It's hard to get my head around a Gouden Carolus beer like this one. This is true even for a person like me who LOVES lower ABV beers. So far removed from their (normal) lane. A light yellow pour with good head, lace, and some haze greets the eye. Simple nose with plenty of grain notes - bready - but a really solid bitterness about the taste profile. Plenty of sweet malts too, and a dry bitterness returns to finish out the beer. In fact in finishes extraordinarily dry in fact. Yeasty wheat,...
Notes on beers brewed by
Brouwerij Het Anker
Gouden Carolus Easter Beer
Pictured 03/09/2014: Original notes 11/05/2010: 750 mL corked & caged bottle. MASSIVE thanks go out to Steve for the opportunity to finally get my hands on this beer. I've been trying to get hold of it since I came to the US, and until very, very recently it was generally "not" available here. Despite several trade attempts I never managed to get one until Steve just simply gave me one! That's an amazing piece of advocacy that I will always remember. Color is frankly a not particularly...
Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor
Corked and caged 750 mL bottle from Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. $8.99 I *think*. I took the cage off this bottle, got distracted with the kids, and about 10 minutes later the cork shot into the air with a huge explosion! Foam everywhere. A good sign I would say. Lots of froth on the pour that leads to an orange body and thin head and lace. Nose has an interesting combo of mild hops and Belgian yeast. The taste reflects that, and as such this seems like a quintessential version of the...
Cuvée Van Der Keizer Rood (Red)
Here we go with a "new" (2008) version of the Keizer. The older, dark version is one of my favorite brews of all time so the expectations are very high - we'll see. 750 mL corked and caged bottle from Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. Opens with a stunning pop and some white gun smoke - impressive start. Typical, well carbonated pour with lots of fine bubbles. Obviously this fades, but still leaves impressive lace and thin, fine head across the surface. The head is a little better than...
Gouden Carolus Ambrio
I've been wanting to try this for some time, so I was delighted to find it at Green's on Ponce it Atlanta, GA, USA. $6.99 (I think). Corked and caged 750 mL bottle. The pour is interesting in as much as the color is very much that of a Belgian Dark rather than a Belgian Pale. However, once you get into the taste, the Pale moniker begins to ring more true than the appearance would suggest. Quite dry and light, mild spice and mild candy, and although nice, there is a lack of depth of fruit...
Gouden Carolus Noël / Christmas
750 mL corked and caged. Delicious and absolutely typical with one major exception - the appearance, especially the color. It was disappointing to me. It resembled one of the nasty, murky dirty water Dubbels that haunt me. Delicious head with an off-white solid foam forming tha moves with the beer. Lots of retentionand lacing it shows class. Outside of the look all the dark fruits, alcohol and Belgian yeasts were present in abundance jus as expected. Multi-facetted layers of plums, figs,...
Gouden Carolus Classic
This has been hanging around in the cellar, store, rewiew pile and countless other places for a long time - at last a formal review. Delivered into the Gouden Carolus "fat" flute, the pour is good, but the color is a little disappointing. A reddy, brown plum skin color but cloudy. Good head as long as the pour is aggressive, and with that head comes a pretty decent amount of sticky lacing. Aroma is all plummy raisins with a depth of alcohol and tinge of fruit cake. A sherry like waft is...
Gouden Carolus Tripel
Additional notes 01/28/23 (pictured) 18 years later the head on this beer is now magnificent, with huge ice-cream foam, great retention and lace (contrast with the notes below). The head is frankly, perfection in 2023. The color still disappoints though (as noted in the original review). As much as I love The Christmas, Easter and Blue Van Keizer Dark - they are all -time favorites of mine - the Tripel doesn't quite do it for me. I'm always surprised at how I walk away from this beer, but it's...
Cuvée Van De Keizer Blauw (Blue)
Notes 11/28/21 2021 Vintage. Now labeled as “Imperial Dark”, and pictured here. This bottle came from Belgian Happiness, directly from Belgium. Nothing to report here, other than the beer maintains its place in my top ten of all time. The waves of raisins, dates, plums, alcohol, rich sugar and all of the Belgian yeast notes collect to give me a mildly religious experience every time. Notes 03/11 2009 vintage. The beer exudes a reddish brown hue with the classic, spotty, cream lace that sits...