Dikke Mathile
Brouwerij Strubbe

 

Color very nice dark golden, clear.
Foam quite a large off-white. Build with fine bubbles with a few larger blisters. The average rate disappears from Tulipa.
The aroma of malt, honey, with a delicate caramel, vanilla and a hint of grass.
Dikke Mathil taste in this mainly vanilla, caramel, was slightly acidic, somewhere in the background is, and orange and raisins.
Hop bitterness at the finish very delicate.
Saturation average, alcohol undetectable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bought at slijterij t' Fust in the Bilderdijkstraat in Amsterdam. Poured into a Brasserie D'Achouffe Tulip glass.

L: nice thick foam with coarser bubbles that reduces to a thinner layer. great lacing. Fine medium carbonation. copper in color and translucent.

S: belgium yeast, hops, fruity esters, little caramel

T: good balance of bitterness and sweetness; a little bit unpleasant metallic aftertaste

M: not much going on really, little carbonation present, feels foamy just before it enters the throat - that's nice

O: I am a bit surprised that my rating is rather average as I remembered this one to be quite good. However, it is not bad at all and it runs down nicely and with an alcohol content of 6 Vol.% it could even qualify as a session beer though due to its limited availability this might be a choice for us beerhappy people within or close to Belgium only.

 

Not a very spectacular beer to start with in this review. Bought this bottle a week ago in Belgium.

Amber coloured beer with two fingers head. There is a bit of a strange smell which is not very inviting. A bit of a soil which was soaked with some chemicals. Also a light sweet smell. This looks like a beer where the ingredients don't match.

No highlight!

I like Mathile. She's sweet and smells fruity.
And she's not that fat at all. In fact, i find 25 cl rather slim...

Looks orange brown, clear, with very good carbonation, decent head, decent lacing.

Fresh malty and fruity smell: peach, currents, berries, banana, citrus.
Taste is mostly malts, some yeast. Most of the fruits are not present, or very faint.
Mouthfeel is smooth, with a spicy bite.
Easy drinkable: refreshing and easy alcohol. Not too complex, but a nice beer.

An opaque, deep golden appearance with a quarter-inch white head that vanished pretty quickly.

Has a very fruit smell ... think I got a whiff of cantaloupe (of all things) and raisins. Has a spicy, malty taste, but not as complex as I would've hoped.

Respectable starting head which leaves solid ring lace. The liquid is nearly clear. The color is a dark gold.

Belgian yeast smell followed by non-descript malt. Oddly, I get a strong fragrance of perfume after the head settled.

Tastes stronger than the abv suggests. While the body is full, I find it interesting that the beer would have such strong warmth from alcohol. The next strongest taste is the yeast, although it is not biting. The malt and hop take a back seat to this beer.

It's drinkable, but uninteresting.

750ml corked and caged bottle, beware of the cork when opening, i opened it slowly and when I got the wire halfway undone it shut up, but it was still intact because the cap stopped it, i then gently pulled the rest of it off with a huge pop, but surprisingly no gush.

It pours a hazy burgundy with a hue of pure brown in it, the head is big and slightly off-white and leaves some speckled lace as it moderately recedes. I would call it a Belgian Dark ale rather than a Belgian pale ale.

It smells extremely fruity. I'm getting strawberries and grapefruit, maybe some golden raisin. There is also a huge amount of almost rye-like malt. It is equal parts tangy and bready.

The flavor is tangier, but with a high alcoholic twang. The fruits in the flavor seem to be the standard esthery flavors like grapes and raisins. Again, that interesting malt bill is present, especially on the back of your tongue after drinking. There is also some burnt caramel/butterscotch that teams with the alcoholic notes.

The mouthfeel could be better, it is only slightly cloying but enough to dock the mouthfeel somewhat. It is also just a tad watery.

It's a decent brew with full flavor and scent, but maybe lacking in the other areas.

A: Deep amber color with a medium white head that settles quickly to reveal little to no lacing.
S: Aroma of bread dough, malts and orange peel.
T: Flavor is dominated by the malts, with moderate spices, not a bad flavor, but nothing too complex.
M: Decent enough body, but nothing special.
D: A good blonde ale, but not outstanding.

Poured with a nice tan, fine foam head that lasts and some lace. Color is a clear medium amber. Aroma is nice with malty, spicey, hoppy, yeasty notes. Flavor's about the same but much more shallow and dominated by a simple sweetness. Body is decent and good carbonation. Finish is mainly yeasty bitterness. Ok beer.

Firelight orange with a deep, rich, warm glow when afternoon sunshine is allowed to enter the glass. The three finger head of sandstone colored foam doesn't look great, but it gets the job done. Unfortunately, the job doesn't seem to include leaving much lace.

If there are American blonde ales and amber ales, why aren't there Belgian blonde ales and amber ales? Dikke Mathile is definitely the latter. The aroma is lightly toasted, sour fruity and is somewhat herbaceous. I was unable to determine exactly which 'herbs' the label says have been added. This might be interesting beer, but it doesn't smell like it will be delicious beer.

