Established in 1871
Duvel Moortgat
Commercial Brewery in Breendonk, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
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Breendonk-Dorp 58 Breendonk 2870
+32(0)3 860 94 00 |
Owns:
Sebletitje (14835) reviewed Maredsous Kerst - Noël from Duvel Moortgat 2 weeks ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Draft @ Maredsous Microbrasserie. A défaut de pouvoir y déguster la version Speculoos brassée sur place. Dommage car bière servie trop froide.
Couleur acajou/brune foncée, col blanc éparse crémeux blanc-cassé.
Arôme est centré sur une approche bien belge de quad avec un gros bouquet repris par un rétro-nasal fruité noir avec un nez caramel, chocolaté, grillé et une petite pointe ester rappelant la banane.
Palais est bien belge avec une touche de caramel-fudge, fruits noirs entre figues et dattes, léger sucre candi et cristal, petite note de clou de girofle avec un effet chocolaté et grillé qui revient en retrait avec une petite pointe de cerise noire - boozy en fin de bouche. Pas mauvaise tout en restant classique.
Alengrin (10989) reviewed Maredsous Kerst - Noël from Duvel Moortgat 3 weeks ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
New (last winter) addition to the old Maredsous range of abbey beers, brewed by Moortgat for the Benedictine abbey of Maredsous since 1964 (and before that, by other, long defunct breweries); spiced with Christmassy spicing ‘à la’ Glühwein and in that sense intended as a typical, Anglo-Saxon-inspired winter warmer. From a 75 cl bottle with Christmas-red neckfoil, bought at the Colruyt supermarket of Sint-Denijs-Westrem and shared with my girlfriend Goedele. Pale yellowish beige, cobweb-lacing, thick and frothy, stable, quite dense head on a clear (filtered!) deep bronze-brown beer with ruby red glow. Aroma of caramel, ginger powder (strong), chewing gum, Christmas cake, clove, ‘raw’ cinnamon, gingerbread, ‘Babelutte’ candy or butterscotch, bayleaf, soap, paraffin, thyme, egg yolk, brown soap, liquorice, touch of beef broth faraway in the background. Sweet onset, candi-laced with clean profile yet still some banana- and plum-like esters, fizzily carbonated but very slick and smooth; still full-bodied though, with layers of caramelly and brown-bread-doughy malts filling up the middle, with a very faint metallic edge and much less faint bubblegummy effects (from malt adjunct sugars). Remains sweet, but less so than I am used to from this kind of beer; there is even a very light toasty-bitterish accent and some leafy hoppiness in the end. The spicing (ginger, cinnamon, clove) returns retronasally, quite powerfully so, and the whole ends with a warming, Jägermeister-like alcohol glow. Smooth, filtered, industrial, bubblegummy abbey beer in its core, but nowhere unpleasant, clearly influenced by Scotch style Christmas ale and not afraid to use lots of spicing, with just enough body to cope with it without collapsing under it. My girlfriend was even reminded a bit of the Kentucky Christmas Morning stout by Hardywood which we had earlier the same evening – and even though the base is totally different, the Christmas spicing is sure a common feature of both these winter-warming Christmas beers. I have always considered Maredsous to be superior to other ‘hypercommercial’ abbey beer families (think Leffe, Grimbergen or Affligem) and this new Christmas addition is no reason for me to change my mind about that. Enjoyed it perhaps even more than expected.
Benzai (22907) reviewed Duvel x Magritte from Duvel Moortgat 1 month ago
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle at tasting. Yellow color, white head. Smell and taste malts, lightly herbal, slightly a sourosh hint or something. Weird. A bit fizzy carbonation. Hmm I don't know. I'm not convinced tbh. Not really my thing.
Rubin77 (9030) reviewed Maredsous Kerst - Noël from Duvel Moortgat 2 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
75cl bottle from Colruyt Etterbeek Jourdan supermarket in Brussels. F: big, tanned, long lasting. C: dark brown, clear. A: dark malts, red berries, star anise, chocolate, vanilla. T: medium to full malty base, chocolate, cappuccino, vanilla, red berries, star anise, nice balanced bitterness, medium carbonation, not so complex yet good balanced beer, enjoyable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Fast gone pale white head over clear copper beer. Sweet, alcoholic nose, with spicy notes, hints of cane sugar, dry autumn leaves. Sweet, with a fine flavour as from rosehips, vanilla, higher alcohols. Bit sticky all the same, medium bodied, alcoholheat and -thinning. Not very carbonated. Definitely sweet, but in a tolerable way. Txs to Stef!
