Swaf Brune (formerly Vervifontaine)

Bottle at O Galego in Brussels. Pours thickly dark brown with minimal highlights, and a pillowy and persistent beige head. Tangy, fruity, vinous nose of raisin and other dark fruits, sort of reminds me of Welch’s sparkling red grape juice. Flavor is similarly fruity with a lightly acidic, tart edge reminiscent of a Flemish sour. Mildly bitter, but that tart fruit character is the highlight. Fairly full body. Interesting beer, not bad.

330mL bottle from tiggmtl, between one and two years old, drunk on 9/14/07
Medium chestnut-mahogany brown beer with a large beige head that fades slowly to cover, leaving light lacing. Medium-high clarity.
Gingerbread and light caramel are strong in the nose, with toasty malt dryness strong on the end. Muted phenols and light chocolate clash amidst too much alcohol warmth on the finish. Just too phenolic or spicy/peppery and lacking in any real malt depth or interesting yeast character. Medium strength of aroma.
Sweet caramel and light chocolate, with minor bready notes building on the palate, as peppery/spicy notes compound this, adding light astringency after the simple malt sugars have fully passed. Not particularly tight carbonation, despite the bottle conditioning. Some wateriness, light alcohol warmth. Just no real cohesion; too sweet up front, too phenolic/spicy on the finish.

A dark brown ale with a thick froathy light moka head, and small floaties. Light caramel malt aroma, no spices, maybe a light coriander aroma. In mouth, a decent belgian dubbel, with good burned caramel, some coriander, bitter chocolate, stewed fruits and the light ginger notes found in the 2 other Swafs. This is my favorite of the 3. Bieropholie private imports. BB 07-07-07.

Aroma:cocoa-nutty... Appearance:Dark brown,huge head...Flavor:cocoa,nutty,light copper-oxydation.....

Bouteille de 330 ml obtenue via Importations Privées Bièropholie. Arôme: Odeur d’épices et d’agrumes. Apparence: La couleur est brune avec une faible densité de bulle et une présence de dépôt. Présence d’un large col mousseux biege et d’une large dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût d’épices et de caramel. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement sirupeuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Présence d’épices en arrière goût. (Rating #829)

Partly cloudy brown body, large white head with good lacing. Aroma of cacao, dirt and sweat. Not inviting. Airy body cruelly lacking malts and hops. Taste is very rude at first but improves as it warms up. Flavours of rye bread, toasted something (nuts?), some cooked vegetables, rather yeasty, some unnamed flavour that is probably ginseng but I don’t know what it tastes like, my sex life doesn’t need to be spiced up… yet.

Murky red/brown shade lets a large and lasting off-white head atop its statement. Hugely yeasty nose comes across rather powdery, kinda dusty with pumpernickel bread hints that hinders the maltiness which is rather attenuated, faintly roasty with cocoa powder notes and frankly rather dull. No hops are noticeable at all while the yeast encloses everything. Strong, active carbonation would have fitted a richer malt bill. Not really pleasant and quite metallic.

Any first impressions?
-Plump foam floats atop the cloudy reddish-brown.
-Sleepy roastiness and bready yeast can’t conjure up enough personality and substance to be enticing.
-Sweet fruitiness and chestnuts are laid on a bread crust.
-The pillowy carbonation is fitting, but I would have liked a little more malt girth at this gravity.

What if you dig deeper?
-Some roastiness and faint chocolate feign depth.
-Aftertaste is yeasty and vegetal; I guess ginseng isn’t my thing.
-The whole Swaf line feels like a second or third-tier effort.

Bottle; 07/07/2007.