Archive for the 'Kerkom' category
Bink Bruin
This little bottle of brown I picked up on a whim from the Good Beer Store in Chapel Hill. Sometimes there are so many trusted breweries and familiar varieties that you forget to experiment with the more eclectic brews that are often hiding on dusty corners of shelves. I consider the Bink to be just one of those brews. A lot of these Belgian breweries haven’t yet gotten into the hustle and bustle of heavy-duty marketing, so you can usually find their brews sitting under a coating of dust with a label that looks like it was designed in 1963 by a brewer between hop additions to his wort. These brews are occasional diamonds in the rough, and occasionally just rough. Nevertheless, it’s sometimes fun to give ‘em a try.
This beer pours a dark brown with tons of debris – honestly it’s almost like drinking unfiltered coffee. The aroma is rich and ‘old’. There is quite a bit of anise in this with some hints of horehound candy and old wood. In the mouth, this beer is equally rich and complex. This tastes like the kind of brew that you expect to come from an old factory in Belgium. There is a perpetual dark and malty sweetness that is mediated by a dark horehound candy sweetness. In addition, there is some rooty bitterness and an aftertaste that has a certain tangy sourness to it. These kinds of beers make you realize just how long the Belgians have been making off-kilter beers. This beer could be good or bad depending on your tastes. Regardless, it has a range of flavor and a uniqueness that shows a unique blend of malts and some crazy yeast. Personally, I find this to be a good beer, but not one you’d drink often. Rather, it is just what I bought it to be – a unique beer with unusual flavors, good for an occasional treat for your tastebuds.
