Jopen Koyt

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

Dark ruby color with brownish foam head lacing to glass. Aroma is bread, taste is caramel tickling on tongue. Surprising beer, but then it is a special brew. (Velp 201206)

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

Bottle, kindly shared by abemorsten. ABV is 8.5%. Dark ruby colour, moderate beige head. Nice spicy and vinous aroma. Spicy and herbal flavour, medium sweet, unusual and interesting.

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

This traditional ale pours a medium brown color from a 750ml bottle. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is dried fruit, malt, herbs and sweet. A medium bodied ale. Malts are fruity and sweet. Lots of spices permeate this beer. I am assuming things like sage, thyme and coriander. Fruity and sweet. Bright yeasts. Lively carbonation. Nice balance. A very pleasant tasting, if not slightly strange, beer: The mild bitterness comes from both the hops and the spices and it is hard to figure which is which. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Poured a cloudy brown color witha almost no head, lacing was sub par. Aroma was off, strong alcohol and just plain not pleasent. Flavor was oak and fruits tart. THin mouthfeel.

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

Poured cloudy reddish orange with nice head. Flavor was like strong whiskey. Flavor was really sour...funky even. I'm not sure if I liked it, but I'll give it points for uniqueness.

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

Lot 18IC. Poured a cloudy, murky, sedimented brown-orange color with a small head. Lacing was ok, nothing special. Aroma was rather complex, strong alcohol, some oak, and whiskey or bourbon type flavors. Flavor was fairly light for the color and aroma: oak most notable, some light fruits (apples, light cherries) with some light tart/sour aspects (little vinegar, a touch of that Flemish Sour aspect). Spices were initially subtle: a good thing, as strong can be annoying. Mouthfeel a little thin.

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

Spicy brown brew with a tan head. Dark fruit spices, tastes like an average dubbel.

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

A 750mL passed to me by my mate Darren the same time as the SD Strong Ale Fest. I didn't see this coming, to be honest -- a Gruit from out of the blue. And after popping this open and sampling it, my taste buds surely didn't see it coming either!

Took some work to get the cork out, but I was evventually rewarded with a nice smoking bottle, releasing all types of fascinating aromas.

Poured this with a fair amount of vim and vigor into my Duvel glass, a glass where the interesting aromas would be concentrated. Ruddy dark-brown in appearence, with a well-behaved head of foam. As I progressed through my glassful, not much in the way of lacing, which I guess has something to do with the proteins and such absent -- proteins that would normally show up in a beer that has been hopped, that is to say.

It's the aroma that first truly drew me into this beer, to be honest. Not hoppy (obviously), and not overtly fruity, per se. I'm not sure what I'm smelling here, to be honest. Maybe hints of plum and figs? I dunno. I just know that it's quite nice, and that I could sniff a beer like this for hours on end!

And then the flavor profile. As I hophead, I'm quite perplexed with the idea that such a fascinating beer is completely sans hops. After all, even the fruitiest and most avant-garde Belgian beers out there at least have some aged Saaz or Styrian Goldings somewhere in the boil. But with a Gruit, all those preconceived notions are out the window -- leaving behind a beer that is bitter, and yet not hoppy..., and fruity, yet not particularily "fruit oriented" (if that makes any sense). This reminds me of one of my current all-time favorite brews (the Abbaye Des Rocs Grand Cru), with perhaps the additional under-current of raisins and figs to the mix. In short, a medley of wonderful flavors here!

A nicely drinkable brew, that doesn't come off as heavy or as turgid as I expected, when I first heard of the style. In fact, with only the hints of the alcohol in the backend -- and the relative rarity of this beer in general -- I can still see how this can become quite popular for those "in the know". But until then, I like to think of this as one of my personal "secret" beers -- a secret to be shared amongst family and (much more importantly!) friends!
//TB

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

Reddish brown color with a slightly sticky, tangy feel to it. even w/ all the herbs, etc, you can't tell it has that many different ingredients

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled from bottle. Pours a murky brown with no head or lacing. Aroma is of hard candy, prunes, flowers and spice. Flavor is worty with licorice, alcohol, and pepper. Balanced, viscous and well-carbonated. An interesting style of beer.