Alengrin (10989) reviewed Vedett Extra Rosé from Duvel Moortgat 3 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4.5 | Flavor - 3 | Texture - 3 | Overall - 4.5
Another flavoured version of Vedett Extra White specially designed for foreign markets (China in the first place), this one containing raspberry - and thus reiterating that awful 'rosé' concept once invented by AB InBev (Hoegaarden Rosé) and imitated by several other macro breweries. Again thanks to tderoeck for sharing! Thickly moussy, pale pink-tinged white, dense and stable head, clear pink-hued rosy amber robe. Very artificial aroma of red candy ('poepegatjes'), grenadine, white sugar, Fanta Rosé, bubblegum, candyfloss, plaster, white soap. Very sweet onset, red Haribo candy and candyfloss with indeed a raspberry character - as in the old Fruitella raspberry candy, but nowhere near actual raspberries; lively minerally fizz, bubblegummy middle of thin pale malts under loads of white sugariness and artificial red raspberry flavours, with all the candyfloss, Haribo and grenadine persisting into a cloying finish in which little else happens. Not even the slightest bitterness or sourness come in to at least try and save it - this whole thing remains as artificial as it could be, a rosé without any redeeming element. Even worse than the aforementioned Hoegaarden Rosé and belonging to a class of 'beers' I will always hate - but admittedly an interesting tick so thanks Tim!
Alengrin (10989) reviewed Vedett Extra Elderflower from Duvel Moortgat 3 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 3 | Overall - 4.5
One of several flavoured versions of Vedett Extra White designed for the growing Chinese beer market, this one with elderblossom apparently; not available in Europe, so big thanks to tderoeck for sharing this 'export' version. Thick and frothy, snow white, stable head on a near clear yellow blonde beer. Aroma of indeed strong elderblossom - Roomer, but also actual elderflowers, herb cheese, honey, moist white pepper, white bread, fresh green bayleaf, cured beef (a typical aspect of real elderblossom). Very sweet onset, banana ester (yet in low dosage) mingled with a white sugariness, perturbed by sharp minerally carbonation adding a certain degree of sourishness along with the underlying wheat; smooth white bready pale maltiness with very pronounced elderblossom, flowery, softly spicy and a bit meaty as it tends to be, adding a vague grassiness which could just as well come from hops too. The sugariness, however, manages to ruin everything here and turn the whole thing into a sweet elderblossom lemonade, like a non-alcoholic version of the Ghentian Roomer liqueur. I hope for Moortgat that the Chinese beer consumer likes this, but I also hope they do not market it in Europe.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Kerstbier Festival. Almost black beer with a beige head. Aroma of dark dried fruits, plums. Taste of dried fruits, caramel, plums, raisins, slightly boozy.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
This year’s edition of barrel aged Duvel, ‘limited’ to more than a hundred thousand bottles (!), made use of cachaça barrels from Brasil – so something very close to rum barrels, as cachaça is a cane sugar distillate and therefore made from the same plant species as regular rum. Bottle from the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren – from a luxury box including, as usual, a glass specifically made for this beer. Off-white, moussy, quite thick and frothy but relatively large-bubbled and gradually breaking head on a clear amber-hued orange blonde robe with fine strings of sparkling here and there. Aroma of obvious cachaça, coconut- and lime-like, vanilla-scenting oak, pineapple, ripe Durondeau pear, biscuit, ripe persimmon, candied orange, hints of cane sugar, clove, lemon zest, apricot jam, white chocolate even – quite exotic, in all, but most of it comes clearly from the liquor added during the process. Sweet and clean onset, red apple, ripe pear, pineapple and persimmon hints with a sourish, lime-like undertone, lively carbonated in a very ‘refined’ way; smooth, slick body, much less ‘full’ than one would expect at this ABV and clearly thinned by the alcohol. Slender pale malt sweetishness with a biscuity edge – the latter coming from wood, not actual biscuit malt; retronasal oak (vanilla) is there, along with a colourful palette of exotic impressions, ranging between coconut, lime zest, white chocolate and even vague liquorice somewhere, along with a clove-like phenolic note and, of course, the actual cachaça, manifesting itself as a strong end booziness, as usual in this series – a booziness drying the back of the mouth (as do tannins from the barrels) and wholly tasting like actual, warming, sweet, exotic cachaça rather than being harshly astringent in a ‘generic’ way. Hop bitterness is almost unnoticeable and the whole does lack body and structure a bit; still, the effect of the cachaça on the Duvel is colourful and surprising, with this edition being even more exotic than the Jamaican rum edition of 2021. Interesting, in all, not even unpleasant and somewhat (beer) cocktail-like, but, as I must conclude every year: not worth its hefty price tag.
Sloefmans (14286) reviewed Maredsous Kerst - Noël from Duvel Moortgat 5 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Thick, cream head, stable, over opaque brown-black beer. Bit sweet nose, wey, and roast. Dark green leaves, hardwood. Sweet. Again weyish, diary. Faint meaty esters, and almost no roast in the flavour. Again faint wood. Well bodied, if not as thick as 10% would suggest. Viscous, faint alcoholwarmth. Pretty average winterbeer, thirteen to the dozen. I'm expecting better from Duvel-Moortgat. Txs to Stef!
Brewery Stats
| Score | 6.68 |
| Beers | 44 |
| Ticks | 1366 |
Top Reviewers (Not including batches)
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Alengrin | 34 |
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Sloefmans | 33 |
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tderoeck | 26 |
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Rubin77 | 22 |
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Kraddel | 22 |
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Sebletitje | 20 |
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Benzai | 20 |
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jefverstraete | 19 |
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beerhunter111 | 19 |
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Tom | 19 |