Straffe Hendrik Wild
Brouwerij De Halve Maan

2024 vintage.
Poured from 750 mL bottle into tulip.
A: Pours a clear golden hue with extremely active carbonation jets fueling a generous 2-3 inch frothy/bubbly white head with good retention.
S: Spiced apple and honeyed pear hits first followed by peach, sweet Brett, floral, gentle citrus, and honeyed malt.
T: Burst of peach, orange, lemon, clove, and earthy and funky Brett up front followed by honeyed malt, white pepper, green apple, and soft pear.
M: Medium body. Bright, delicately sweet, and astringent. Crisp and effervescent feel.
D: Excellent wild Belgian ale. Refreshing and complex. Wonderful beer for enjoying on a warm spring day.

 

Copenhagen 25/1 2023. 33 cl bottle from Mad & Vin, Magasin, Kbh. K. White label with the familiar, grumpy half Moon. A Green band with “Wild” on it to imply that this is a Brett party invitation. This is the 20222 edition.

Pours slightly hazy folden yellow with a hige white head. A bit bubbly. Settles as uneven, lumpy layer of foam unable of covering the surface of the beer. Substantial Lacing.

Aroma is medium intense with a sweet malty odor mingling with Belgian yeast and a touch of funk. Sweet banana and caramel. Touch of Humid cellar. Sour cheese peeking in.

Strong carbonation. Slightly thick and very prickly and lively texture.

Flavor is medium intense with a medium strong sweetness followed by a slightly stronger bitterness. Aftertaste is bitter with a sour streak. Lingers for a while. Finish is rather dry.

Like the 2015 edition this is a solid Straffe Hendrik Triple supplemented by a discrete Brett presence.

 

 

 

Apart from the brewer, beer name and ABV% this is a blind-tasting. I bought this because I love this brewery's Tripel and Quad. This is labelled as brewed in 2021.
L- Well rested and chilled but wild applies to the ratio of head/beer formed so far in the glass, about 80/20! The beer is a lovely clear amber and the foam is a pillowy just off-white. I can see this will form major lacing as the head very slowly descended.
S- It has that... er... rustic aspect to it, as scrumpy has to mainstream cider. I register little else, though through this head it's not much of a surprise. I anticipate this might be either sharp, sour, or something in that spectrum.
T- Oh ok! Interesting. I get the fruity esters of Belgian yeast, a hoppy-bitter and slightly sour aspect and then punchy ABV% all hitting my palate in the first second. Same on the second sip, etc. It's really interesting as despite these tastes each being notably prominent it all seems to self-balance.
F- It's big, bold and bright all at the same time. For me it's a slow-sipping beer, too full-on to rush. It's like a trad tripel given a bit of a contemporary twist, with brighter and more prominent hopping.
O- Well wadda surprise. The bright green 'WILD' strap-line on the bottle had me cautious, there was a risk the hops wld be OTT loud for my tastes. Then I thought no, surely a brewery like this (founded 1856) isn't going to be brewing anything overly fashionable, hipster even which wouldn't suit my taste. This is a superb beer. Something a bit different too. I'd happily drink this again.
Bought from Bacchanalia, Mill Road, Cambridge. 330ml bottle. BB: End 2026

Shared 330 ml bottle at local tasting, vintage 2014. ABV is 9%. Deep golden colour, moderate white head. Acidic aroma of brettanomyces / farmhouse, spices incl. anise, and cider vinegar. Moderately sourish flavour, again spicy notes incl. anise. Nice and light bodied for its strength.

 

Cloudy amber pour with three fingers of off-white foam. Bretty funk and grain create a backdrop for the estery fruits, sugars, and floral yeast to play with in the nose. Taste is more brett and zesty citrus focused from the hops, candi sugar draw out limited dried dark fruit esters, flowers are faint, with a kiss of earthy hop bitters. The vision for the taste just seems to be a result of an experiment, not intentional. Feel is lightly wild with the funk, yeasty and phenolic, light and sneaky refined. Good but not great

I just bought a case (24 bottles) of this beer (2016 edition) unseen/untasted for $40 US. I knew I liked the regular Straffe tripel so could not pass up such a great deal especially since I anticipate this style aging well.

A very nice tripel. I will need to purchase a regular straffe tripel and compare to the wild version. 4.25

A - Pours cloudy with a nice head. Lots of sediment, which I tried to avoid for appearance review purposes. 3.75

T - All the candy sugar alcohol and spiciness (peppery) of a true tripel with some funkiness from the wild yeast. No real sour or tartness. ABV well hidden. 4.5

MF - Medium bodied. Smooth. Well carbonated, which gives the beer a bit of a bite. Dry finish. 4.25

 

 

It pours amber with a plentiful head that succeeds quickly. Taste was not to my liking. Basically funky and bitter, but not at all tasty like the other regional beers like Cantillion, etc.

 

 

I purchased several 4 packs of 2015 issue of this beer a couple of years ago from a good supplier. I drank a few at the time, but saved some to try after it had aged a few years. Just tried one last night, and wow! It was good before, but aging it sure helped it to achieve a level of greatness. Still very alive, and active in my tulip glass. An overabundance of head at first, that settled pretty quickly. Little bits of yeast were being pushed around in the glass by the intense bubbles for about 5 minutes before finally sinking to the bottom. Wild Brett yeast taste was very pronounced, fruity aromas, almost tropical. A cloudy, full flavored Belgian Tripel that ranks high on my list of Belgian beers,

 

Wish I had more closely read the label before tasting. Poured from bottle to tulip glass. 2015 vintage. Near-amber in color with a substantial head that settles to nothing. I thought something was wrong at first because of the funky nose and tang, but halfway through the glass I actually checked the bottle. Imagine a decent, mid-tier Tripel overlayed with barnyard, pissy funk. There you are. It's for someone, but not for me.

2015 bottle poured in 2018