At Winter Beer Fest 2017, Waregem. Shared with Anke!
Cloudy black with a lasting, frothy, beige head. Aroma of raisin, (roasted) malt, liquor, wood, hint of dark chocolate, sugar & caramel. It tastes medium fruity, malty & sugary sweet and light to medium roasted bitter; the finish is hoppy with warming alcohol, but not becoming too boozy. Medium body, slick/oily texture, soft carbonation. Very elegant and balanced.

Missed this one at Modeste since I vainly tried to obtain it right after closing hour, but here it is then, standing on a shelf at Fontana, my local drinks centre in Sint-Niklaas... Now officially (i.e. according to the front label) called Dead Man's Hand Reserva, with "cognac barrel aged" only mentioned on the back label. From an 'American' bomber. Medium thick, tightly 'membranous' lacing, yellowish beige, very moussy head, thinning in the middle but nevertheless remaining closed for a long time, over a promising looking ink black beer, only revealing its mahogany brown edges under very bright light and only for about one millimeter below the head. Aroma of green coffee beans, 'fondant' chocolate, raw spinach, iron, parsley even, vanilla-ish wet oak, cognac indeed but not too much, aniseed (actually used here and very noticeable, but not overpowering at all), ripe blue grapes, raisins, dried prunes, toffee, leather, treacle, hints of pear syrup, fried banana slices, chestnut cream sauce, pipe tobacco, rum, 'Haagse hopjes', cold tea, salmiak, vague veal stock, shoe polish. Begins sweet in the mouth, residual candi sugariness on top of dried banana, candied fig and raisin impressions, but with a sourish, blackcurrant-like edge to it, sinking deeper into that roasted barley sourishness that typifies any good stout, regardless of substyle; softish carbonation, thick and full mouthfeel, though perhaps not quite as oily and greasy as the average beer geek is used to from a modern imperial stout. Slight umami notes, too, but remaining very subtle. Deep nutty maltiness makes up the core of this beer, with toffeeish-sweet and (stronger) toasted bitter sides to it; evolves into coffeeish roasted bitterness even, but in a gentle kind of way, with slight metallic accents at the edges. The true beauty lies in the finish, where these sugary candied fruit notes, the basic sourishness and, above all, that full, nutty and toasted malt bittersweetness are coloured by vanilla-ish wood tannins (albeit quite restrained in comparison with many other contemporary barrel aged stouts) and a heart-warming, absolutely lovely cognac heat and flavour filling the back of the mouth and throat. The actual cognac taste is there, but remains altogether fairly subtle, yet it enhances the basic qualities of this well-intended Nest beer. Deeply 'peppery', leafy hop bitterness too, accentuated by the natural bitterness of the aniseed, but blending in well with the roasted barley bitterness, which is often neglected in present-day imperial stouts but at least historically comes as natural to the genre as sourness does to lambic. This is one of those cases where barrel ageing manages to actually improve the basic beer, which is not always the case, contrary to what all those geeky beer hipsters seem to proclaim these days; the basic beer is a Belgian-influenced but otherwise very decent strong stout, but this one is up there with the best of Belgian 'impies' - though admittedly that still doesn't say a lot. In being Belgian, they obviously could not resist the innate urge to throw in a spice (aniseed - totally redundant but at least it's not coriander) and it shows, but once you get past that, this is really a very nice, generously black and thick, warming and 'deep' Belgian style imperial stout - another argument for the recognition of such a substyle indeed. Perhaps a tad more 'oiliness' could truly lift this to international class, who knows...

Bottle at Modeste 2017. Pours dark brown to black. Taste is full, sharp, intense roast. Mild cognac, in the complexity more than the actual ( sweet) taste of cognac.

Thanks! Sampled draft @ Modeste 2017. Black, uneven mocha head. Nose is massively bitter liquorice, herbal, huge roast, bitter bark, charred wood & served far too cold as most things as the festival. Taste is huge bitter roasted heavily bitter bark, charred oak, heavy bitter roast, burned malt, roast,… Body is all dry bitterness that coats your mouth, bit thin syrup. Least favourite iteration of this beer so bloody bitter, roasted, burned & I am not even getting the cognac, expected a lot more here.