F: huge, tanned, very good retention. C: dark, opaque. A: malt, very spicy, hint of liquorish, chocolate, dark berries, herbal. T: malty, cardamom, coriander, spicy, chocolate, very pleasant sweetness, dark fruits, raisin, maple syrup, full body, low carbonation, very nice balanced, not too sweet with mixed spiciness, enjoyed, 33cl bottle from Spar supermarket in Oostende.

Bottle. Dark brown red-ish color. Aroma of candi sugar, caramel, spices, yeast, cinnamon and some pumpkin-ish stuff. Taste has sweet caramelised malt, zoethout, cinnamon, yeast, figs and veggie spice. Quite nice actually.

330ml bottle, 2014, 9.0%. Pours dark brown, medium off-white head. Aroma of spicy cherry coke, root ginger. Taste continues with a markedly spicy, sweet flavour profile.. cherry coke, gingerbread and assorted sweet spice alongside some dark dried yeasty fruits.. it’s a bit full on, and unbalanced, but I rather liked it.

The third one in this peculiar series about the seven deadly sins, this one representing unchastity; every year, a beer dedicated to one of these sins will be released over the course of seven years in total - I’m already wondering what these guys are going to come up with after that. Moussy, frothy, initially indeed somewhat ’luxurious’ but quickly reducing, yellowish pale beige head, retaining as a thick moussy rim, over a very dark but still completely translucent, lightly hazy bronze brown beer with reddish burgundy hue. Aroma initially very much dominated by the six spices that apparently went in here, with cloves, (black?)cardamom and coriander as the most pronounced aromas; apart from that, I suspect ginger, star aniseed and liquorice as well, but this is much harder to tell (and honestly I hate having to guess - why don’t they just tell the consumer which spices they used?); apart from this ethereal and rather medicinal spice attack, I get hints of a lot of caramel candy, ’fondant’ chocolate, gingerbread (probably just the spices again), sugared coffee, dried banana, marmelade, cherry ’pralines’, black pepper, treacle, bayleaf, brown bread, honey, ruby port, fresh toast, gravy and some very, very faint FFF (manure). Candied sweet onset, candied cherry and dito dates, with an underlying blackberry-juice-like sourish hint and some gravy-like umami accents, medium carbo, thick and ’filling’ body, notably resinous and slick. Residual brown sugar sweetness is outspoken and a tad cloying, but not so much that it aggravates me; some minerally side notes. Thick caramelly malt sweet body supports this all, acquiring a subtly toasted bitterish edge in the end. Needless to say, the whole thing is drenched in spiciness, with retronasally that soapy coriander again, this time not even dominating, as the cloves and cardamom - and whatever else - far drown it out; these ethereal, resinous spices combine with a ’jenever’-like alcohol warmth, flirting with astringency but still behaving nicely enough. The combination of these two factors remind me a bit of juniper berries, and I would not be surprised if these represent one of the six spices, now that I come to think of it... Anyway, spiciness, malt and sugary sweetness and alcohol make up the finish, while hops are limited to a late, soft, earthy but noticeable and balancing ’deep’ structural bitterness. I was more or less expecting a spicy quad-like Scotch but this is even spicier than expected; I guess the link with unchastity is some kind of aphrodisiac effect, but in my particular case, this amount of spiciness in a beer turns me off rather than on. This is unbalanced because there are just too many spices in it - I can accept a dash of spice in a Belgian ale here and there, but I have been confronted with so many overspices ones (especially with coriander seed) that I have grown tired them; a technically well-made beer, like this one, can be pulled right out of balance by adding spices. I more or less enjoyed this just because it has body and technical accomplishment underneath the spice rack, so I’m granting it a mild score here, but one is more than enough. In terms of style: best compared with overly spicy, 20th century, Scotch-inspired Belgian Christmas ales, such as Gouden Carolus Christmas, which this beer kind of reminds me of.

Initially there’s sweet and sticky Jamaican Ginger Cake. The liquorice comes through a little in the finish. Quite drinkable for a strong, sweet beer.

Bottle @ Geus van Gent. Dark brown colour, beige foam. Sweet nose of gingerbread, pumpkin, spices, raisins. Very sweet and spicy. Unbalanced. Not very good.

Bottle 330ml. @ [ PBF X ] Petalax Beer Festival 2015 by oh6gdx, Petalax, Finland. [ As Zeven Zonden Luxuria ].Clear medium to dark red brown color with a average to large, frothy - creamy, good lacing, mostly to fully lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, bread, roasted, sweet malt, sweet bread, pumpernickel bread, moderate yeasty. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet with a long duration, bread, roasted, pumpernickel bread, yeast. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20150725]

Bottled@PBF X. Amber colour, small slightly off-white head. Aroma is fruity, floral, spicy, mild raisins as well as some slight yeasty notes. Flavour is ripe fruits, sweet malts, mild syrup as well as some slight yeasty and toffeeish notes.

33cl bottle @PBF X. Dark amber brew, thin off white head. Sweet aroma, pumpkin pie mostly. Xmasy spicy, cinnamon, pumpkin and sweetness. Like it or not, I’m not sure.