Whenever I stumble upon a beer that I really enjoy, by a brewer that I’m not all that familiar with, I make it a point to dig deeper into that brewer’s line up to see how they handle other beer styles. Since I really enjoyed the Petrus Aged Pale Ale, when I saw that Wineworks in Marlton, NJ carried other single serving sized bottles from the Petrus line-up, I couldn’t resist picking up this bottle of their Speciale Ale.
Here is what Bavik Brewery, the makers of this Belgian beer, have to say about the Petrus Special Ale:
Amber coloured top-fermented beer, brewed according to an old traditional recipe. A tasty beer, mellow in character that you can carry on drinking.
Let’s get on with my review…
- Appearance: Slightly cloudy, reddish brown color.
- Aroma: Very malty with hints of caramelized sugar, dried figs, and strawberry jam scents. Getting a touch of doughy yeast as well.
- Taste: Medium carbonation with a slightly watery mouthfeel. The flavors don’t change all that much on this one. Starts off with some caramelized sugar and dried fig sweetness and it pretty much ends the same way. No bitterness whatsoever. Very short finish.
- ABV: 5.5%
Not really sure how I feel about the Petrus Special Ale. While there is nothing glaringly wrong with it, there also isn’t anything all that special or compelling about it. The flavors are essentially one note, and that’s about all I can say about this beer. It was just ok.
Categories: Brew Review, Petrus
AMKrouse
The Alemonger
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The Wookie
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The Astounding Prism
It's just the booze dancing... 
Lets see if I have this straight….
The guy serves with apparent dignity and competence in Iraq and moves over to become Deputy Director of the CIA then gets a little too close with his lady biographer and is forced to resign in disgrace then opens a craft brewery with a foreign sounding name.
What’s next? Anthony WeinerWerks Brewery featuring Sexting Hound Hyper IPA???
About the only thing that would make less sense would be a custom conversion shop specializing in retrofitting Smart Cars with mahogany vinyl landau roofs!
Cheers!
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Oh come on. You’re just jealous that you didn’t think of it first.
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Think of what? The vinyl landau roofs for Smart Cars? I did think of it first but then some fake door to door artisinal bubble wrap salesman with a reverse combover practically forced his way into the house and started spouting off about the evils of luminaria and pitted torx wrenches (wrenchii) and I knew that was sign that I should no longer pursue the landau roof thing. Pretty simple really.
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No. The brewery in Belgium as a Life 2.0 adventure.
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Shoot, I was just going to comment on the beer. I don’t have any funny puns to contribute this time around…
This is an interesting style. It was created in the early 20th century as a response to the incursion of foreign British beers as an “easy drinking, but Belgian flavored ale.” Sometimes they can be quite outstanding, other times they’re just a nice, easy beer with a bit of Belgian yeastiness. I had an unfiltered, cask drawn Palm (A similar Belgie Speciale) in Roeselare that was outstanding. This is also the style that gave birth to New Belgium’s Fat Tire (I recommend trying Fat Tire in the can where it’s still can conditioned to see what that beer was like originally).
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Interesting. Thanks for the history lesson! There was nothing really wrong with this beer other than the fact that I found it to be rather dull. I believe I had Fat Tire on draught a few years back in Scottsdale, AZ. I liked it at the time, but it was far from memorable.
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Petrus’s standard stuff is mostly OK, some good. Where Rey excel is their sours. The wood-aged pale ale is killer, especially for the low price.
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Totally agree! That oak aged pale ale is tremendous. Love that beer!
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