Vleteren Alt (Bruin)
Brouwerij Deca Services NV

Poured from a bottle at fridge temp. Pours dark brown with lots of tan head. Recedes fairly quickly. The nose is burnt toffee, dark malts, tobacco, leather, bread, and a bit of plum. Really nice. The taste doesn't really follow the nose very much. There is a burst of sweetness on the first sip. Molasses, dark malts, bread, toffee, raisins, spice, leather, tar, and some black licorice. Very flavorful. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied. Fairly sweet on the aftertaste, but not too much. Overall, a really great beer.

L- Deep chestnut, pours clear, with 1mm tan head.*
S- Quite deep roasty/toasty.
T- Quite pungently deep roasted malts, coupled with some bright hop notes that keep the palate engaged. In common with the brown/Bruin style it is pretty rich, but thankfully this one isn't straying over the line into outright sweet facets.
F- 'Big', I drink this and imagine it as an ideal slow-sipping winter-warmer.
O- Nice, perhaps one of the better Bruins I've had as it's rich but stops short of outright sweet.
Bought from BelgiumInABox Antwerp/BE for home delivery to me in London/UK. 330ml bottle

* This bottle had rested for 2+ weeks and been chilled, but when I popped the cap it quickly foamed at the top. Luckily I caught it fast but caution others to watch the surface in the bottle neck as they prise the cap just in case!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought this on in a shop in Gent a few weeks ago. I know the brewerie, i was there a few times when i visited the Struise Brouwers and the abbey of St. Sixtus Westvleteren.

Actually, Urbain of the Struise Brouwers uses capacity of the Deca brewerie to brew some of their wonderfull beers at Deca.

Poured in a Maredsous glass the beers has a nice light light brown head and a nice brown transparant fluid. After a few minutes the head fades away leaving 3 millimeter of head in the glass side. Good smell, sweet and inviting to drink this one.

Soft and easy taste. You could drink this one all afternoon or evening. You can taste the brown sugar they put in this beer.

A good altbeer, no question about that!

330 ml bottle courtesy of Kim, thanks again for sending this from overseas, drank a few nights ago from my Duvel tulip glass, reviewed from notes, color is a medium brown color with a thin half inch off white head that is rather creamy, not much retention, some lacing at first though, aroma consists of sweet malts, grapes, candied sugar, Belgian yeast, milk chocolate, and some other ripened dark fruits, flavor starts off sweet lots of malt, grape mnedicine-type flavor in the middle, also a sweet finish with a bit of warmth shining through, sugary once it warms more, lots of malt and fruit in this one, sweet, sugary, and fruity mouthfeel, described as a Belgian old ale and it actually seems like that more than an alt, medium bodied, softer side of the carbonation spectrum, taste lingers with sweetness, could not drink much more than six or seven ounces that I had, heavy and overly sweet, alcohol is not all the way hidden either, had never heard of this beer but it sounded interesting just from the description and it was indeed, might drink again, worth trying

Purchased from the expensive, Belgium-based "Belgian Shop"; coming in a 250ml slim brown bottle, consumed nearly 3 years past the BB date 06/2006(!!), served lightly-chilled in Hapkin's tulip-shaped bowl sniffer.

A: pours a dark and muddy brown colour, coming with very restrained carbonation and a thin, dark beige foam fast settling to a thin carpet to last.
S: maybe due to expiration by 3 years, the nose only gives pretty straight-forward composition of sour-sweet, dense and syrupy amber malts (very much like a stale-ish English barley wine or a strong, amber bockbier!), along with loads of sour jammy fruitiness mixed of salted Chinese prunes and figs. Potent, deep, but not quite as complex as preferred. Still, the touch of staleness rings a bell of long years of ageing, maybe in wood barrels?
T: pretty quiet on the taste, showing bitter-herbal yeastiness, coffee-flavoured toffee, and intriguing nuttiness upfront, slowly giving way to a delicate edge of sweet herbs (e.g. ground licorice roots), bitter-sour and semi-smoked Chinese black prunes, a bitter edge of honey, and a lingering flow of chewy hop bitterness that really helps to keep a subtle balance overall. Throughout the taste, the intricate staleness is apparent and very welcome indeed, serving to add extra pleasure to the thick malty theme.
M&D: given 3 more years ageing in the bottle than the suggested expiry date, this bottle shows surprisingly lovely and restrained carbonation that I can only use "soothing" to describe, and so is the alc. content that is almost impossible to detect on my tongue... Although I'm still not happy about no notification on the expiration date from the beer shop, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that this slightly older bottle drinks absolutely fine and can't see any negative impact on the quality. IMO, this "Bruin" Vleteren Alt is way better than its "Blond" counterpart and to some extent does deserve the merit of the name - an "Alt" (NOT to be confused with the Düsseldorf Altbier, though).

Picked up a few bottles of this at the Deca brewery. The beer poured a hazy golden color with strong bubbles rushing to the top of the brew to form a solid head. The nose was malty sweet, some citrus. The taste was also malty sweet with some spice notes as well. Yeast notes came through on the tongue as well. There are some hints of the highish abv on the way down but this is an easy drinking beer.

The beer pours a deep beclouded brown with a semi-creamy head that is mountainous in size as it slowly fades a satin sheet of lace is left to obscure the glass from sight. Nose is rich in sweet malt with a nice hint of yeast, also crisp and fresh, with a hint of brandy bitterness, front is sweet with a good malt presence, the top feels moderate to the palate. Finish is heavy-handed in its acidity with the hops prickly in their spicy bite, tart and somewhat alcohol bitter aftertaste that is also sherry dry, and the alcohol does tend to warm the belly, a fine drinking beer.