Swaf Ambrée (formerly Vervifontaine)

Brewed by Brasserie de l’Abbaye du Val-Dieu
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Aubel, Belgium

(33cl bottle) Bieropholie Private Import. Pours a medium, white frothy head with a sediment-filled, amber body. Nose of yeasty and apples. Very peppery flavour with strong apple, yeast and mellow malt. Very,very average beer.

Light mint aroma. Malty, peppery flavor with mint and a hint of licorice. Spicy aftertaste.

Hazy amber-orangeish hue, with a creamy white head, with some small particles of yeast swirling around, yeasty, bready dough nose, with a fruity note of ripe apples, caramelized malt, toffee accent, with a hints of spicy cinnamon and ginseng in the aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate with a smooth yeasty caramelized malt character, with a toffeeish accent, brown sugar, dark dried fruit notes, with a mild alcoholic feeling, nice carbonation, weak ginseng spiciness, leading towards a sweet malty, faint hops bittering finish.

11.12 oz bottle, best before 07/07/07, split with Tiggmtl on 8/27/06.
Good to see it’s still bottle conditioned. Massive, clumpy, beige/ginger-skin colored head is fiercely stubborn. Plenty of medium-sized bubbles cascade upwards in an earl-gray tea colored body with some lighter golden tints. Head is well-retained and sticks about everywhere to the glass.
Sweet nose seems underattenuated from the outset. But earthy, musty yeast spread about crunchy graham crackers helps break apart some of these thick, caramel sugars. Kind of reminds me of the D’ecaussines line of beers, with it’s heavily yeasty, hearty, robust, unrelenting cellar quality.
Spiciness, almost ginger-like, breaks open the palate, but filling in the holes seems to be more fatiguing caramel and heavy honey-like sugars. Doughy and at the same time fruity, with a strong tart-cherry/orange-rind note that must come from the spices. A bit more of the crusty breadiness and cracked grains emerges upon warming, but it’s certainly not getting any less sweet. All the while, the yeast chips at the palate (I really don’t like this yeast, despite really enjoying Val Dieu trippel, I certainly don’t remember that one being this musty/moldy).
The chain of sugars is unbreakable, leading to a thick, rich texture. Expressive, somewhat engaging carbonation works overtime to help keep it drinkable, but it can’t ultimately. Alcohol not noted in aroma or flavor.
Seems like a competent Belgian ale, but just WAY underattenuated and the spices are just confounding and brash. I’ll have what they’re having (Jeff and Ernest). Thanks anyway, Stephen. Maybe the blonde and Brune will prove better.

Cloudy amber pour with a thin white head. Aroma of spices and yeast. Flavor of spices, yeast and tart fruits. The body is light to medium with an oily texture and soft carbonation.

Yellow gold. Clumpy foam deposits sticky patches of foam on the glass with each sip. Perfumey aroma of tangy herbs and rose petals dusted with white pepper, lavender, and musty yeast. Background brett and mandarin orange whispers. Pillowy and meringuelike on the tongue. Extremely engaging, right away, with an integration of glazed malt sweetness, lightly toasted hay, and gritty brett. Trenchant herbal hop bitterness effortlessly penetrates the lush malt textures, but it remains remarkably balanced. Despite the firmness, an equally amount of elegant softness lies beneath. Delicate rosewater and succulent mandarin orange and fresh peach notes negate the robust brett punch while palate hugging herbal hops and richly textured malts sustain the deceptively full body. Vivid white pepper and lavender are greatly lengthened by the powder textured body and zestful sharpness. Teasingly dry finish is laced with sea salt, bitter herbs, candied mint leaves, and medicinal-tinged brett sharpness, as randomly exploding pockets of moistness fill the palate. Had I tasted this beauty blindly, I’d have mistaken it for a Fantôme creation...it’s that charmingly rustic. What an experience.

Bottle Clear, amber body. Rocky, off-white head on top of it. Uninteresting nose of overkilled and unbalanced beer: perfume, light malts, ... And the flavour proved my prejudices right. Moderately sweet, lightly bitter flavour.

Orange-amber beer, hazy; with a very creamy, off-white head, leaving lace. Very perfumed and leafy nose, smells of roasted malts, nutty as roasted peanuts. Again quite roasted, toast-like taste. Remarkably little bitterness (isn’t ginseng supposed to be bitter?). Retronasal some citrus, orange-like. Quite burning MF. Rather well bodied, and sweet aftertaste. I am under the impression that the original Vervifontaine beers were more spiced, characterised by the ginseng. This is rather sweet.