La Binchoise Speciale Noel

Brewed by Brasserie La Binchoise
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Binche, Belgium

Bottle - Brasserie Beck (DC) - Dark hazed amber, creamy white head. Powdered apricot and butterscotch chips sit on soft waves of herbal tea and spice. Floral fuzzy fruity flavors balance on notes of spiced toffee. Dry sugary tea leaves round this out well. Full bodied, soft carbonation, fruity finish. Interesting complexity throughout, but well made for sure....

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange with a declining white head. Spicy aroma. Flavour of toffee with nutmeg and cherries. Light palate given the strength, which is also well hidden. A good winter beer that doesn’t feel the need to beat you around the head with intense flavours or alcohol - a nice change!

Draught: Aroma of sour cherries and medicine. Poured copper/orange in color with a small white head that lasted throughout. Hazy. Flavor of cherry, caramel, and medicine. Medium body. Sticky texture. Average carbonation. Sticky finish.

Bottle, caged and corked. Spicy nose, a little indeterminate but nice enough for the holidays. Clear, light amber pour with a noisy, excited tanned head. Sweet with light nutmeg and allspice, a touch of gritty, leafy tea. Dry with dusty yeast and some numbing. Slight chalky coating. Medium-full body and tingly. It’s been hard for me to break this down into components – it’s so tightly blended that the specifics seem to fall away. Has the benefits of a nice, lightly fruity Christmas ale, but with some of the drawbacks of a boring amber. On the whole, though, classy and enjoyable.

Pours a golden copper with a lasting thin head. Fruity, yeasty aroma - light, dry hoppiness. Tastes of northern brewer hops, alcohol, very brew-kettle worty finish. Thin body disappoints, but carbonation ok. Perhaps not my kettle of fish.

Thanks for sharing another beauty Mike. ’97 vintage. Hazed brownish orangey yellow with no head. Herbal lgithly sweet malt. Subtle toasty. Low carbonation. Not too heavy, but not too thin. Unique!! biggish EtOH, but the mint chocolate is quick amazing. Tannic dry finish. Very herbal! I’ve got to see if I can’t find some of this to store for a while...

An old bottle (97 vintage). Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite. It smells nice, looks good, tastes amazing and makes me happy. If you have a bottle, hold on to it for a long time, (you’ll thank me) although, I would like to now how this tastes fresh, it would be hard to be better than this. I heart you big time.

Bottle courtesy of mgermani: Poured a deep clear amber color ale with a big foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma if totally dominated by ginger with some caramel malt also discernable. Taste is quite heavy on the ginger with some light medium-sweet caramel malt notes. Body is thinner then expected with some great carbonation and alcohol is really well hidden. Definitely not what I was expected but very interesting nonetheless.