De Ranke Guldenberg

Brewed by Brouwerij De Ranke
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Dottignies/Dottenijs, Belgium

Thanks to Nate for sharing. Pours a hazy golden color with a thick foamy head that disappears before too long. Nose of some ozone and a very sweet light malt. Honey, some grainyness, and a slight floral hop. Pretty bitey flavor. A little sweet honey, but very pilsy with just a mild fruit fruity, yet flowery, hop flavor. Maybe a little bit of jasmine? The flavor is pretty light, but hits you with a nice bitter at the end.

Weird cloudy orange with lots of sediment and chunkage. Incoherent but eager head. Crackery, bread crust malt in aroma, minty and earthy hoppiness. Flavor starts with more crackery malts and then thins out to be pretty dusty and moderately sour, slight tangerine. Quite hoppy, this. Florality and noticeable ethanol are strong players here in the finish. The ethanol is actually pretty overwhelming.

[1196-20080304] 750mL. Mild grassy hops aroma hints at a field of pine needles nearby. Cloudy, light brown lime body with a long-lasting foamy white head. Bitter hoppy lemon grass flavour is mild. Light-medium body has muted bitterness. Not bad for a prize won at Zythos!

750 ml bottle courtesy Nate. Pours hazy golden with thick, foamy white head, dissipates rather quickly, decent lacing. Nose is malty with slight apple, yeasty notes, lemon, citrus, slight sour. Taste is malty bread with lots of hop bitterness for style. Yeasty spice and fruit notes, apple and pear; mild coriander and clove, some irony/metallic flavors, minerally. Crisp and bitter ending. A Belgian with some hop character/flavor. Not bad.

Cloudy straw body sitting beneath a huge, frothy white head. The aroma is bready and spicy, with notes of light fruit, coriander, clove, honey, sugar and floral hops. In the mouth is watery and bready, with tea, spice, citric and honey notes. Bubbly, light mouthfeel. A bit too hoppy to match the other flavors, in my opinion. The finish is kinda nasty, with sewer and metallic notes. Overall though, not too bad.

From bottle. Dusty-musty yeasty nose. Light funk and horse blanket. Some coriander or other herb, too. Mild alcohol vapor, estery. Pleasant nose with a bit of butterscotch. Floral hops and tea. Medium amber cloudy topped with a foamy-rocky off-white lacing head. Medium body with medim carbonation. Starts with medium sweet malt, honey, mild Brett-like bitterness. A bit watery. Nice light alcohol taste and yeasty finish. Clean drinking with light buttery finish and dry after.

33 cl bottle from Bieropholie, served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass. BB Aug 2012.

App.: Hazy light amber, reasonably tight off-white head, decent lacing. Aroma: Meaty/savoury (uh-oh), some tree fruits, some alcohol, light dried fruits, esters of tropical fruit, lots of apple, some yeast. Palate: Medium+ body, medium effervescence, a touch slick. Flav.: The meat is absent, thankfully; plenty of apple and other tree fruits, light dried fruits, light caramel and tropical fruit esters, fairly present alcohol, a bit of mineral, a bit of yeast; slightly nutty and a touch woody; on swallowing, nutty, off-dry for sure, somewhat bitter and some alcohol.

Not bad. I appreciate the bitterness, but it didn’t thrill me otherwise.

Draught. Cloudy golden coloured beer. Coriander in the taste. Also quite strong hoppping. Not too sweet. More than average carbonation.