Alvinne Extra Restyled

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

330 ml capped bottle. Poured an amazing gushing and unfiltered cloudy rich golden-amber coloured ale with a generous three fingers slight beige creamy foamy head that had a very long retention and tons of micro and larger bubbles. Active carbonation. Good lacing. A lot of floating sediments. The aroma is yeast, fruity and aromatic hops, aciditic fruits, lemon, oranges, pineapples, grapefruits. The flavour is floral hops, fruity, citus, lemon, pineapples, notes of bananas and a touch of caramel. The mouthfeel is crispy, fizzy and sparkling. This medium bodied ale has a long hoppy bitter and fruity finish. A well hopped Belgian Ale.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottled (from bierkompass.de). 'kin hell what a gusher over the table, rug and couch. Or then I am an epic fail in opening Belgian beer these days. Anyhow, the beer poured a yellowish golden hazy thing, with a huge bubbly head. Aroma rather hoppy, with some yeast and also some bready and slight sweet maltyness. Flavour quite hoppy with sweet and bready malts along with some spices and yeast. Pleasant, and quite bitter for being Belgian. And yes, by writing this I have cleaned the table and saved the couch. The rug needs to wait for summer, so I can wash it properly...

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

April 2010, Lot A Bottle Date; Sampled February 2009
A solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces a voluminous, initially four-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head. The head is quite fluffy and leaves lots of lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly recedes. The beer, when poured with a little of the sediment, shows a dull, honey color and a fairly hazy, orange gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of Amarillo hops with a mix of fruit aromatics notes of apricot, lychee, tangerine and lots of tropical fruit. The fruity hop notes sort of define the foreword guard of the nose, but there is a significant malt character here as well; grassy grain, cracker like malt, biscuit like aromatics and just a solid whole-grain character round out the finish of this beer. Amarillo is not the only hop noticeable as there is more of a citrus-focused note here as well that smells of fresh orange zest and a bit of ruby red grapefruit. Some fermentation derived character adds a general spiciness and some light phenols (a bit of clove) that help to boost the hop fruit aromatics.

Dry up front, but it picks up a touch of sweetness through the middle. Also towards the middle is a fair amount of phenolic character that provides some clove flavors and a light, tongue tingling turpene note that spices up the middle. Ample carbonation provides lots of frothy texture and a peppery carbonic bite. Because this beer is fairly dry, the hop character is much more herbal than the aroma would have suggested; notes of pine needles, a touch of menthol and even some basil are here, but there is a fair amount of hop-fruitiness as well with notes of apricot, citrus oil and diluted orange juice. The combination of hop character, warm higher alcohols and the esters / phenols produce a nice bite to the middle of this beer that lingers through to the finish along with a hop bitterness. The beer is light enough to be quite quaffable, but it does have a touch of body to it (a touch more might carry the hops just a touch more).

I really like the aroma of this beer, I am a sucker for fermentation character and Amarillo hops apparently. The flavor doesn't quite live up to that promise though as at times it reminds me of washed out orange juice; it is still quite tasty though and I am happily consuming my bottle of this beer.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled on 12/26/2008. This Belgian ale pours an orange gold color from a 33cl stubby bottle. Medium sized white foamy head with decent retention. The aroma is herbal and grassy, with hints of pineapple and pepper. A medium bodied Belgian Ale. The malts are fruity and sweet. The hops are floral and herbal. A hoppy and somewhat dry Belgian Ale. Very dry and yeasty. Nice carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is crisp and dry. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.