Süßlicher, stark karbonisiert würziger Beginn. Wenig herb, etwas bitter, rund. Gut. 10/8/8/8//8

Cabardouche, a beer company in Antwerp, has been releasing specialty beers under the Escort Deluxe name for three years in a row now; each year we get a totally different beer, and in 2017, we were treated with a pear-flavoured barleywine, of which not one but two versions were released: the basic ("naked") version with pale label and this whisky barrel aged version, with dark label. The whisky in question is Belgian Owl, one of the first - if not the first - Belgian ones, distilled in the Haspengouw region since 2004. Steini bottle from Kevin's Beer Shop in Kontich. Irregularly membrane-lacing, fairly thick, egg-white head with good yet incomplete closure, but remaining proportionally stable over an initially cristal clear, pure and bright amberish-tinged orange blonde beer, becoming misty and deeper amberish orange with sediment. Quite strong aroma of indeed pronounced (unpeated, almost Oban-like) whisky, a bit too pronounced for me personally, deeply penetrating the basic qualities of the "naked" version in impressions of ripe banana, pear compote, sweetbread, honey, light caramel candy, gari, vague lemon curd, powder sugar, faint vanilla (doubtlessly the oak from the Belgian Owl), hints of floor polish, calvados, young sweet sherry, canned apricots, yellow raisins, margarine, bubblegum. Sweet onset, some 'bubblegummy' banana ester as in the "naked" one, 'deeper' hints of ripe pear (even overripe Doyenné de Comice - don't know which pear variety has been added but my bet is on this one), ripe pineapple and dito peach, with an underlying, soft yellow plum and apple sourishness; the sweetness clearly prevails though, to the point of even becoming a tad cloying. Carbonation is softish but still outspoken for anything barleywine; full, rounded, almost vinous mouthfeel. Full caramelly malt sweet core with a fine layer of honeyish residual (white candi) sweetness on top, soft bready edges, vague minerally side notes. Ends in a lot of booziness; the delicate vanilla-tinged properties of the oak rise up retronasally, a dash of late earthy hops provide structurally essential bitterness but gently so, banana ester and caramelly malt sweetness linger but everything becomes increasingly drenched in a clear, unpeated single malt whisky flavour, adding not just the actual flavour of the whisky to the finish in a rather intrusive manner, but also its alcoholic heat, pepperiness and astringency - a bit much so to my personal liking. I have argued here before that a concept of "Belgian barleywine" is more or less conceivable and that "naked" version belongs there, but this means little more than somewhat darker tinged and higher ABV variations on the ubiquitous tripel theme - and that is exactly the case here as well. This is a sweet, very strong and in this case pear juice-enhanced tripel drenched in whisky, too much so for its own good; I personally think aging this one on a white wine barrel rather than a whisky barrel would have been a better option, and if this had to be Belgian, take Genoels-Elderen, Aldeneyck or whatever, most Belgian wine producers (though there aren't many of them) have a Chardonnay or sometimes even a Pinot Gris in their range. In this form, the whisky really is much too present for me; I was hoping for this one to be a step forward compared with the regular 2017 Escort Deluxe, but my hopes are a bit shattered because of this whisky dominance. One of those cases where barrel aging was not such a good idea compared with the basic beer - so even if this is an interesting sipper, I'm afraid I have to give it a lower rating than the highly enjoyable "naked" version. Still, this beer company made a - to me - highly successful buckthorn Gose for this brand in 2016, so I am left very, very curious about what 2018 will bring...

33 cl bottle. Pours clear and golden orange. Small white head. Aroma is mild fruity and phenolic. Toasted malt mild sweet. Fruity. Mild phnolic. Toasted malt. Light sweet and slight fruity finish.

Bottle before the release @ Beerlovers bar. Pours similar to the base , just as well as the smell and taste. i'll more describe the differences in both here. It has def. got more 'almonds', bit more sweetness as wel, more towards the caramel. Not as bitter as the regular one. Mild notes of the oak. Works better than the base for me.

Sampled @ Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2017. A hazy pale golden beer with a small white head. Aroma of sweet oak, some vanilla, riped fruits. Taste of sweet pale malt, vanilla, oak, strong malt.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Bieren Cabardouche Escort Deluxe 2017 (Belgian Owl Oak Aged) (by Bieren Cabardouche):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5

2/XII/17 - on tap @ Billies Craft Beer Festival - BB: n/a (2017-2018) Thanks to the Belgian, Dutch and German ratebeerians for sharing today's beers!

Clear orange blond beer, small creamy white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: sweet, bit fruity, banana, alcohol, caramel, bit sugary, malty. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: lots of alcohol, ripe banana, pretty sweet and sugary, soft acidity, peaches, soft bitterness, some apricots, nice stuff! Aftertaste: more of the same.