@ GrandCru Firenze festa di Natale

Deep dark brown coloured body with a thinnish, single to perhaps two centimetre tall off-white head. Aroma of pungent Belgian yeasts with a lot of curacao and spice components showing some anise and cardamom, but a bit more canella and allspice with nutmeg on the edges as well. Medium-bodied; Relatively strong spice flavours show at first with a big hit of sweetness from candi sugar and some brown sugars as well with pitted fruits rounding out the sweetness, all covering up a rather large alcohol pungency and almost astringency, but the sweetness and spice show stronger. Aftertaste shows a lot of grainy and nutty, rustic earthy notes, but the spices and sugars are by far the strongest, in a great way. Overall, a very nice and enjoyable, super complex, robust beer that has a lot of flavours, more nuances and spices but a great balance of malt, alcohol and sugars that makes this somehow drinkable, especially anywhere close to Christmas and the chillier times of year. Great to finally sample and far removed from Belgium, but I'll be having this more around the season, especially anywhere close to where it's made! I sampled this 33 cL can, purchased from Wegman's in Alexandria, Virginia on 29-November-2021 for US$1,99 (part of a mixed six pack), sampled at my house here in Washington on 03-April-2022 after running the Cherry Blossom 10miler with my wife.

Appearance: cloudy brown with a moderate off-white frothy head of medium retention. Aroma: dried fruit, toast, apricots, peaches, higher spirits. Taste: light sweet and bitter, complex. Good Belgian yeast, esters, dried figs and dates. Hop. Mouth feel: medium body, average carbonation. Overall: nice balance. High class.