Very dark brown. Only a light roast in the aroma. More sweet than bitter. Some herbal notes and a bit of a fruity finish. Smooth and creamy texture.

Stout from ’my’ Waasland region - ten years ago, I could never have imagined that one of my favorite beer styles would have been brewed at less than ten miles from where I live... Light beige, creamy but thin head, colour is a clear very dark bronze but not the pitch black you’d expect from the style. Pleasant aroma of caramel, liquorice, hazelnuts, raisins, blackcurrant but unfortunately some DMS (cooked cabbage) as well; the expected bitter chocolate and coffee are there, but (too) subtly so. Sweetish taste, quite dense initially, candied dates, light sourish hint, smooth, somewhat powdery and resinous mouthfeel, caramelly to the point where I begin to suspect industrial caramel has been added for colour, much leaner body than expected seems to confirm this; still, it finishes in bitter chocolate flavours, yeasty accents, spicy hop bitterishness and a hint of warming alcohol. Not a bad beer at all, but I do not consider it a true imperial stout: this is more like the traditional Flemish sweet stouts at a high ABV level, in looks, taste and body (the brewer himself told me that he put in all the ingredients for imperial stout, but deliberately kept them subdued because a true black, roasted beer would not appeal to his customers - needless to say, I immediately recommended him to forget about that). Update: re-rated when a representative of the brewery offered me a bottle, last year’s version, apparently now made with raisins and whisky malt; no DMS anymore, seemingly a bit more phenols (but this could easily be the whisky malt) and sweeter, with a murky appearance. I liked this a lot more than the original version upon which my original rating is based, so I’ll rate this as an average of both tasting sessions.

Dunkel malziger Antrunk, rund würzig. Mild herb, fruchtig, minimale Kaffeenoten. Gelungen. 10/11/11/12//11

Bottle from De Hopduvel. Dark brown colour, beige foam. Medium carbonation. Aroma of roasted malts and coffee. Also some caramel. Light sweet. Bitter roasted taste. Medium body. Good Belgian stout.

Sample glass at ZBF 2014: black beer with coffee aroma, taste is coffee nice beer.

Bottle @ yespr. Pours a dark amber color with a small off-white head. Has a fruity malty caramel aroma. Fruity weak roasted malty spicy caramel flavor. Has a roasted malty fruity spicy caramel finish.

cloudy brown, light brown head. flavor is roasted malts, dry roasted malty, nice, aroma slightly lagerish .

33 cL bottle. Pours clear and golden brown with a small tan/off white head. Mild milky and caramelish. Sweet caramelish, toasted and breadish malty. Toasted caramelish finish.

33 cl. bottle - sampled - Modeste 2012 - dark brown, little mocha head - dark fruits, belgian yeast and style, chocolate, coffee leading into a sour berry, light vinous finish - between a light stout and fuller Belgian body - brewed to be a lighter stout beer according to brewer - approachable, good stuff