t Smisje Speciaal

Brewed by Brouwerij De Regenboog
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Assebroek-Brugge, Belgium

Bottle: Gold with a white head. Alcohol, pepper and fruit in the nose. Overpowering estery alcohol flavour. Some sugary fruits behind. Medium bodied. Drinkable, but feels like a headache inducer.

Bottle. Interesting. Typical heavily carbonated Belgian, yet remaining quite soft. Spicy, yeasty, and i did get some sweet pumkin flavours, and citric yeastyness. The abv needs to be toned down a touch i think, at times it feels a bit raw, but there was something about this that appealed to me, probably the light earthy acidity. I have to say, it is quite well balanced given the relatively high abv.

Bottle, 33cl. Light amber almost orange colour, hazy, with a good and creamy off-white head, mostly lasting. Aroma is lightly yeasty, lightly fruity, with notes of spices and melon. Flavour is very sweet, with something vegetable in it, but not really reminding of pumpkin.The sweetness is a little exaggerated! Alcohol is strong in both the aroma and flavour, very noticeable in the finish. A good beer, but i would appreciate it more if the flavour wasn’t so sweet.

(on bottle) Grand ale here. Sweet nose of bread, cheesecake and abricot. hazy, light orange colour, no head. The alcohol is very present in the nose too.Vinourous balsamic flavour, wood and dry malt tastes.. Alcoholic and warming finish.

Medium orange color - hazy with some floaties. Aroma is spicy, with notes of pumpkin and some fruit. Flavor of sweet malts, with a lot of spice, pumpkin, and other fruits (plums?). Clean finish with a note of grassy hops. Very nice pumkin ale.

Now this is my idea of a Halloween ale! Rather than crammed with the usual allspice, nutmeg, cinnamin, et cetera ad nauseum, De Regenboog went and jammed it full of pumpkin. I’m not sure what role the squash plays, as it seems to have been fermented away except for a very faint trace in the malty, alcohol-laden aroma - if you stick your snout deep into the glass, that is. Hazy orange with a decent fizzy head that haloes itself after a couple of minutes, this is lively and hot in the mouth. The flavor is a sweet/tart maltiness with some light hopping and a hunk of alcohol. The finish is spicy and hot. I will be drinking this again!

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.belgianshop.com/>The Belgian Shop<font size=-1>

Bottled. Hazy nut brown colour, big foamy head. Alcohol, licorace and caramel in aroma along with hints of fruit. Yeast, fruit and spices in flavour. Alcohol is also present, but well hidden.

Bottle open at the Schroppfy post party morning after breakfast: Golden hue with and lasting head. The aroma has npted of orange zest, banana, corriander, juniper, and no notice of pumpkin. The taste starts slightly sour and fruity with a moderate spice background. Some bitters and breadly undertone. Only when it warmed did you finally get even a hint of pumpkin. The feel is sharp and crisp, lively with some alcohol notes but still very quaffable dispite the 10.5% ABV. Good but it didn’t come off as a spiced pumpkin beer and maybe because of that, I enjoyed it more. Thanks Mike!