Bottled at 11% ABV, Madame jeanettes, bottled on Sept 16th 2013, EBC 230 EBU 105, large sample. Dark brown color, short frothy head. Aroma of roast, coffee, chocolate, bit spicy sausage, slight smoked peppers. Quite spicy in taste, dark choc, milk choc. Spicy pepper seems to be quite mellow, at least to what I expected. Might have become a bit less with age (3 yrs old now). But thats good. Likeable.

Tap, Borefts 2016 batch, "Barrel Aged". Black color with tan ring and amber highlight. Aroma is wood, black chocolate, ash, spicy chili. Taste is black chocolate, molasses, chili flesh, then a spicy kick comes through. Spicy finish. Full-bodied. Medium to hogh carbonation. My kind of beer!

Bottle of 2,5 years old at 11% ABV, a barrel aged imperial stout with (very) sharp chili pepper varieties added. Regularly shaped, medium thick, creamy, light beige head with good ’edge retention’ and patches of foam in the middle; colour is a very dark reddish burgundy on the edges but black in general appearance. Rich and beguiling aroma of so many lovely things: espresso, warm chocolate sauce and pure black chocolate, black pepper, green olive, Cuban cigars, dried and smoky chili peppers, charcoal, dusty pipe tobacco ashes, bayleaf, stewed beef, kahlua, whisky and spicy old ’jenever’, leather, tree bark, dried thyme, Worcestershire sauce, roasted pine nuts, some shoe polish, old furniture, vanilla, candied fig, ginger powder, teriyaki, dried seaweed, cured ham, soy sauce. Intense flavor right from the onset, bombarding the tip of the tongue with hearty umami (dry black olive, cured ham) paired with nice and well-restrained candied date sweetness as well as a very light salty soy sauce touch; stinging spicy notes are already apparent from the start. An abyss of deep, big, fat maltiness ensues, caramelly, toasted, thoroughly nutty and eventually mouth-filling coffeeish bitter and roasted, while that dried chili spiciness grows and grows, eventually taking over the finish by force and leaving a steady, red-hot burn in the back of the mouth and the throat, which you will only appreciate if you are into spicy food; underneath, a drying, tannin-rich woodiness also builds and adds to this megastructure of a beer, as well as peppery hop bitterishness which does nothing but support the roasted bitterness and the spiciness, and a well-positioned afterglow of whisky- or even tequila-like alcohol. Complex, daring brew, even to De Molen standards; in certain ways, this is the stout equivalent of their Groot & Sterk. The few years of ageing must have done this beer good, as is often the case with these barrel aged Molens; in any case, and as usual with this brand, a fascinating flavor adventure bringing sweet, umami and bitter together and subjecting them to chili heat without smashing them completely (though I could imagine this spiciness may have been too much when it was younger). Admittedly it takes a certain amount of capsaicin tolerance to be able to enjoy this but I sure do and in this slightly aged form, I find this beer fantastic. I love this brewery!