Out of the bottle at Cambrinus. roast and chocolate jump out of the glass for a beautiful aroma. Deep brown with a massive light tan head that lingered. Flavor was complex, with the roast and chocolate dominating, with a silkiness of mouthfeel. I am scoring this high - but this was the beer I had on my last night in Brugge while my Westy 12 got to proper temperature....so maybe it gets an extra 0.3 or so for an awesome time!

Bottle at Max’s. Dark brown color. Aroma of caramel. Taste is burnt caramel, bitter finish.

330 ml bottle into tulip glass, M4TRP bottle code. Pours hazy very dark brown color with a 1 finger dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of caramel, chocolate, toast, coffee, brown bread, brown sugar, raisin, plum, fig, clove, pepper, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/roasted malt, earthy hop, and fruity/spicy yeast ester notes; with good strength. Taste of caramel, chocolate, toast, coffee, brown bread, brown sugar, raisin, plum, clove, pepper, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Fair amount of earthy yeast spice on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, chocolate, coffee, brown bread, brown sugar, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Nice complexity and robustness of dark/roasted malt, fruity/spicy yeast, and earthy hop flavors; with a good malt/yeast balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth and fairly crisp/bready mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with minimal warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very good Belgian dark ale. Good complexity and balance of dark/roasted malt, earthy hop, and yeast ester flavors; and very smooth and crisp to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering.

Opaque dark brown colour, one finger foamy tan head, recedes quickly to a thin layer with good lacing. Aroma roasted malts, caramel, coffee, moccha, bitter chocolate, cloves, herbal hops. Taste medium sweetbitter, roasted malts, light coffee. Full body, creamy texture, soft carbonation, bittersweet roasted aftertaste, bit spicy. Reminds me of a strong porter.

Some light raisin and prune. Light florals with some light raisin and fruit. Pours dark brown with ok head and lacing. Bottle from Foodery.

Bottled, BB = empty, large sample. Clear redbrown color, big frothy light brown head. Aroma of burned caramel, sugary, spicy, slight chocolate. Heavy on the yeast esters, but quite ok for me at the moment. Bit sweet in taste, caramelly, sugar. Quite dry finish. Typical belgian product, focusing on caramel malt and loads of sugar. At least this one is much better than the blonde version. The caramel makes up for quite a lot I guess.

3oz pour at Max’s Belgian Fest 2014. Pours a hazy rootbeer brown with a ring of white head. Nose has fig, raisin, dark pitted fruit, fruit cake. Flavor has raisin, brown sugar, fruit cake, candy sugar, clove. Clean finish. So so.

I wanted to like this. I can tasteh burnt malt and the heavy roasted character, giving it some coffee taste, but overall the intense burnt malt is overwhelming. Dry finish.

Bottle, 6.6%. Dark brown with medium beige head. Aroma is malt, yeast, caramel and dark fruits. Flavour is malt, yeast, dark fruits, caramel, chocolate, medium sweet and a little bitter.

#Hopduvel, Gent, bruine verschijning met licht bruine kraag aroma:caramout en zoet, geroosterde mouten smaken: matig zoet, matig bitter, licht zuur, zeer sterk, zeer sterk gemout (geroosterde en gebrande) medium body, glad in de mond, laag co2.