the above. Medium to full bodied, soft carbonation, velvety, dried soured cherry and caramel finish. This was a nice find...

i might have gotten this from Larry Pitonka!! Looks just like the Santa’s Reserve I just tossed out. Reddish brown and very murky,nice.nOse is much better as I can get into some syrupy malts and what appears to be very ripe bananas.Flavor is not bad with lots of the fruits coming out but is has a funny amount of carbonation on the tongue that I think hurts the flavor,sound weird?

Hazy murky brown pumpkin pie appearance. Syrupy maple, brown sugar, old fruit and leather in the nose. High carbonation fizzes on the tongue, and it has some rotting pear and apple flavors, high alcohol noticed in a plum and wood flavored finish. Decent but not superb.

Heavy brown color and a heavy head on top. Aroma is very heavy of a bread scent. Very thick bread-like scent, similar to St Bernardus, but not as sweet, more hearty. Flavor is a crisp sugary mix, with some spice. Once it begins to warm up I notice that there is a good crispness to the palate which seems to go right along with the sugary.

Cloudy rediish brown with a small head and minimal lacing. All of the aromas were pretty light of grapes, caramel and brown sugar. Taste has some spicy pepper and sweet caramels. Nice drinking though.