Correct on both counts. I've had these herbs and spices before (or something similar). Too bad I can't identify them. Brouwerij Strubbe would have been better off letting the barley, hops and yeast carry the flavor. The additional ingredients steamroll over everything and force the drinker to like it or lump it. This isn't bad beer, but it will take some time to get through the entire bottle.

Flavors include lightly toasted bread, roasted peanuts, wood, tart peaches and apricots... and a potpourri of herbs and spices. The Hallertau hops add a balancing bitterness without adding much flavor. In the end, it doesn't add up to anything that I'd care to drink again.

The mouthfeel is medium in heft and has a slick stickiness rather than a light creaminess. That's at least partly because the carbonation is sharp-edged rather than soft and caressing. More mouthfilling volume would have been great.

Dikke Mathile Belgian Amber Ale is par for the course when it comes to Brouwerij Strubbe. None of the three ales that I've had from these guys have been anything to write home about. To be fair, none of them have been terrible either. A small bottle single might be worth the money. Don't do what I did, though, and spend almost $10 on a big bottle.

A clear, dark copper beer with a settling head.

Smell is light roasted with molasses and a fruity twist. When I stick my nose further down the glass I get a burned sensation.

Taste is fruity with caramel malt. The fruits are red fruit that combine very well with the nutty and light roasted notes of the beer. Drinkability is great. A easy-drinking beer that is not something only for new beer drinkers. It has a hidden complexity if you look for it.

The statue this beer is named after was right outside our hotel in Ostend. Fat Matilda lays in a bed of water and is pictured in the label.

A small 25cl bottle bought and consumed at the excellent 'De Vlasschaard' in Stene, Ostend.

Amber and bright in the sun, well formed white head, looks nice in its own glass. 50% Poperingse and 50% Hallertaur hops give it the colour.

Pleasant hoppy aroma, not over the top, just about right.

Lovely hot day, this was just what was required. Fine mix of Belgian goodies, all bundled together to produce a well balanced amber/pale ale. It had all the attributes needed to make me want another (and another).

This beer pours a nice clear amber color with a smallish off-white head. A fair amount of bubbling present. The head is gone quickly, but leaves behind some pretty decent lacing.

Smells of caramelized sugar and an almost metallic scent (phenols?). The metal is gone in the taste; the caramel is still there, but backed with hops and fruit-like esthers. The slight bitterness is overcompensated before with sugars.

Mouthfeel is on the watery side, but it could be worse. A beer that would be more drinkable if it were a bit less sugary and a bit more substantial.

Appearance - Poured a light copper color with a mildy foamy head. Not much in the way of bubbles.

Smell - Slighty hoppy yeasty scent with strong hints of citrus fruits.

Taste - Strong flavors of malt at first with a fruity sweetness on the finish.


Mouthfeel - Light on the tounge. Could have used a litte more carbonation.

Drinkability - A easy drinking beer but nothing outstanding that would make me want it over other Belgians. Worth trying at least once.

light orange to brown with a very creamy, light colored head. sticks around with creaminess. smells of Belgian hops, with a slight funk. sour taste, with Belgian hops, serious bite. there is some bitterness from the hops that I don't always find in Belgians. creamy mouthfeel with a quick bite.

A - Many floaties in a beautiful amber body supporting a white head and thick white sheets of lacing.
S - Fresh pastry aroma. Zippy citrus. Spice.
T - Very odd flavor like dried apples. Hugely sweet and no bitterness.
MF - Light carbonation and full bodied.
D - This beer was far too sweet, there should be a warning that this is a desert beer.

This was my 500th review.

Actually called "Dikke Mathile" it is named after "Fat Matilda" a nude woman statue that I believe is in Oostend. She is pictured on the front label lounging in front of the Oostend casino.

Pours a clear amber/coper with a short-lived white head that laced my glass.

Smell is a bit odd - some rotting oranges and cilantro with a sweet malt background.

Taste is also on the sweet side, but with an odd bitterness that is not hops. The sides of my tongue tingle after I drink it. OMG! Is it poison! Probably not. It ends on citrus rind note.

Mouthfeel is slick and oily with some carbonation.

Not really into this beer and not impressed.

Best before22-12-05. Beer poors out with hardly any foam but is nicely copper colored and is cristal clear.
Nose is carramellic malty, sweet, litle oxidised and very yeastspicy. Taste is fully flavoured though and has good taste. Mostly the maltflavours from ambermalt but also giving you (light)candy taste and some sweetness but well dosed. Aftertaste is slightly bitter of fine quality but sweetness is litle hanging. Mouthfeel is full but missing litle tinkle of carbondioxide that is dosed (to) low. Easy to drink though and well balanced alltogether. Quiet a good brew but could have refermentation on botle to prevent from this oxidated smell it had and just picked it up from the brewery 2 days ago.

Off-white light foam head; 2 cm remain for the duration of the drinking. Yeasty, strong strawberry nose.

Taste is light citrus lemon-lime, candy-like. Flash of hops at the end to remind one that one is drinking a beer. Everything about the taste is light, although the yeastiness makes it pleasant to drink and slightly complex. A little too sweet. White wine aftertaste.

The bottle and the glass it came served in featured a naked green woman doing some sort of back stand, which I thought was great.

Not CRAZY interesting compared to other Belgian Pale Ales.