7.1

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

Thick beige head, absurdly stable, irregular, leaving lace over pitch-black beer. Roast, roasted caramel, toffee, dark green leaves, fir/spruce, bit gassy too. Bittersh, roast/burnt. Seen the addition of 'lekkies', surprisingly little sweetness.Finish has caramel and toffee, going to treacle. Chewy, viscous. Bitter gets stronger in the aftertaste. Pretty decent stout, but the lekkies don't do anything special. Or it ought to be the head stability.

8

Quite amazing and delicious for 6,5% abv.

7.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

330ml bottle. Jet black colour with average to huge, thick, frothy to creamy, moderately lasting and lacing, beige head. Slighly surpressed, roasty, chocolately, dark and caramel malty and slightly leafy, fruity aroma, hints of blueberry, dark berries in general, a touch of plum and lingonberry. Taste is sweet, fruity and chocolately dark malty, notes of blueberry, dark chocolate, plum butter, caramel, hints of lingonberry, minimally leafy and metallic overtones. Foamy texture, minimally coarse, prickly carbonation, lingering, sweet, fruity finish. Very tasty.

7.5

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 7

Sampled between ratebeer and Brewver, so didnt take much notes, but holy hell I remember that foam. Super-duper dense and extemely creamy. I even contacted the brewer to WTF out on him. Apparently, no adjuncts, but he suspects the addition of the candy ' blackie' created this foam. This is just beautifull to see, although my natural reaction is 'this can't be right'. Very memorable indeed ! taste wise it's not overly complex or fullboedied ( to international standards ) but it's certainly a very nice offer from a Belgian brewing company !

8.1

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

Bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck, Vichte. Dark brown/black colour, creamy beige foam. Nose of roasted malts, some vanilla, sweet caramel (lekkies). Taste is roasty, notes of coffee, well balanced with the sweet notes of the lekkies. Very tasty stout for this ABV, not cloying sweet and heavy but very drinkable. Again a nice beer from Hopsasam!

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

The newest and already prize-winning HopSaSam beer, a stout flavoured with ‘lekkies’, a kind of sugar-and-butter candy typical for the municipality of Kerselare and protected as an official regional product. Thanks to tderoeck for the bottle! Regularly shaped, creamy, mousy, papery lacing, pale mocha beige, stable head, black robe with lightly hazy mahogany edges for about ½ inch off the edge. Quite distinctive aroma indeed, the ‘lekkies’ being present enough and adding something in between caramel candy or butterscotch, ‘Haagse hopjes’, liquorish and salmiak, with further notes of coffee cream, toasted walnut, beef stock cubes, pastry dough. Very clean onset, sweet candied fig paired with rather outspoken, but not unpleasant beef stock cube- and porcini-like umami, softish carb, light sourish accent; notably creamy, very smooth mouthfeel. Deeply nutty, toasty, toffeeish malt body, unsugared black chocolate bitterness but mitigated by the sweetness of those added ‘lekkies’, adding a caramelly and in the end almost liquorish-like aspect which is quite distinctive indeed; roasted, coffeeish bitterness and a spicy, bit rooty hop dosage which even ends a tad quinine-like, in turn keep the sweetness at bay in the finishing stage. The result is that these ‘lekkies’, which I never tasted myself, add flavour and aroma without turning the beer into a sweet mess. I hate the pooping dog on the label but the beer itself is technically remarkably well executed, clean and streamlined, with a good dosage of the different flavours at play; HopSaSam has produced some highly remarkable, very un-Belgian and very desserty barleywines so far and this flavoured stout is a highly interesting addition to their range, maintaining the same un-Belgianness and ‘dessertiness’ in a fascinating, tasteful way. Unusual and probably not to anyone’s liking, but recommended as a totally different new specialty beer in this country.