Blonde De Noël
Brasserie Caulier

 

 

 

 

Poured from 33 cl. Bottle into goblet. Pleasant, a bit sweet for my individual taste. Amber and cloudy with small amount of dark sediment. Honey taste with bitter finish.

 

 

 

 

 

330ml bottle poured in a Leffe chalice.

A: Pours a cloudy beige color and a huge white fluffy and "alive" head. A lot o noise. Dissipates slowly leaving many lacings

S: Smell is very sweet and yeasty. Mallty too. Very pleasant. A bit spicy. Quite fruity

T: Taste is the best part. Sweet upfront. Fruity. Caramel, honey, caramel malts. Earthy yeasts. Delicate bitter aftertaste. Hints of oxidation

M: Creamy heavy body. Lots of carbonation. Sweet upfront, bitter aftertaste like a good Belgian should be

O: Absolutely good beer. Very drinkable. Belgian to the bone

 

Christmas beer in april is a bit of a leap, but nevermind.
Swingcap top 33 cl. bottle, opening it and it spritzed my wall, unfortunately.

Amber hazy colour, not too much head, a bit of lacing, not much carbonation.

Malts and booze on the nose. Lightly fruity.
Taste is a bit bitter, and candy sugar, and a bit peppery.
Again alcohol is very present, unfortunately.

Mouthfeel is thin , with alcohol.

Overall it's not bad. I mean: it's not an obvious alcohol-bomb. It does have interesting aspects.
However, it's very close to some very dubious strong lagers i've had.

Served at Delerium Cafe, Brussels, Belgium on 3/21/2010.

A- Poured from the tap into a chalice with 3/4" of white foamy head, which slowly receded to reveal some great lacing. The body was a slightly hazy blonde color with no visible carbonation.

S- Crackerlike malt and non-descript spices dominate the nose. It's difficult to pick-apart the nose because everyone's smoking in this bar... it smells good nonetheless.

T- Nice crackerlike malt and various spices dominate the palate as anticipated. Mild spice and Belgian yeast esters give this a flavor similar to a spicy tripel, which echoes through the finish.

M- A medium body- with tons of soft carbonation that massages the tongue.

D- Very drinkable, particularly given the alcohol content.

This was last bottle of a three-pack bought in a Brussels grocery store in an after-Christmas sale three (I think) years ago, pulled out of the cellar a month after the use-by date, served out of the fridge and nursed until almost room temperature. It proved to be a different product with some age on it.

After I released the wire arms to break the seal, the ceramic top remained fast and needed to be tugged a bit to give the jarring pop that the brewery insists be followed by an oath of "Santé, Henri!" for the guy who runs the bottling line. Off-white foam gushed down the sides. Pouring too quickly into a tulip glass, I could see a steady flow of dark gouts of sediment. The head that made it into the serving was thin and soapy and dissipated quickly. With aging the beer seemed to have darkened versus memories of fresh servings, past the border of 'blonde' and into honey-amber, maybe a shade lighter than average for a Belgian Christmas ale but by no means an outlier. It was beyond cloudy, with flecks of dark lees that never resettled.

In the nose, the words that jumped to mind included clove, orange peel, coriander (standard Belgian stuff so far, but now is where it gets seasonal), cinnamon, vanilla, caramel and a woody oak-like something.

Even by the standards of the style, the beer has a serious weight and chewiness in the mouth, counteracted (I wouldn't say 'balanced') by alcohol and spice astringency. The swish of alcohol in the mouthfeel has bedded down versus a fresh serving. The flavor started with a rush of honey sweetness and then was cleansed by the clove and winter spices ; I remember fresher servings having more yeast but it wasn't present this time. There's nothing at this strength and weight I would call a session beer, and I would usually be quick to split it with someone, but in this case (and maybe for the first time with any Caulier product, even with a fresh Blonde De Noël) I could have considered a second one.

This was a complete gusher, and I'm afraid that my neighbors might call the police after hearing the pop generated by opening the swing top.

At any rate, after cleaning up the huge mess, the head on this brew continued to billow into a three finger foamzilla head. Eventually, the head settled down down to a frothy white finger of foam that left some chunky lacing down the side of the glass. Hazy orange-yellow gold hue.

Sweet maltiness; green grapes that are more sweet than tart; some Belgian yeastiness; light spices...touch of clove. Some citrus notes.

Not bad stuff here; get a kick of booze in the flavor; some citrus; some yeastiness; hint of candied sweetness; not nearly as sweet as suggested in the nose; not as spicy, but some peppery alcohol finishes back out (even though this brew is being consumed at nearly room temp)

Prickly lively carbonation to accompany the medium body that is a little viscous, especially for the style. OK sipper of a brew, but certainly not one of the best Belgian Christmas brews that I've had.

So far I have liked all the winter beers, let's see if this one is as good. Pours a cloudy yellow color with some chunks of yeast at the bottom.

Smell is very a musty, citrus.

Taste is very peppery, lemon peel, nice dry finish. Alcohol is not present at all, surprising for a 10% beer.

Awesome brew and worth a try, not the best noel out there but it's complex and warming.

The 4th beer on my 2008-9 Belgian Winter Ale tasting "panel". Coming in Bon Secours' typical swing-top brown bottle, BB 10/2009, served lightly chilled in Hapkin's tulip-shaped bowl sniffer.

A: the swing-top pops up to deliver in the glass a murky dark amber hue with rather mild carbonation (like a muddy prune tea really); the light beige head builds up to a super thick rock and then settles slowly to a fluffy soufflé to last throughout the drink.
S: rather sour-fruity (with notes of overripe fruits typical of exotic esters) and then spicy+savoury yeasty, but at an approachable level; the pale malts come rather refreshing, thought not as complex as the better, usual pale ales with a lower alc. level but much bolder estery elements - maybe, the goodies stay underneath the thick nectar?
T&M: a really quiet swallow of very fine carbonation comes soft with a wee bit of warming alcohol, then moderately sweet pale malts and esters (like dried white dates plus estery overripe fruits) with a rather chewy palate of hops gradually takes over, leaving a mildly sweet-woody/herbal as well as lightly phenolic bitter-sweet undertones to linger at the rear ends of the tongue... The texture is really mild, showing very little alc. for a 10%abv., which is greatly helped by the dry hoppiness, an yeasty overtone, and soft carbonation.
D: this is perhaps the palest X'mas ale that I've come across, but the potency of this ale is only "appreciated" (or "comprehended with awe") a good half an hour into tasting, for it's simply too refreshing yet smooth to be a two-digit monstrous beer. Not a usual X'mas ale, but a tasty and well-made one for any occasion that comes handy.

This beer poured a cloudy golden straw color with an off white head, not too thick. The aroma was a bit spicy and citrus. The taste was a touch of citrus and hoppy as well. There was also some present malty sweet notes and a present high abv. Well rounded beer.

this bottle is starting to slightly turn....

pours up a cloudy orange with a decent white head. the nose is pineapple, honey, a lemon backdrop, yeasty. the taste is honey, lemon, over sweet, smoothe but gets grainy mouthfeel after a while. medium to full body, low carbo. Very nice!