Ölföreningen 2014. Smak och doft av humle, malt, karamell, citrus smörkola och aprikos. Kraftfulla smaker, rund och len, söt men samtidigt frisk och syrlig. Fin sträv beska som avrundar det hela. Riktigt gott!

Flaska från Beergium. Mörkt gyllenfärgad, krämig skum. Stor kropp med fruktiga syltiga smaker men framförallt lite oljig citruszest och rejäl citrus-/resinbeska som stramar upp smaken rejält. Blir lite samma effekt som smörkakor med citronkräm. Söt, mäktigt men frisk syrligt på samma gång, men här också beskt förståss. Väl dold alkohol. Liknar till viss del de Molens Boomen & Granaten. BW + Citrus = Mycket gott.

Bottle: Nose is soft yeast, nuts, some dark fruit, caramel. Taste very rich, nut, caramel leading to a touch of honey, caramel and raisin then a deep rich malt finish, slight chocolate and with a hint of pine. Taste develops in the glass giving plums, spice and vinous dry notes Mouthfeel is creamy. A very nice example, with good emerging complexity.

Dochter’s barley wine, refermented with wine yeast (pushing the ABV to an impressive 13%) and coming from a stubby 50 cl bottle reminiscent of a traditional 20th-century English barley wine bottle, carrying not just the label - classy as ever with this brewery - but also a hangtag with red seal and a sticker with the bottling year. Had this young from tap at a Zythos Beer Festival when it was first launched, but since I believe that this style usually benefits a lot from ageing, I decided to re-rate it here based on a two year old vintage bottle. Shows some slow gushing during opening, but nothing unmanageable. Medium thick, densely moussy, pale greyish white head, slowly dissipating in the middle but in all, retaining very well especially for a beer of this potency; initially clear, beautifully deep and darkish bronze robe, translucent, with a vermillion red glow; adding the sediment evidently makes the beer hazy and deposits flocks of dead yeast and proteins on the bottom of the glass. Strong and seductive bouquet of freshly baked brown bread, old madera, candied fig, old gingerbread, medlar, red apple peel, wet leather, burnt sugar, toffee, white pepper, old cloves, cocoa powder, home-made ’bessenjenever’ somewhere, burnt toast, dried autumn leaves, calvados, earth, dry cookies, old cake, faint hints of orange peel, sweet white grapes, tea, dried wormwood and chicken stock cube (probably related to onsetting oxidation). Fruity onset, some restrained but very well-placed dried fruit sweetness (fig, dried banana, dried red apple peel, even a vague hint of candied cherry) surrounded by a lightly sourish edge of dried blueberries and elderberry, perfectly in balance for this style, even covering a vague hint of chicken stock-like umami; carbonation is fit for the style, tingling gently on the surface of the tongue, making the mouthfeel a tad less vinous than it would have been otherwise - or than is the case in many other 12+% barley wines. A filling, smooth, deep and utterly confident malt character is craftily constructed after this dried fruit onset, caramelly and toffeeish but - quite surprisingly considering many other experiences with the style - not overly sweet, quickly balanced with a hint of roasted nuts, something very subtly chocolatey and a softly but decidedly bittering toasted bread-like final stage, which is then connected to a notably hop bitter tail, establishing a long, drying, peppery, even slightly tonic water-like finish, also leaving behind an earthy sensation which in the end is reinforced by yeast sediment as well; the peppery quality of it is accompanied by an equally peppery, calvados- or even ’jenever’-like alcohol effect heating up the back of the mouth and the throat - making you very much aware that you are dealing with a very potent beer, but still avoiding astringency, though it does effectuate a certain wryness all the way at the back after several sips. This is a beer which forces its consumer to sip it with care, as any great barley wine should do; it has the big, thick, sweet, toffeeish maltiness of an old school English barley wine, yet the outspoken hop bitterness in the finish nods to the American variant of the style, albeit in an ’old’ and noble European way instead of fuming a lush and tropical bouquet of American hop varieties. Very powerful beer, a force to be reckoned with, and clearly one of Dochter’s greater achievements thus far - though admittedly it is hard to pick one out of such an impressive and utterly classy range (the latter being embodied by the sober but elegant packaging as well). One to savour slowly on a cold winter evening. As for age: as can be expected, the hops seem to be a little bit less pronounced in the aroma after two years of cellaring (dry-hopping was somewhat more evident when young), though still very clearly alive in the taste; and carbonation has become softer and more suited for the style (I remember finding the young tap version a bit too carbonated at the time). Other than that, this is still about the same as I remember it: a bit more rounded and softened by age, but perhaps not yet enough even, as I am beginning to regret not having practiced more patience (best before date is 2017) in keeping this one aside, although I also suspect that advancing oxidation could deteriorate this beer sooner than expected even though it resides in a 50 cl bottle and carries 13% alcohol by volume. In any case: it clearly shows that great care has been taking in developing this, it is a complex example of the style and one of the best ’true’ barley wines ever made on Belgian grounds (even though surrounded by the Netherlands in this case).