Bottle at home. Opaque dark brown to black color, huge sized fizzy light brown head. Aroma is heavy espresso. Flavor is malts, dark malts, heavy espresso, coffee bitter but also a slight sour hint. A bit unbalanced.

Coffee porter by this fine Antwerp microbrewery, nodding not once but twice to modern politics: “coffee porter” is deliberately misspelled as “cofvefe porter”, referring to the apparent nonsense word launched on Twitter by former U.S. president Donald Trump in 2017 (though it later appeared to be an acronym), and the very name of the beer is one of several Latin proverbs uttered by Antwerp’s right-wing mayor, Bart De Wever. Gusher – so be careful when you open the bottle. Yellowish beige, initially thick and mousy, opening and dissipating head on a very dark chocolate brown beer (near black) with cloudy burgundy edges. Aroma indeed very coffee-forward, coffee grounds and coffee filters, toffee, bitter chocolate, Chinese ink, strong ‘blood’-like iron, caramel candy, elderberries, some molasses, cola, thyme, ‘Haagse hopjes’. Fruity onset, hinting at ripe pear and blackberry, sweetish with a sourish undertone, fizzily carbonated; slick body, caramelly malt core with toasted brown bread-like bittering edges, the bitterness accentuated by the added coffee but in a more aromatic than deeply roasty way; meanwhile the blood-like iron effect gets stronger, teaming up with a ‘deep’ and dim sourishness that becomes a bit more pronounced in the finish. A peppery hop bitterness is added eventually, along with a liquorice-like effect and lingering ‘old black coffee’ notes – with the caramelly malt sweetness getting the last word, in spite of the bitterness that has now passed the tongue. Not entirely flawless from a technical viewpoint, but I am left unbothered by that: I certainly enjoy coffee porters and this one is solid enough, though it needs a bit of cleaning up. It is, in any case and political references aside, a solid enough beer to make me maintain my feeling that Tall Poppy is always interesting at least, and more than enjoyable at best.

14/XI/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: VII/2022, bottled: 23/VIII/20 (2020-1054)

Clear dark brown to black beer, big creamy dense beige head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: very roasted, caramel, camp fire, charcoal, lots of coffee grit, little malty, some (over)ripe banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very roasted start, slightly sourish, sweet touch, spicy, bitter, hoppy, some coffee. Aftertaste: good roast, soft acidity, malty profile, dry and bitter finish, bit hoppy, some ashes, slightly spicy, hint of cardamom.

Paired with black pudding, grilled summer pumpkin, sweet potato cream and chorizo oil.

Pours a bit viscous to reddish black beer with a dark tan, medium irregular head. Coffee & roast dominate, dark green leaves, rubber, sulphur-y, hint at hops, but mainly burnt/roast aromas. Bitterish, with an aromatic coffee-like finish. Bitterness definitely consists of both roast and hops. Aftertaste reverts to strong cold coffee and chicory. Very slightly burning MF. Good carbonation. Feels better bodied than it probably is. Nothing wrong here, but it is a bit too coffee-slanted to my tea-barkened palate.

330 ml. bottle. Bottled 23/08/2019. Dark wood brown, too much head when pouring, way too much, bad sign. Nose is very grainy coffee, bitter coffee routs, paprika even, chalk. Not as much carbonation as I feared but empty chalk, plastic, vegetable coffee, roots, unpleasant roots, paprika, thin, very grainy, plastic, hardly inspiring, messy to say the least.

Pours very dark brown. Small white head. Smell is intense, coffee, umami. taste is intense, roasty, umami, very low carbo. Roasty .