Grisette Ambrée

Brewed by Brouwerij Affligem / De Smedt (Heineken)
Style: Belgian Ale
Opwijk, Belgium

Fruity, with apple, cherry, and strawberry. Caramel malts and candy sugar. Sweet. Hazy brown-amber with thin off-white lacing head. Medium body with medium-high carbonation. Starts sweet, with apple-like ethyl acetate taste, alcohol, and mild acidity. Finish is watery-acidic, astringent bitter. Bitter chalky after. Not a very well balanced profile, and I wonder if it has turned.

Golden, no head. Aroma is floral and fruity from peaches. Floral aroma, whisky notes, spicy and with a strong finish.

Amber, no head. Frsh aroma from citrus. Floral and a bit malty. Flavor is malkty and a little spicy and strong, with some floral touches. Some bitterness in the finish.

A clear, deep Orange color with a very short lived small white head. An unusual scent at first, a sharp smell, like an electrical fire almost, honey and malts follow. A sweet initial flavor with the bubbles quite active in the mouth, looks still but is very lively upon drinking. Yes, sweet fruit but a bit of ametalic taste. A quick finish, no lingering taste. Seems a bit watery. I find it decent but rather mild.

Hazy light amber color. Quite simple aroma (light yeast, amlt, hop). Some malt, and quite hidden a nice hoppy note. Quite strong taste (and bitterness).

Amber colour (as you would expect) with an orange/red tinge. Although said to be bottled conditioned, there was no sediment in mine. Not much exuberance on the pour. Citrus aroma, but nothing very pronounced. Surprisingly tart flavours, mainly lemon again. Shortish, dry finish, slightly sour. Marginally the best of the Grisette beers in my view. Definitely a pleasant quaffer, but of no great distinction. There is some doubt as to whether this is brewed by St Feuillen or at the Heineken Afflgem plant. I see that Silk Tork has a rather less salacious translation of Grisette than mine (see my notes on Grisette Blond). Bottled (250ml) from beersofeurope.co.uk

Bottled. A another attractive beer in the Grisette series. Amber with a large fine white head that sits in magnificent contrast to the body. Honey dew aroma is clear but slight. The flavours are mellow and smooth with a slight very short bitter finish. Quite thin really.

Honey rushes out when first pouring this bottle conditioned Amber ale from the Friart family, owners of the St-Feuillien brewery in Le Roeulx, south of Brussels. Grisette (which means young woman), originally brewed around the turn of the last century, as part of the top fermented summer ales designed to quickly quench the thirst of manual labourers, is part of the Saison family and has been revived by the brewery to take advantage of the renewed interest in the Saison style. Honey remains in the taste throughout, though once the head settles down other aromas issue forth. Some metallic notes are first, suggesting rusty iron, which are replaced by medicinal and clove like aromas - all in all a spicy and attractive encouragement to continue drinking. The taste is crisp and clean with honeyish fruits up front, a touch of steel, then a mild bitterness, slightly spicy and slightly metallic - probably the result of the high temperature brewing which is an historic feature of this style. A fruity sweetness returns very late in the finish - like tinned apricots rubbed with cloves.