Sehr dunkelbraunes Bier mit schöner Schaumkrone. Geruch sehr röstmalzig, schokoladig, dunkle Früchte. Geschmack intensiv röstmalzig, schokoladig, Kaffee, dunkle überreife Früchte.

Dark brown/black beer. Medium carbonation. Medium body. Aroma of roasted malts and dry bitter finish. Easy drinkable. Almost no sweetness. Very good.

750mL cork/cage 2011 bottle, drunk 1/15/14
Beautiful deep mahogany body is mostly transparent with an ash-beige colored head that is initially very full, receding to half a finger rapidly.
Light alcohol in the nose mixes with very reserved banana esters and is joined by cherry esters and a light dark chocolate note to give a pretty expected Belgian stout aroma. With some breathing, the alcohol (which starts out with a glue/solvent note) burns off and banana-chocolate-cream is left. It’s of moderate strength and extremely dry. Not entirely easy to put my finger on the drawbacks of the aroma, perhaps the lack of a rich maltiness is one, but even that can be explained by the high attenuation. I suppose the glue-like alcohol note never fully leaves and I’m not a huge fan of banana ester in a stout, Belgian yeast or no. Some light hops may have gone a long way. With all that said, it’s still perfectly passable.
Flavorwise, it starts out with yeast fruitiness and lightly sweet maltiness (honey, caramel, vanilla cream) mixing well and then giving way to very light roastiness, a touch of hop bitterness and some dry phenols and esters (black cherry, black pepper). Carbonation is typical for Dupont, tight and engaging, but where it works wonders to brighten and lighten their saisons and golden ales, here I think it works against a desired softness/suppleness for a stout. Furthermore, the voracious monster that is Dupont yeast gets a little out of hand with the malt and I’d actually say the attenuation level is borderline problematic, as the body just isn’t there. Light alcohol notes perceived in the flavor, as well, and tons of esters. The roast is done well, albeit very lightly, and there is some residual maltiness, but it’s pretty sparse.
I think there are two problems here. One, the beer’s too attenuated. Not horribly so, but noticeably so. At almost three years old, I don’t think I did the body any favors by not drinking it fresh (bought this off the shelf, didn’t intentionally age it). In fact, I remember the fresh bottles being significantly better. Two, and obviously I’m not discovering fire here, this yeast is not terribly suited to this type of beer. The carbonation, attenuation and esterification don’t bring out the best qualities in a stout. Seems it should be fermented a little cooler or at least mashed a touch warmer. Or just triple the amount of hops used. Something like that...

Fles 33cl thuis. Romig, roasted, chocolade, bitters, hoppig, koffie. Beetje dun. (1-2014).

Draft at a tasting event. From notes. Roasty with coffee and chocolate and a decent herbal hop kick. Not bad.

Decent Belgian stout, it’s just a little bit too sweet, even for a Dupont beer.

bottle pours dark brown, rather big white head smell is oaty way to much carbo taste has coffee , a whiskey character ( this is not even barrel aged ? but it tastes like damn whiskey ! ) grainy ; bit botter. some oats rather thin mouthfeel .. ok ... but very intresting !

Bottle looks simple but really good. Beer in the glass brownish, small head. Starts fine malty-earthy, modest roasty, a bit smokey. Fruity hints of plums. Finish milder, still fine malty. Dry aftertaste. A good one!