Fantome de Noel

Okay, here we have the special Christmas beer that I stash away at the back of my cupboard and forget about until the 24th - reserved as our youngest says "for Santa" (well the big guy deserves the best)

So here we have Fantome de Noel...and my was I (sorry Santa) looking forward to this particular seasonal offering from brew-master Dany Prignon.

The trademark 750ml green bottle opens with that characteristic ear ringing POP! but no drama follows  (read my last post) it just calmly sits there in the bottle.
Fantome de Noel pours a clear, deep garnet red that is topped by a large, creamy, tan coloured head that slowly fades to a lasting thin cap.

Inviting aroma of dark morello cherries (or should that be cranberries) crisp green apples, subtle spices (clove and coriander) sweet dark sugar and roasted malts before a light musty hay note on the finish.

Taste again is dominated by the dark fruits (deep tart cherry) but there's also ripe pear and banana coupled with a sharp citric edge.
Hints of cocoa can also be found before an almost pine like sharpness compliments the dry/carbonated finish.

Is this beer really 10% ABV?......my that's some hiding - it drinks as easy as a 5% Hefeweizen.

Yet again, another outstanding example of true farmhouse brewing from Dany.......and I still have another of his beers stashed away - not another Noel but a bottle of...............         

Canaster Winterscotch

The time is right to open what is undoubtedly one of my favourite styles of Belgian beer, namely Christmas beers - there's something magical about their dark, richly spiced, high ABV content that so appeals to my taste-buds.

So here we have a beer from De Glazen, a brewery founded in 2004 by Jef Van den Steen and Dirk De Pauw, who both met in the late 80's whilst working at the town hall of Erpe-Mere.
Together they started experimenting in home brewing in a small 50 ltr kettle, but keen to brew better beer they enrolled on a three year training course at the CTL institute in Gent.

Now qualified brew-masters they had ideas of a brewery of their own - and so after much searching the installation was eventually set up in the newly built property at the Glazentorenweg in Erpe-Mere (hence the name of the brewery)
In 2002 Dirk and Jef were joined by Mark De Neef, head librarian in Aalst and in 2004 the business was born.

Okay so on with the beer - firstly a word of warning this is a VERY lively beer, I'm always gentle when opening beer, especially ones with a cork and cage but this one really took me by surprise - after (oh so gently) removing the cork a massive three inch brown volcano erupted from the bottle, completely depositing the contents of it's neck into the strategically placed jug I had sat the beer in (you live and learn) luckily I had also taken the bottle out of its paper wrapper or the would of been ruined for the photo.

Any way drama (and fountain) over Canaster pours a very deep, dark, chestnut brown, topped with an enormous, foamy, tan coloured head. As you can expect the pour was extremely carbonated so patience whilst decanting.

Aroma is full of candied dark fruits (raisins and dates) sweet caramel, roasted malts with plum bread notes, there's also gentle spicing and a pleasing alcohol waft on the finish.

Magnificent taste is crammed with rich dark fruits, sweet buttery caramel, doughy - bready yeasts and a slight bitter note is there before a spicy liquorice laden finish.

Without doubt a fantastic beer BUT a word of caution - is very much one to open with care, it's contents are eager to escape........oh a don't forget the jug.