Oud Bruin
Lindeboom Bierbrouwerij B.V.

 

Pours a dark cola colour with pale beige head. Whispy bubbles around the top but no substance to it, leaves a fairly nice trail of off-white lace around. Looks quite good.

Smells basically like fruit cake and spice cookies. Sweet ginger snap with banana, nutmeg and lots of raisiny goodness. Yeah, lightly sweet with decent spice. I might enjoy this kind of smell from a Belgian dark ale but this is meant to be an Oud Bruin so it's not stylistically apt and it's far too sweet.

Taste is insanely sweet and insanely insane. Syrupy with lots of dark fruit, massive raisins and molasses. Yeah, dark with practically nothing but sweetness. It's syrupy, with some nice peaks, but there isn't nearly enough complexity, just a big splash of golden syrupy stickiness. Touch of that spice cookie taste, some nutmeg, ginger and a touch of banana coming through but it's a big meh for me. Way syrupy, not at all bruiny. Disappointing.

Thick and rich mouthfeel as expected. Bit flat, could use more texture. Not bad under the circumstances but not to style, again.

Interesting that so far only myself and dgilks - a fellow Aussie - have reviewed this beer and I'm curious as to whether we're dealing with a genuinely bad, stylistically inapt beer or a case of import spoilage since this has travelled halfway around the world. Bearing that in mind, what's currently in my glass is neither an Oud Bruin or pleasant to drink.

This pours a dark black colour with a foamy, tan head. Poor head retention.

The aroma is dull and oxidised and lacking in any real sort of character.

This is a dull, sweet, sticky mess. There is only a bare hint of tartness. This is almost like slightly flat Coca-Cola.

Medium-full body with moderate carbonation. Fair.

This isn't a great beer at all. Sweet and in no way what I think of an Oud Bruin as being.