Bottle. Dark brown color. Dried fruit, toffee and kruidkoek in the aroma. malty sweet flavor, kruidkoek, dried fruit, figs and alcohol in the flavor. Just a bit thin.

30/IX/20 - on tap @ DOK Brewing Company (Ghent, BE), BB: n/a (2020-951)

Little cloudy dark red to red brown beer, small creamy beige head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: oxidized, very very oxidized, bit sugary, alcohol, spicy, rubbery, tobacco. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: oxidized, sugary, lots of caramel, malty, some alcohol, ripe banana, more sugary, earthy. Aftertaste: bit meaty, smoky touch, sugary, caramel, very oxidized, dried fruits, soft roast, bitter touch.

15 July 2020. At Dok Brewing Company. Cheers to Anke & colleagues! Hazy dark brown with a stable, small, foamy, tan head. Strong aroma of apricot jam & mash, caramel sauce, raisin, fruit liqueur, nail polish (remover), overripe plum, dark honey, liquorice, mandarin peel. Taste has an almost aggressive sweetness of (candied or overripe) plum & apricot, very sugary, hinting at candi, candy & caramel, some sweet-spicy liquorice in the back with a hint of orange peel, giving off a phenolic touch. Very malty, sugary, almost wort-like finish, faintly herbal hoppy, more sugar even with heating (brandy or triple sec) alcohol in the throat. Medium body, syrupy-sticky texture, soft carbonation. It's a cliché that inexperienced beer drinkers only like sweet beer, but I would hand them this brew just a challenge. I don't know what to make of this, it's bold to say the least, but the residual sugar aspect is too strong to really enjoy it.

New Dok beer presented at Billie's Craft Beer Fest, a formidable barleywine with oats. Had this farm fresh at Billie's Craft Beer Fest, with yellowish cream-beige, dense, very creamy, lacing head, cloudy caramel-hued ochre robe with an amberish tinge. Intense, desserty nose of candied orange peel and marmalade, caramel candy or warm caramel sauce, overripe pineapple, honey liqueur, stewed pear, candied ginger, 'abrikozenjenever', peanut butter, cream, waffles. Very sweet onset, a lot of residual sugariness, bit sticky even with a dim sourish note and an orange-like, somewhat refreshing aspect, softly carbonated; very full, fluffy, creamy mouthfeel, the creaminess enhanced by the oats, sweet, caramelly and peanutty, a tad white-chocolatey even, while a 'blonde' sugary sweetness lingers till deep in the finish, highlighted by a warming glow of brandy-like alcohol - unsurprisingly in a beer this strong, of course, yet still soft and nowhere unpleasantly wry, softened and 'absorbed' by the thick, creamy, sugary body of this impressive beer. Very intense, dense and desserty, this 'brandy caramel sauce' of a beer must have been a real 'tour de force' to brew; some will certainly find it too sweet, but it is sweet in a layered, complex way - almost a kind of 'pastry barleywine', if you will. This was a real blast and ironically quite 'refreshing' after so many kettle sours and imperial stouts at BCBF - but then I went to Dok's own premises in Hal 16 in Ghent five weeks later to revisit it from a bottle, and bizarrely, I got a very different beer there, which was much more in line with nutjes' rating above: not only had it turned clearly more reddish-brown and generally dark as well as clear (probably just the yeast that has deposited), it also showed a less sweet, though more complex aroma and flavour profile, involving a strong and completely unexpected balsamico aspect over impressions of hazelnut oil, ruby port, caramel, cranberry sauce, sweet pickled onions and indeed pronounced glue-like solvents. Very strange how this one evolved in such a small amount of time, but it has remained equally fascinating and complex and so remains one of Dok's most unique brews so far (which says a lot, considering how many of their other creations to date were a bit - or sometimes quite a lot - out of the ordinary as well). It is clear that Janos and the crew are still having a lot of fun, and it is still a pleasure to participate in that as a consumer. As for this Blik Op Oneindig: my rating here is an average of both tasting experiences, and I am already eagerly looking forward to the wood-aged versions that have recently been initiated...