t IJ Natte

Bottle. Nice malty, sweet aroma. Unclear dark chestnut brown colour. Small creamy head. Semi-malty flavour. Nice aftertaste. Creamy mouthfeel.

Deep, fairly clear ruby-mahagony catches the light nicely, and the cream-colored foam that sits atop the beer lasts nicely. The aroma is full of overripe fruits and more fruit that was caramelized (kind of like a brown sugar and fruit sauce). There’s a bit of a floral (roses and honeysuckle) nature underneath the heavy fruits. The flavor is less exciting than the aroma, but still comes up with a nice supporting caramel flavor to back up what the nose picked up. A lingering bit of bananas foster in the finish leaves you with a pleasant memory of the beer. Brandon (wunderbier) warned me to leave the yeast in the bottle as it’s a very potent strain, and I have to agree with him, without the yeast, this is a very underrated beer from an underrated brewery.

Dark amber colour with a baige head. Sweet yeasty fruity aroma and a sweet malty hay taste. Medium body and a sweet light harsh finish.

Deep amber with a beige head. sweet berries and yeast in the nose. malty caramel-like sweetness. finish has notes of hay.

Couleur ambrée allant vers le brun, mousse beige non persistante. Arômes presque viandeuse rappelant plutôt le caramel bouilli et la cire de crayon à colorier. Semble passablement oxydé en bouche, rappelant les vieilles cennes noires baignant dans un jus de légume et de viande bouillie. Corps de densité semi-mince à moyenne, carbonatation toujours présente. Cet échantillon n’est peut-être pas à sa pleine forme et n’est certainement pas très invitant à boire.

Brussels sprouts and oily nits in the aroma with a dusty, coiny character. Opaque reddish-brown with two-finger, fizzy, off-white head that recedes almost instantly to partial cover and ring. Tired, bland, meaty notes to the sweet nutty flavour that also exhibits a fair amount of boiled vegetables. Light earthy, grapey undertone. Medium body with fair carbonation. Bottle sampled with MartinT, Olivier MTL and Rastacouere. Best Before was notched twice for month 09/10 and twice for year 03/04.

The Lure:
Walking through a North American Chinese meat market. A few vegetables are boiling a few tables away, some rusty coins and dropped food litter the floor. Luckily, a roasted chestnut vendor drives by and the enveloping sweetness and earthiness of his wares masks the surrounding nastiness.

The Festivities:
Sweeter and yeastier than the aroma, the nuttiness and grape-y earth expand the flavor portfolio into near-interesting realms. The mouthfeel is sadly stale and tired though. A second look onto the bottle confirms that this bottle isn’t past due, but it sure tastes like it is.

Transcendence:
A little cleanliness will go a long way.

Muddy caramel to copper. Light off-white head. Oxidized dulled fruits aroma hints at cardboard, melon and sawdust. Slightly tart, wet, nutty and roasty (coffee?), but nowhere rich.. Slightly creamy texture make it seems like it may not be at its best flavour wise, but as it is (still quite a few months before expiration) it feels like a hole in T Ij portfolio.