One of the seven ’indiscretions’ this beer company intends to make over a seven year period - frankly, one of the weirdest beer projects going on in Belgium at the moment, if you ask me. Brewed at Gulden Spoor, bottle from Wijnegemse Drankenhal. This is apparently the ’invidia’ (envy) version... Enthusiastic foam formation upon opening the bottle, almost gushing; thick and frothy, creamy, dense, rocky, pale yellowish beige head, retaining very well considering the ABV; colour is a hazy dark bronze bordering on black. Aroma of freshly cut nettles, baker’s chocolate, ripe walnuts, earth, Scotch whisky, bubblegum (gaining strength as it warms up), toasted bread, dry moss, old cloth, hints of coffee grounds, brown sugar, quite a lot of (artificial) iron probably hauling from the chocolate in this particular case, rye bread, old fashioned cocoa powder, old cloth and cardboard, dried banana slices. Some candied, concentrated sweetness in the onset, candied dates, raisins and dry banana, but not overly sweet or cloying; the chocolate (effectively applied here but I don’t know in which form) is apparent from an early stage. Carbonation is fairly soft but perhaps still a bit too strong for the style, somewhat distracting from the actual flavours and a bit ’rough’, but softening as the bottle progresses. Thick, oily, fatty, layered, deep malt character, caramelly, nutty and very chocolatey, the latter being reinforced with actual chocolate - which, I could swear, is palpable, as if someone melted a milk chocolate bar and added it to this beer. A light sourish touch keeps the flavours in place, and so does a deep, leafy, sedate hop bitterness in the finish; a glow of warming, kahlua-like alcohol appears in the very end, accompanying the continuing chocolate and caramelly malt sweetness with a slightly wry edge to it, but not becoming overly astringent. The aroma is a bit weird and even seems rather uninviting at first, but once I got used to this, I enjoyed it a lot, without any envy. I wonder about the period of time this ’brewery renter’ will take to develop his entire project - and I cannot help feeling a bit gloomy about it, also considering the religious intentions... This particular edition, though, is a very enjoyable, rich Belgian strong, one to sip slowly next to the open fire or something; the usage of actual chocolate, however, seems a bit ’easy’ and in my opinion, it would have been a better idea to use chocolate malts and turn this into a real imperial stout (though I would still fail to see the link with jealousy then). In this form, this is a strong Belgian Scotch- or Belgian Christmas beer-like ale, lightly burnt but mostly rich, malty and sweet, with an extra addition in the form of chocolate. I would therefore not recommend judging this as an imperial stout - it does not even claim to be one. Perhaps we can classify it as a kind of dark Belgian style barley wine? Does this even matter with strong Belgian ales?...

Bottle shared. Pours near black with a beige head. Aroma of roast, dark fruits, coffee, toffee, leather, marzipan, licorice and dark chocolate. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a big marzipan/licorice/dark chocolate palate. Light full bodied with soft carbonation. Like a very strange Belgian RIS.

33cl courtesy of and shared with Kermis. Thin creamy tan head. Clear deep burgundy pour. Lots of liquorice. Very well done

Bottle @benzai. Pitch black with a small light brown head. Smells roasty, liquorice, sweet. Mostly liquorice though, which i’m not too excited about. Tastes wiebertjes, roasty, chocolate, liquorice, dark chocolate. Full body, nice carbo. Too bad i didn’t like the smell too much.

Dark rusty-brown head, rather stable over deep-brown opaque beer. Chocolate immediately striking from the glass, bit of parsley. Caramel, toffee, roasted notes; Generally sweet nose with a roasted-woody touch. Bitter, very roasted-burnt, as meatparticles too long in the frying pan and cooled down. Scorched dark chocolate. Warming up, the harsh burnt bitterness is toned down,, letting some restsugars peeping through, but the damage is done for my, flavourwise. Well-bodied, without being really viscous/thick. Faint alcohol impression, well-hidden, soft to medium carbonation. Long lasting sweetish burnt aftertaste. Not my kind of sin, obviously.