Pours black, small, darkly tanned layer of foam. Scent is straight up raw coffee, green peppers, mild maltroastyness beneath it. Taste is burnt malts, mildly ashy, raw, green-peppery coffee notes ( less green pepper than the scent though) . Decently fullbodied, with a lower CO2 level. Not much residual sweetness though (which I do prefer in this style of beer ), and a bit too ashy. Vanilla is not recognizable. Bit too green coffee as well. Certainly not a bad beer, but not above average to me, I must admit I liked the previous one more.

Second variant on the Black Pope theme, a theme Galea apparently intends to further elaborate upon (as the brewer told me himself in a private message) and this seems like an interesting to follow, considering the quality and originality of other iterations. Bottle from The Beershop in Kontich. Thinnish but stable, slowly opening, densely mousy, mocha-beige head eventually dissolving into close but nothing, pitch black robe with only a millimeter of lightly hazy mahogany around the edge, only visible under bright light. Dense but quite interesting aroma of old black chocolate bars, cigar ashes, whisky, hard caramel, incense, coffee cream, some old and dry vanilla bean but not the bright and ethereal sweetness I expect from vanilla, molasses, strong blood-like 'iron', burnt toast, beef stock cubes, treacle, pear syrup, candied dates, mocha ice cream, toffee candy, stewed bayleaf, liquorish, chewing gum, vague note of dusty old cloth. Densely sweetish onset but not too cloying, quite pronounced beef stock- and fried porcini-like umami (more than I tend to expect from a Belgian attempt at imperial stout), softish carb but still with some stings here and there, hints of old raisins, leather, fig and ripe pear, very thick and viscous, syrupy body. A massive layer of walnutty, toffeeish and bitter-chocolatey maltiness glides almost laboriously over the tongue, near-glueish and treacle-like, leaving behind a deeply bittersweet trail - with the bitterness gaining more and more strength in the end, as a combination of roasted chicory-like 'ashiness', toastiness and spicy hoppiness. The coffee bean effect is clearly there and luckily in a cleanish, roasty way, while the vanilla effect remains altogether faint. This thick 'wall' of syrupy bittersweetness - with a liquorish-like aspect at its edges - is followed by an obviously heating, long-lasting yet (strangely) not overly wry, whisky-like alcohol effect, but the roasted malt bitterness, sticking inside the throat for quite a while, gets the last word. Very thick and dense, beefy stout, much more so than is usually the case in Belgium; typically ash-, beef stock- and (in the end quite strong) liquorish-like aspects draw the attention away from the coffee and the vanilla, the latter having become almost rudimental. A bit too thick even for a 13% ABV stout, its viscosity and intensity impairing drinkability to a significant degree, whilst lacking a bit in refinement - and certainly in the delicate vanilla 'perfumeyness' I was hoping for. That said: very few of all these new Belgian brewers have the guts to come up with something as dense, complicated, daring and expensive as this, so Galea certainly deserves credit for that; I had way worse attempts at imperial stout from other new generation Belgian brewers, and that is mentioning only those who dare tackle this style the way it should be done. Have an extra point for sheer audacity and effort.

26 July 2019. At Dok Brewing Company, Ghent. Shared with Anke - thanks for showing up eventually! Pours hazy black with a quickly thinning, beige head. Aroma of coffee bean, 'noir de noir' chocolate, 'raw' vanilla, biscuit, toast, custard, earth, macadamia. Taste is medium malty sweet, biscuity & chocolatey, sprinkled with vanilla custard & some dates; constant bitter notes of coffee bean, earthy nuts & toasty breadiness; leading to a dry, toasty, earthy hoppy finish where vanilla & coffee bean linger, as well as a solid dash of coffee liqueur-like alcohol. Full body, oily texture, soft carbonation. Solid balance here, enjoyable.

06/07/2019 - tasting glass @DOK Brewing Festival 2019 Thick murky brown colour, no head, no carbonation. Nose is soft roast, caramel. Taste is chocolate, bit vanilla, sweet, toffee... Expected more.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Galea Black Pope / Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla (by Galea Craft Beers):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 2/5, Taste: 9/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.9/5

6/VII/19 - on tap @ DOK Beer Festival (Gent), BB: n/a - (2019-1007) Thanks to all my beer friends for sharing today's beers!
Pretty cloudy dark brown beer, no head. Aroma: good, lots of chocolate, nice roast, some banana, sweet, caramel. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: nice roast, caramel, sweet and sugary stuff, coffee, carmel, very nice, quite some alcohol. Aftertaste: more alcohol, some banana, very good, pretty roasted, more alcohol.