Fonefan 300814. Dark brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is alcohol, malt, caramel, dried fruits. Flavour is alcohol, malt, caramel, dried fruits, hop. Full body. Nice beer.

Draft at BBF ’15. Pours dark brown with a beige head. Aroma of raisin, overripe dark fruit, alcohol, malt, toffee and chocolate. Flavor is heavy sweet and over moderate bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation. Not bad but too much alcohol noticeable.

Italian but Belgian-inspired ’massieve ale’ apparently brewed at Gaverhopke. Stubby bottle on which even the ominous front label spells certain doom: darkness all around. Hazy, deep bronze colour under a thin, quickly dissipating, off-white, milky head retaining only around the edges of the glass - which, considering the above average ABV (even for this style) and its relatively old age, should not come as a surprise. Rich, powerful and stunning aroma of cognac, plum brandy, varnish, pear syrup, cinnamon, fermenting apple juice, shoe polish, sweet sherry, banana, cloves, vanilla, caramel, wet leather, brambleberries, liquorice, candi syrup, medlar, cocoa. Beguiling taste: silky, smooth, fluffy mouthfeel, candi syrup sweetness supporting a wild array of overripe and candied fruits, refined spiciness (cloves, mint, liquorice?) adding complexity, yeasty, thick and fluffy, ’baroque’ maltiness, caramelly, nutty and a bit chocolatey, leading to a big finale of continuing, thick malt sweetness, complex yeastiness, herbal hop bitterishness and a great deal of cloying candi sugar sweetness as well as warming, liqueur-like alcohol which was already present in the beginning (yet in a beer of this size, I cannot be bothered by it). Wow, this is one big beer indeed... Clearly inspired by the great trappist ales of Westvleteren and Rochefort, which we all adore and respect, and in fact these people didn’t even do a bad job at that. Perhaps, if the alcohol and cloying brown sugar sweetness could be restrained a bit, this will one day become a truly good quad. Chauvinistically speaking, I can’t help feeling a bit proud that these trappist ales have inspired foreign breweries to come up with similar brews. I can’t help feeling the intention was to top Westvleteren 12, in alcohol, but also in aroma and taste.. Still, like most White Pony beers made at Gaverhopke, this needs more refinement and cleaning up to truly shine.

Bottle 330ml. @ The Danish Ratebeer Summer Gathering 2014, TSODRBSG14. [ As White Pony Dark Signs ].Clear medium to dark brown color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, caramel, dark malt, tobacco, wood, moderate bread - brown sugar, funky notes. Flavour is moderate to heavy sweet with a long duration, candy sweet, yeasty, caramel, caramelized malt - brown sugar. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft, finish feel is light alcoholic. [20140830]

Bottle from tderoeck. Thanks Tim. Very dark brown. Sweet aroma with raisins and dates and molasses. Flavour is similarly sweet. Quite rich and complex. Also warming with a slight alcohol burn.

Bottle @ Danish Ratebeer Summer Gathering, 2014. Pours dark unclear amber with a creamy head. Yeast, brown sugar, alcohol, fruit. Warming, sickening sweet and cloying.

Bottle 330ml @ fonefan
Pours clear reddish brown with a off-white head. Aroma has notes of malt, caramel, dried fruits and alcohol. Taste is medium to heavy sweet and light bitter with a long warm, dried fruity and caramel finish. Body is full, texture is oily, carbonation is soft.