Christoffel Robertus

Brewed by Sint Christoffel Bier
Style: Vienna
Roermond, Netherlands

I find many Viennas sweet and cloying, but I enjoyed this fruity, untypical example. It poured the colour of cherry cola with a slight haze and a 1cm head that receded quickly. Couldn’t be arsed waiting for it to warm from the fridge (second beer of the night, what the hell) , so it’s no great surprise that the aroma was initially subdued. I picked faint chocolate, cola and melon, but none of the caramel malt that I associate with the style. In a blind tasting, I certainly wouldn’t pick this as a Vienna from the aroma alone. Perhaps that’s not surprising since the brewer’s pilsener is also untypical. Ah... first sip and it tastes closer to style than it smells. Quite light and fruity but with a solid backbone of caramel malt. Bread, chocolate, caramel, cola, melon. Well balanced, this. Just enough hops in the finish to take the edge off the sweetness. Quite a flat mouthfeel but it suits this beer. (33cl bottle, IBS Perth, bb Aug 2006)

Caramel, nutty malt (M); herbish hops (L); hints of prune and apricot? Deep red body with a small, off-white head. Moderately sweet, lightly acidic flavor becomes a moderately bitter, lightly acidic finish. There’s a fruity assertiveness on the tip of the tounge (marishino cherries). Husky finish. Medium body, water texture, lively carbonation. The bottom line is: odd that a Vienna should taste like it has fruit in it...whatever, I’m not strict about styles...

Some vaguely saazy hop stink to it (not skunky, but nowhere as clean and pure as the nose on the blonde) Vaguely sweet thick maltiness, some modified malt astringency. Well bittered but the finish is a bit sweet and lacking in focus. This behaves much more like a 6% alcohol lager than the sublime blonde does.

Golden amber-orange crystal clear with active quickly dissipating small yellow head. Soda pop, fruity (but no strawberries) extra malty aroma. Lowly carbonated English style ale mild bitter sweet palate. A very short bittery start jumping to a very bland middle and faint malty sweet bitter finish. Too simple for my taste.

poured a brownish-red hue with a thin head. Aroma was a mix of earthy malts and some caramel. Flavor was mildly sweet with a slight bitterness to it that sometimes seemed acidic, still enjoyable.

A clear dark red colored beer, with a beige foamed head. The aroma caramel, fruity, malt and a little hop. The taste of fruits like berries/cherries, some sweets and hits of bitterness. There are touches of spices. In the aftertaste a little bitterness lingers on with some sweetness.

pretty damn interesting stuff. since i drank it in the dark at a campsite im giving it an appearnce estimate mark of 3. drinking in the dark though as we were, our senses were heightened and antennae and whiskers waving around - maybe its better tasting things in the dark, then you dont always make colour-associative taste notes like "straw" for pilsners and "bitumen" for stouts, true as they may be. anyways. this tasted like a weird combination of alt and dubbel - not very lagery, in common with the blond. the smell was allspice and malt, the flavour lotsa malt sweetness, with sherbet, pepper. a bit like pinky bars, or chocolate fish.

Bottle. Pours a light brown with a big off-white/light brown head. Sweetish, dusty, cereal and malty aroma. Grassy notes. Not too inspiring. Flavour is sweetish and malty. Notes of rye. Milky and sour notes as it warms. Cloying. 21-09-07.