Palm Speciale

Brewed by Brouwerij Palm
Style: Belgian Ale
Steenhuffel, Belgium

11.2 oz bottle. Clear copper with some white froth. Nose is metallic and lightly skunked with hints of yeast and lemon. Light and crisp, finishes dry and chalky. Taste is cereal, sugar cookies and a touch of tangerine peel. A Belgian take on the pale lager. Not bad as a quencher.

On tap at Blue Dog. Amber color with no head. Minimal aroma of spice and malt. Watered down flavor of spice, malt, and faint hops. Disappointed.

Nice looking amber beer, small ammount of not-quite-white head with decent lacing. Crystal clear with some odd shaped floaties...didn’t really want to see floaties in this beer. Swirl produces a decent ammount of cap. The aroma is a bit stinky and empty, slight spice, some malts - overall weak smell. The taste is not bad at all. Mild and easy to drink with a touch of caramel, somewhat noticable hops and mild flavoured malt. Hop flavour is prevalent. Light to medium bodied. Mouthfeel is so-so due to it being not that smooth. Zippy attack. Leaves a good ammount of hard bitterness on the roof of the mouth, some malt finish. I think I could drink alot of these. Overall I think this is a solid beer.

On draft at Bouillon des Colonies, Paris. Translucent, slightly hazy orange-brown body, thick, moderately dense off-white head. Toasty nose with a sweet cerealy tang; caramel. Tangy flavor, thin and wispy at cold temperatures, improving with warmth with notes of toast, caramel, bitter earthy hops, and plum and bread that round out as the beer warms. Pedestrian, but welcome after nearly 24 hours in transit.

Beer looks very clean honey brown complete with a small off white cap that lasted a very long time due to the fact it was constantly replenished with columns of bubbles floating up to the top, very average looking brew but good enough for me. Mild skunkiness with dry wheat and just maybe a touch of hops in the aroma, after sniffing for a while I’m detecting something that I can only describe as a glass of milk what the hell this milk sent is intriguing me because I can’t quit figure it out, fifteen minuets of smelling later the mike aroma is still there but I must move on. Very crisp clean taste nice and malty with a metallic hop presence, this is a very smooth beer to drink the malts are flavor full but still very light, and the light hops give this brew a very clean finish that left zero after taste. Wow this brew was freaking amazing I was expecting swill but ended up with a very fine imported beer, I usually hate European lager, pilsners and other lighter ales due to they all taste like crap but this one is awesome, or maybe it was the fact that I just ran 10k and would have thought cold piss was yummy. This is worth a try if you can get it review done while watching Seinfeld.

Tap at the Sugar Lounge: I almost forgot I had this a few months back, but I remember my mental rating pretty well. Amber pour with an off white thin head. Simple aroma of caramelized malt and light husk notes- pretty clean with only a touch of fruity esters. Light feel- malt driven flavor. Light caramel and toast with some nondescript fruitiness. Almost like an American Amber Ale minus hoppiness. Some diacetyl as well. I hope that many non-beer people don’t have this as their first "Belgian Ale" as it will turn them off and give them a false representation.

Bottle. Weak burnt malt aroma. Clear amber colour with white head. MAlt flavour with weak citrus and caramel. Discrete yeast.

I saw numerous folk drinking this beer all over Belgium and the Netherlands. I figured I’d try it. It was bottled and poured into a tulip. Brown in color. Some what like a Brown English Ale. Very little in flavor. I was expecting caramel from the color but really can’t say I could pick anything out.