Christoffel Robertus

Brewed by Sint Christoffel Bier
Style: Vienna
Roermond, Netherlands

Bottle (BB 02/05). Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately malty (toasted bread, grain, cookie), lightly hoppy (flowers), trace yeast (horseblanket), with hints of allspice and spruce. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, slightly metallic. Slightly unpleasant sour twang (despite being fresh enough) hurts the flavor score for me. But there are some intriguing background notes in the aroma that keep this interesting (winter holiday smells...pumpkin pie spices and evergreens).

Pours a rich copper brown with a thick, puffy, light tan head. Very musky Belgian malty aroma with some stale bittering hops and a touch of tartness. Body starts with a mild caramel sweetness, turning drier and smoother toward the finish. Flavors are quite subdued, but it goes down crisp and hides its alcohol well. A decent Vienna.

Little thin white head. Malty flavor, with some caremel. Sweet taste - great beer!

Bottle. Light brown head, mostly lasting, wonderfull red brown colour. A very fine beer. Nice aroma and flavour, creamy texture. A beer I would drink again.

Nice aroma and flavor. The aroma is sweet and malty as expected. The appearance is a medium brown and it has a nice head. The flavor is very malty and lightly malted. Its is also a little toasted. Nice caramel aftertaste.

A Ronnie beer, quite hazy, no head. Rich heady nose of malt and spice. Good body with a bit of malty sweetness, well balanced and surprisingly clean and flavoursome. Good stuff.

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)

hazy amber good looking beer. sweet malty, apricot, pineapple-like aroma. taste: sweet, caramel, banana, spicy. lots of banana in the finish. reminds me of a german dunkel weizzen. nice.