Herkenrode Noctis
Brouwerij Cornelissen

Draft at Jessop's Tavern
Tried from Draft at Jessop's Tavern on 19 May 2026 at 17:07

From the 11.2 oz bottle in a snifter. This new to me brewery pours a medium
dark clear red tinged mahogany with a nice head of off white foam that settles to
a thick ring, thick clumping layer, and displays some nice lacing. Nose of candy sugars,
toasted malts, yeasty breaded malts, clove, allspice, and dark dried fruits. Flavors
follow the nose with some exceptions of yeasty dark bread, vinous wine nuances, allspice,
subtle clove, coriander, candy sugars, and subtle dried fruits of cherry and dates. Mouth
feel is medium light, medium effervescent soft carbonation, smooth, and finishing
medium dry and subtly sweet and nicely balanced with the spice notes.

Overall, a solid little Belgian!

Cheers

 

Copenhagen 25/5 2020. 33 cl bottle from Belgisk Bryg, Emdrup Mosevej, Kbh. NV. White label with a coat of arms drawn in detailed black lines. Sporting a World Beer Award (Belgian Winner).

Very gushy upon opening. Pours unclear amber with a big white head. Settles as thin but consistent layer of foam just covering the surface of the beer. Substantial lacing.

Aroma is medium intense with a sugary, caramel-ish sweetness with yeasty notes. Caramel, brown sugar. Earthy odor. Humid basement and leather. Light fruitiness peeking in. Banana and cherries.

Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is medium intense with a fairly strong sweetness followed by a moderate bitterness. Aftertaste is sweet and lingers for a while. Finish is caramel-ish with a touch of alcohol.

Decent Dubbel. Pretty light and easy to drink.

 

 

 

 

6 oz draft pour at Lures Bar & Grille. This is an unpretentious but very solid Belgian dubbel (or dark ale, I guess). Dark fruit notes, Belgian candi sugar, and yeasty esters are firing on all cylinders. It is well-balanced with just the right amount of sweetness. Mouthfeel is full, smooth, and well-carbonated. Excellent stuff.

Brouwerij Cornelissen "Herkenrode Noctis"
330 ml brown glass bottle coded "Best before end: 02/03/2023 02/03/2025"
$5.99 @ Total Wine & More, Claymont, DE

Notes via stream of consciousness: Following a fairly careful pour a massive head of slightly yellowed off-white foam rests atop a very hazy light brown body. The aroma is malty and sweetish with a touch of caramel, a hint of toastiness, and some leafy and gently spicy hops. The taste follows with both light and medium dark caramel, some nuttiness, the same lightly toasty breadiness, apple, dried dark fruits (but mainly raisin and fig), and more spicy, leafy, and earthy hop notes. It's moderately bitter but it still finishes dry and spicy with some grass, earthiness, and dried fruit lingering. It's medium bodied and gently crisp in the mouth it's a moderate, fine-bubbled, and natural carbonation from bottle conditioning. The head held up well and it's left some thin but fairly solid lacing throughout the entire glass. This is the last of the three Herkenrode beers that I've tried behind the Cister (pale ale) and Vesper (tripel), and although Belgian brown ales are not my favorite style the numbers don't lie and I think that this is the best of the three.
Review #8,898

 

 

The Belgian beer scene rarely shuns the addition to new beer, and Cornelissen's bruin beer gets and invite to the club as a darker, stronger ale that has a firm strength of a Dubbel Ale.

Herkenrode Noctis swirls with a rusty gaze before crowning with a tall and slighly tarnish froth. As the bubbles settle, the scent of over-cooked caramel, cola, toasted pecan, dark fruit and vinous spice rolls of of the rim. Once one palate, the sweetness of malt takes hold with a steely caramel sweetness wrapped around flavors of cola, sorghum and sweet toast.

Its stern sweetness lingers on the middle palate while a complement of dark fruit bring estery suggestions of plum, date, fig and grape while an offset of yeast spices offer up a blend of allspice, anise and dark wine for a vinous trend to the session. Woodsy in its bitterness, hint of peppercorn, walnut and toast wrap up the beer's balance.

Medium-full and persistent in its malty lead, the beer finishes sweeter than most Belgian counterparts while those cola-like tendencies keep the session sweeter and richer. A hint of vinous brandy warms the late palate before the beer trails into a malty-spicy after palate.

330ml bottle into a pint glass. Best by 7/22.

Looks pretty good, if pale, in the glass. Brown amber body, small off white head shrinks to a collar and covering, spiders web of lacing.

Caramel and toffee malty aroma.

On tasting, quite sweet, good and malty, caramel, a faint roast towards the end.

Mouth just above medium, finish a clean malt with the barest hint of of a bitter roast.

Overall, better than expected, given the ratings here. Sweet, quite clean, and a little bitterness to balance.

 

0.5l can. Also known as Herkenrode Noctis.
Very pale for dubbel, just like caramel blonde. Clean, but non-essential. Belgian esters, soft carbonation are here. Die before try.