Bottled 750ml (AIH147)
Dark ruby colour, big beige head and lace. Oak, vanilla, dark fruits in the nose. Medium-bodied. Typical Delirium flavour: fruityness now with strong barrel age vanilla flavour. Backing alcohol. Similar than Chimays: does not gain much from barreling.

Tap @ Pikkulintu Ruttopuisto. Poured dark brown in color. Toffee malty with vanilla barrel quite strong. Bourbon and malts. One dimensional somehow.

Draught (11,5%) @ Pikkulintu Ruttopuisto Aroma has ripe fruits and belgian yeast. Also toffee-like malt. Flavour has toffee candy, plastic glue, rather sharp alcohol and pear esthers. Too strong on alcohol and rather sweet but kinda works. The pear esthers are nice. Does not smell or taste like a stout; more like belgian strong. Actually this is quite close to BA La Trappe Quad.

(Keg at Hilpeä Hauki, 20211208) The beer poured dark brown and clear. Its head was medium sized and lightly brown. Aroma had vanilla, wood, toasted malts and Belgian style yeast. Palate was full bodied and a bit sticky with medium carbonation. Flavours were vanilla, wood, toasted malts, grass and bitterness. Aftertaste was dry, woody and bitter. A nice brew with rather strong barrel notes and light Belgian style notes.

Beer tasting & B2B event hosted by Belgian Embassy in Croatia, thanks for the invite. Thanks to the kind people from Brouwerij Huyghe and especially Zvone Pelko for opening this one. Unclear amber, medium beige head. Mild oak notes at first, bourbon coming out nicely, tannic, malty, peaty, dried fruit. Lots of bourbon character in the flavour, some alcohol, dried fruit and malts again in the finish. Drying, smooth, strong, tartish liqueur-like.

Bottle 75 cl. Bronze color, slightly hazy, yellowish foam. Aroma: a lot of esters, up to varnish and acetone, bourbon, vanilla, dried fruits, strong. Taste: sweet, caramel, dried fruits, a lot of bourbon, a bit harsh, warms, vanilla, alcoholic, good.

One of two embodiments of barrel aged Deliriums that hit the market meanwhile, the other one being a 'blonde' version - so I assume these are respectively Delirium Nocturnum and Delirium Tremens, both aged on the same bourbon barrels. Thickly foamy, pale yellowish-white, plaster-lacing, stable head on an initially clear, mahogany brown beer with copperish-red hue, turning hazy with sediment (but by no means black). Aroma of hard caramel, brown soap, bubblegum, vanilla-scenting soaking wet oak wood indeed, black cherries and Belgian 'pralines', candy apple, buttered banana, thyme, blackberry jam, orange zest, cranberry sauce, white rum, coconut flakes, liquorice. Sweet onset, dried fig, apple peel and baked banana, bubblegummy effect, minerally and lively fizz, full but resinous to soapy body; hard-caramelly and toffeeish core, slightly nutty-toasty and bitterish though sweetness clearly prevails; hints of liquorice, cranberries, nutmeg and soapy coriander in the end, herbal with a tea-ish hop note providing very low bitterness. Clove-like phenols accompany a very gently tannic woodiness that does add a vanilla-like aspect retronasally (also the bourbon speaking), but this exaggeratedly soapy, bubblegummy effect remains dominant and becomes quite annoying in the end. It is no secret that I never liked Huyghe one bit (I will never forgive them that Floris series) and their attempt to cash in on the barrel ageing hype feels like an old drunk uncle trying to dance to something hip he has never heard before on a wedding party - a metaphor I'm borrowing from Tim Webb here. As the old Dutch saying goes, "a dressed up monkey is still a monkey": it is not because you put trivial brews like Delirium Nocturnum or Delirium Tremens on wooden barrels that they automatically come out at a higher gastronomical level of quality. Many experienced, postmodern craft brewers can do that, but for Huyghe it still feels like - well, that old uncle. This to me is not a success, I disliked it from the first sip, but the worst part here is probably that even a very reasonably priced local drinks shop like De Picker in Zele - where I bought this - has to charge a near twenty euros for a bottle because of the prices Huyghe imposes on them. This is pure commercial bluff, an ordinary Belgian ale with a gilded edge trying to be fancy - not unlike those barrel aged Duvel versions, which in my opinion are however (far) better value for their money than this. No, sorry, this one did not help me in appreciating this brewery more.