Brugse Bok
Brouwerij De Halve Maan

Copenhagen 4/1 2019. 33 cl bottle from Ølhandleren in Give (Webshop). Drawing of Tapdancing Harlequin on the label.

Pours murky amber with bubbly medium-sized off-white head. Settles as 0,5 cm thick blanket of foam covering the surface of the beer. Substantial Lacing.

Aroma is sweet and fruity. Banana, brown sugar and sweet melon. Light touch of yeasty basement.

Medium strong carbonation. Slightly thick but lively texture.

Flavor is medium sweet followed by a medium strong tart sourness. Aftertaste is citric and pretty light. A bit thin but lingers for a bit.

Solid Belgian - but quite middle of the road. But a nice road.

So often a brewer of great Belgian ales will not achieve that same high quality in lagers. We can speculate why that may be so. (It's mostly the yeast is my guess.) But in De Halve Maan's case, this Bok is not up to their nine ales I've reviewed (all above the BA average rating, so I may have a bias for their ales.)

Brugse Bok basically lacks the clean-ness of a lager. It even Looks a bit murky, whereas a bok should be more opaque and its foam a little more orderly. I'm Smelling mostly mild malt, but I can't stop myself from Tasting some dark fruit. (Maybe it's just my mind playing games.) Anyhow, Bok is medium-mouthed with good bubbles.

 

330ml bottle, 6,5% abv. opens with a bit of smoke. Standard ingredients, with only added some sugar.
Poured at around 6-7 degrees celcius ins Brugs Blond tulip glass.
Big 4-5 finger beige head with good retention.
Medium to high carbonated. MIcro bubbles. Dark amber colour. It is a pretty beer to look at.
Smell bready, yeast, herbs with hints of fudge.
Mouthfeel, pretty good. It is more bitter than sweet, with a dry herby aftertaste.
Maybe a bit of balance as bitterness takes over all taste quite soon.

Looking at Bierista.nl (Dutch rating site) the advice to be poured at 6%. And they say it taste like raisins and toasted malts.
Well, maybe its me geting a cold not being able to smell and taste it.
Will update when I try again.

Probably should be poured a little bit warmer to bring out more flavours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Belgiuminabox. In Teku glass. Playing Oceanhorn. More a dubbel or belgian dark than a bok. Some dark fruits, nuts, toffee. All fairly pleasant. I just miss a bit more body

A bottle from Supermarket in Brussels.

 

 

 

 

Dark brown orange colour with a decent head of foam. Smell of caramel, yeast and malt. These flavours return in the taste, accompanied by fruity esters (pear, peach). The caramel sweetness tends to dominate: hop bitterness is only present in the aftertaste. It's a shame the carbonation seems to cover flavour though. Also a bit (not much) on the watery side and a bit stingy on the tongue (carbonation again). Due to the yeasty character and overall sweetness, this tastes more like a dubbel than a bock to me.