Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle, 330 ml, courtesy of and shared with Max. Pours dark, medium tan head. Chocolate, roasted malts, some dark fruit, sweet, bitter finish. Light fruity tartness. Medium bodied. Nice one.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

Kompaan's take on the now omnipresent imperial stout style, apparently with port added... Bottle from the Albert Heijn supermarket in Hulst. Irregular, yellowish-tinged greyish beige, medium thick, largely big-bubbled yet stable head, opening but leaving behind a greyish veil all over the beer's surface; near-black colour, but with a warm hazelnut brown hue visible for about a quarter of an inch off the edge under bright light. Aroma of old black chocolate bars soaked in water, dried dates, cold black coffee of a few days old, bayleaf, dried forest mushrooms, hard butterscotch candy, hints of black peppercorns, cigar ashes, burnt toast, walnuts, nutmeg and indeed, when warming up, a sweet whiff of ruby port lifting everything up, and actually fitting in better than I was expecting; damp earth-like aspects appear especially after pouring in the sediment. Fairly sweet onset, old raisins, fig, dried banana, with a sourish undercurrent provided by the roasted barley; thin dried mushroom-like umami note as well. Softly carbonated, with a slick, smooth, full, bit oily mouthfeel, but perhaps not as 'greasy' and mouth-filling as your average modern 'impy' would be; still satisfying enough in this respect, though. A nice display of caramelly and very deeply nutty maltiness unfolds in the middle, softly bready on its edges due to the yeast, with bitter black toast-like edges further increasing to a roasty, almost somewhat ashy and coffee-like bitterness in the end, supported by a lingering peppery hop bitterness; the bitterness is eventually enhanced by a firm dosis of astringent alcohol, which actually feels more gin-like than port-like. The port element remains altogether understated, its aroma only subtly popping up when the beer gets warm enough, and its flavour rather hidden under a layer of toasted malts and strong, almost a bit wry alcohol - shame, because I really believe adding port can highlight certain aspects of a present-day, sweeter, American-biased interpretation of imperial stout. There is a brief retronasal whiff of port and there is a certain lingering sweetness in the finish too, sure, but it takes some goodwill to identify it as port and honestly speaking, I doubt if I had been able to pull it out of this beer's structure if tasted blind. A dull but appropriate kind of sourishness from the roasted barley also survives the finish. Never thought I'd say this, but I kind of miss a sweet, vinous, warm and sugary red port-like flavour and -feel here. Maybe the port barrel aged version of this beer performs that job better, so let's go out and hunt it down - together with, why not, a few other variations on this theme, as apparently it has been matured on a whole variety of barrels already. In all: very decent stout, "imperial" only in the original English sense of the word (think Courage or Samuel Smith's), but this is not a bad thing per se - not all imperial stouts have to be American style booze bombs or Scandinavian style diabetes-inducing pastry. Lean, decent, to the point: a very likeable beer in all, like most of Kompaan's products - especially considering I bought this at a popular supermarket chain...

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

Bottle shared with Višnja 666 and Marko. Thanks! Very dark brown with a red tint. Minimal tan head. Roasty, spicy and metallic, chocolate, marzipan, barrel. Very dry. Lots of wood and ash flavours. Thick texture. Medium body, moderate carbonation, dry finish. Good, but not impressive.

Matigjes --- Beer merged from original tick of 39 Bloedbroeder (2021) on 29 Jul 2021 at 19:16 - Score: 7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Közepes, tartós, bézs hab, fekete szín. Enyhén füstös, csokis, kávés, aszalt gyümölcsös illat. Füstös, csokis, kakaóporos, enyhén kávés ízvilág, némi aszalt gyümölcsös aromával. Közepesen testes, közepesen szénsavas, erősen keserű. Nagyon finom, szépen kiegyensúlyozott, tipikus imperial porter.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

0.33 l bottle from ’Biermuda’, best before June 2017, cellared for a year. Black with a thin, frothy, almost stable, beige head. Sweetish-malty, slightly roasty and a bit fruity aroma of dark chocolate, coffee, licorice and some dark fruits. Quite sweet, malty, moderately roasty and slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate, coffee, some licorice and hints of dark fruits, followed by a medium long, moderately roasty-bitter, earthy-dry finish. Medium to full body, slightly creamy mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Well-drinkable Imperial Stout, not overly complex but tasty and saturating.

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9.5

Voici une bière qui sait séduire par son élégance. Soit, cette Kompaan 39 n’est pas sur des arômes exceptionnellement intense ni sur une complexité à vous couper le souffle, mais le plaisir pris est réel avec une bière juste dans ses équilibres et ses arômes (ayant une sensibilité particulière sur le sucre, j’aurais eu une préférence pour un sucre légèrement moins présent). L’intégration du porto dans la recette de cet imperial stout est particulièrement réussie, en parfaite harmonie avec les aromes de café et de chocolat. En verre nous sommes sur un beau brun foncé / noir (EBC de 370) avec une mousse couleur cappuccino de 3 mm d’épaisseur. Le nez est peu intense, mais rond et bien équilibré sur le chocolat, la mélasse et le café. L’attaque est très élégante, sur un beau café expresso et le porto, bien intégré, qui enrichit subtilement les arômes. L’attaque est également très bien équilibrée avec à la fois une bonne rondeur et une amertume marquée procurant de la fraîcheur. La deuxième bouche voit les arômes de café baisser d’intensité pour mettre davantage en avant l’amertume et le porto. L’EBU de 62, est modéré par le sucre bien présent (sans l’être de trop cependant). L’alcool d’ailleurs à 9,1 % Abv ne se fait absolument pas ressentir. Ce dernier structure néanmoins de très bonne façon cette Kompaan 39. L’arrière bouche n’apporte rien de plus si ce n’est une amertume légèrement plus prononcée. La progression aromatique sur la troisième bouche est alors très bien pensée, celle-ci s’orientant vers le chocolat et le caramel donnant plus d’ampleur avant un final d’une longueur appréciable (sans être exceptionnelle), plus sèche sur l’amertume et de belles notes de café. Bel élancement pour finir en beauté cette dégustation. Nous ne sommes certainement pas sur un imperial stout classique, et sans être excentrique, cette Kompaan accompagnera très bien votre soirée.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

3rd June 2017: mini tasting session with my wife. This 33cl bottle (BBD 5th June 2017) was given to me during the 2016 European Summer Gathering in Barcelona: i’ve stored it ever since and only just noticed it was almost out of date. Anyway it was poured into a Leffe badged chalice and consummed by my wife and I two days before it’s BBD. Very dark brown, beige head on top. Roasted, over roasted malts in the nose, slight smokiness and a dark fruity aroma. Taste similar, malts to the fore, again smokey and fruity. Decent.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle - Dark roast, dark molasses and chocolate. Jet brown with a small beige head. Dark roast, dark fruity notes, chocolate and a nice rich finish. Complex and quite nice.