Weyerbacher Merry Monks' Belgian Style Golden Ale

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From Easton PA.

I've had this in my fridge since just before Christmas. My brother gave it to me. He said he thought they might have been infected though.

A disappointing head on this beer. It fades rapidly to weak drifts of spittle-esque bubbles. Beautiful color though. If I had to point to a beer that was golden, this might be it.

Big nose. Very nice nose. A touch hot with big, dry, white wine at first, underlayed by some big Belgian yeast character and maybe some cotton candy. A touch of green apple?

An interesting beer. I get more white wine on the palate but a bit sharper, kind of cidery. Definitely sour actually, but I'm not sure if it's bacterial. It might just be a kind of fermentation astringency. It definitely is refreshing though. It's almost like ginger ale, but less sweet. It's a ginger ale/white wine/cider spritzer. Maybe cranberry too. Definitely cranberry there. And more green apple. All these kind of sour, tart fruits. The beer has a distinctive but mellow fruitiness to it.

The carbonation is definitely high and there doesn't seem to be much residual sugar, but that might be balanced out by the sourness. Has a nice mouthfeel.

This bottle could very well be infected, or possibly something else has gone "wrong" here, but all in all I've quite enjoyed my experience with this beer. Interesting, refreshing, and generally pleasurable.

The first time I ever tried Corsendonk Abbey Brown I think I had a bad bottle. I lived in bumfuck North Carolina and had to drive to Knoxville TN to get beer over 6% abv. It was a decent drive though, through the Smokies. I came back with a 200$ haul and we drank strong ales for several weeks then. I actually still have a couple beers I bought on those runs. A Gulden Draak, a Celebrator, two Old Foghorns, a 1996 Gale's and maybe some others too. Anyway, the Corsendonk was probably infected as it was quite sour, but I really liked it. I thought maybe Corsendonk was a sour brown ale. I drank the whole 750ml bottle of it. Turns out that Corsendonk is not "supposed to be" sour.

But who cares.

It was a great experience.

smoky...yeah earthy...as it has warmed up, it's changed a bit

From Bell's Brewing in Kalamazoo, Michigan: Wheat 8 Ale (???%abv)

Ok...yeah...that makes sense. I get some Belgian Wit, maybe Saison...GODDAMMIT DUNN, ARE YOU QUOTING ME? Says Ryan, as Chris idly, wryly mentions that he doesn't have anything worth while to add to these notes. I say screw him. He agreed with me that this beer has a smoky nose. Ryan says earthy. Either way, it's something strange in the nose, maybe like Truffles even though I've never had a Truffle.

Very dark color. Surprised how dark it is. Head was not persistant at all. No lace.

I picture this beer as kind of a lot of layers all smooshed up into one another. Too much going on here. Lots of big malt flavors all smashed up into one beer. Some spicy yeasty notes also stand out.

Definately a unique, weird tasting beer. The biggest thing for me is how the spicy yeast and malts interact to be kind of bewildering.