Brand Sylvester
Brand Bierbrouwerij

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roobuust, zoet, prittige afdronk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light brownish yellow, fruity esters, a little spicy, this had a winter warmer take on a tripel almost. Not much head. Smooth, sticky, nice flavor, and light bodied. A solid winter brew that is really easy to drink, but it's a little tinny. Picked this up at the grocery in amsterdam.

22 Oct 2012 saw me, my wife and 26 other members of the CAMRA Investors club have a wonderful afternoon as guests of the brewery: after a film show and giuded tour of the brewery we adjourned to the tasting celler bar where we were given seven different brews to taste: I had plenty of each, this one being my favourite beer of the day.

I like sweeter brews and this fitted my needs nicely: top fermented (unusual for Heineken) and out for Christmas each year. Rich amber body with a full head of tan coloured bubbles, it looks fine.

The smell is caramel first and foremost with wild fruits of the forest adding to the fairly sweet nose.

The taste is also semi-sweet with those caramel notes again being at the front: maybe a bit 'one dimensional' in flavour, but I really liked it and made sure I had more than my fair share of this highly enjoyable winter brew before we had to leave.

 

From a bottle of 300ml poured into a wide glass.Its colour is faded ruby, that of a black tea only lighter. One finger head, quickly gone. No bubbles.Aroma is of caramel, fruits, roasted nuts (almond?). Taste is bitter. On the palate is medium carbonated, medium thick bodied and a leaves you with a dryness.

 

Brand Sylvester (sylvester refers to 31 december eve), recommended at the local liquor store here.
The label states 'a ruby-coloured, powerfull winterbeer with aroma of fruit and sweet herbs'.

Reading the reviews here, I'm curious what happened to this brew now, as it is defenately a new batch.
The man at the shop said this is defenately not sweet.

It's brown/ruby color, i guess. it got a decent creamcolored head, and nice lacing in the glass, but not much carbonation.
Smell is pleasant fruity and spicy allready and so is the taste. Hops and then some caramel sweetness, but it's also got a somewhat dry aftertaste, which is very nice.
Allthough the alcohol burns slightly, it's not too bad.
Overall a good drink. The brewer appearantly made another effort to put this on the market. It's the first time i tasted it, and i liked it.

Again I need to tell somethin about this beer. Somewhere in the late 90's this was introduced as a Christmas / Winter beer. And I was really impressed. It was wonderful, warming, sweet, flavorful, light roasted. Just yummy. When Heineken bought Brand they decided at some point not to continue it anymore. The reason was probably too small batches or something. But after 1 or 2 years it was reintroduced (2004?) to my suprised but only on tap, no longer bottled. Well, there are more than enough Brand pubs in the area so I was quite happe. But it turned out to be so different from the orginal. And not for the good. Now it's just a sweet mainstream strong beer (and certainly not a Tripel) that could easily bear the name Leffe on the label. What a pity.