Full Frontaal

They're not messing about at Dutch brewery Frontaal. Here's three beers in three big styles.

We begin pale, with Andreas, a tripel. There's no redundant "Belgian" in front of that: it's a "Bredase" tripel, and presumably the only one from Breda. Interestingly it's all malt, which I guess is a point of difference to the norm, though it remains full strength at 8.5% ABV. Immediate marks off for poor head retention: while it is a rich hazy gold underneath, the lack of foam on top was disappointing. It's nicely sweet and there's a very Belgian spicing which puts it back in my good books; a mixture of cloves and candy. That's balanced with a bitter orange-peel pith, before more cloves arrive in the finish and linger long in the aftertaste. It's a pretty decent tripel, not doing anything especially brave or innovative with the style, but I put that in the plus column. If my local brewery was making a tripel like this I would be happy for them to use the city's name as a prefix.

They've called Visual Distortion a "wee heavy": one of those pervasive side-effects of the BJCP where a single beer becomes an entire style. Regardless, the words now signify something strong and sweet and malt-driven, and this is definitely that. 9% ABV, a deep blood-red shade and smelling of toffee and caramel; or tablet, if you want to be authentically Scottish, which the beer isn't. At least they haven't put smoked malt in it. Instead, the flavour is mostly about the dark sugar, with a pinch of summer fruit, but there's also a very decent level of hop bitterness to balance it, a classic vegetal English effect from East Kent Goldings. It's thick and smooth and I think that helps cover the alcohol, making it rich, not hot. Overall it's rather nice: a plain and unfussy Presbyterian sort of strong ale; strictly no frills. It finishes cleanly and departs quietly from the palate leaving surprisingly little residual sugar. 

The ABVs go up one final half-point step for the 9.5% First Crack, an imperial oatmeal stout with coffee. Despite the syrupy unctuousness of this one there's plenty of fizz and it proved awkward, and sticky, to pour. Still, once that was done it looked well: true obsidian black with a deep brown head. For all the not-quite-conventional ingredients, the first impression is very traditional, and by that I mean hops -- a lovely almost-sharp green bite, something I prize highly in big stouts but am rarely given. The coffee is relegated to the finish where it's strong and concentrated; a little dreggy if I'm honest, and I think the beer would be better without it. There's certain amount of caramel and molasses but sweetness isn't a defining feature of this one. As such, I liked it. While it has no massive complexity, it goes about its business in a competent and above all grown-up way. Often that's enough.

Three solid a workmanlike beers from North Brabant here. All three avoid silly twists and daring gimmicks, and the end products are very enjoyable as a result. It's comforting to know that some brewers still reckon that's a worthwhile exercise.