Category: Beer Reviews

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Review – Scaldis

For the final beer from the Vanberg & DeWulf portfolio of Belgian beers comes from the Dubuisson brewery.

Some more notes on the beer from the V&D site, “In 1933, when British ales were all the fashion in Belgium, Alfred Dubuisson (Hugues’ grandfather) created a Belgian beer in the English barleywine style. He called his beer Bush, the translation of the family name. The recipe has remained unchanged for 79 years, longer than any other Belgian beer.

It is hard to believe that Scaldis is 12% ABV. Beers this strong are generally quite heavy and sweet. Scaldis by contrast is quite dry with a pleasant nutty finish. Remarkably, Scaldis achieves its strength entirely through fermentation—without evaporating or freezing water to concentrate alcohol. Three different malts go into Scaldis, making it a beer with as much nuance as potency. Woodsy, toasty, sherry nose, with caramel, toffee, candied pineapple and prune notes.”

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Review – Speciale Belge

The 2nd Vanberg & DeWulf beer to be reviewed is a very special beer also from Brasserie Dupont. It is the featured beer of the recently completed Philly Beer Week 2012!

“Spéciale Belge is a smoked interpretation of a classic Belgian beer style known as a “Spéciale,” of which Vieux Temps, Ginder Ale, and DeKoninck are three classic examples – though not the first. These beers have a wonderful and rather recent (at least in Belgian brewing terms) history. For the 1905 Universale Exhibition in Liege, the League of Brewers in Belgium devised a contest with the intent of promoting a genuinely Belgian refreshing amber beer. Up until then, the Belgians were primarily known for dark beers, and the contest was run to compete with the growing influence of German lager, Czech pils, and English ales in the Belgian market. Seventy-three beers were entered into the competition, and the winner was Brasserie de Chateaulineau’s Belgian Faleau. A little more than a century later, here it is again, renewed and – dare we say – improved, at Dupont with American input.

Spéciale Belge is a refreshing amber beer, slightly fruity with a lightly caramelized malt flavor, and lightly laced with smoke. Because of the signature Dupont yeast, this is a rather drier take on the style. There is a bit of clove at the beginning and the end.”

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Review – Posca Rustica

For the month of June, I will be reviewing beers not from a specific brewery or state or style but from the Vanberg & DeWulf line of beers. And I start with this gruit, Posca Rustica.

Here’s more from the V&D website about this beer…..“Since 1983, Dupont has produced a beer especially for a Gallo-Roman site near the brewery where Stone Age life is interpreted, the Archeosite d’Aubechies.

Known as Cervesia in Belgium this beer is a throwback inspired by research into the drinks of the Gallo-Roman era. It is surely one of the brewery’s most exotic beers. It is a “Cervoise” beer spiced with a gruit (an old-fashioned herb mixture used to bitter and flavor beer, that was popular before hops came to predominate). Posca Rustica beer is highly, if delicately, spiced. Sweet woodruff (known as Galium odoratum or wild baby’s breath) and bog myrtle are but two of about a dozen spices used. Posca Rustica has a unique, odiferous and spicy character. Bottle conditioned. Beguiling and unusual. Discover what beer tasted like when Belgium was ruled by the Roman Empire.”