Bottle from Bierkoning, Amsterdam. Aroma is sweet dark malt, roast, mild smoke, cocoa, liquorice, coffee, mild peat, caramel, dark chocolate, touch of dark fruits. Flavour is fairly sweet with some roasty bitterness in the finish and a slight hint of booze. Body is above medium, not as full as I’d hoped, and a bit disappointingly undercarbonated. I quite dig the aroma though.

Bottle @ home. Dark brown colour, almost no foam. Nose of roasted malts, coffee, cocoa. Taste is rather thin, roasty, some coffee, light tart, bit messy and unbalanced.

Can (from Koht). Pours black with light brownish head. Aroma is roast, cocoa, chocolate, malt. Flavor is sweet, bitter, cocoa, booze, some smoke, chocolate, roast, malt, fruits. Finish is dark chocolate and booze. Overall: ok.

Fuckin excellent

Black with thin creamy head. Aroma has obvious sweet coffee. Flavour also has some forest fruits. Some light roasted bitterness but overall sweet. Oily texture. Low carbonation.

Danke an Taboada. Wenig karbonisierter Beginn. Trocken, etwas Vanille, weich getreidig. Milde, leicht bittere Noten von Kaffee, die Getreidigkeit wird dunkler. Intensiv, sehr süffig, langer Nachhall. 10/11/12/12/11/11

Spanish smoked imperial stout with coffee and cocoa, brewed with rye. Can at Kantien in Ghent. Thin, pale greyish white head, not much more than a creamy ring, lacing in ‘dots’ over a black beer with burgundy-ruddy edge, only visible under bright light and in the end. Strong aroma of hot chocolate sauce and chocolate liqueur, kahlua, glue, walnut, cappuccino, beef stock, liquorice, treacle, smoked meat in the background, cigars, toasted rye bread, brown rum, candied dates, hint of wet dog. Sweet onset, candied dates and raisins, sourish roasted barley undercurrent and cured meat-like umami accent but not overdone (I was fearing a lot more of it based on the beef broth aspect in the nose); soft carb, very thickly oily mouthfeel. Thick chocolatey malt body, its ‘chocolateyness’ reinforced by the cocoa but everything blends in well, hazelnut- and toffee-flavoured maltiness as well, espresso-like coffee notes in the end on top of roasted bitterness – but the fudge-, chocolate sauce- and candied date-like sweetness competes with it for attention. Smokiness remains limited to a pipe tobacco-ish effect at the back, even a whiff of smoked meat somewhere; spicy hop bitter aspect in the finish too, before everything is washed away by a pronounced, heating and rather wry rum-like alcohol presence. I can highly appreciate a really big, bold, boozy stout every now and then and this one clearly aims for the intensity of this type of beers inherent to the American style imperial stouts, but it lacks a bit in refinement, could have been less beef stock-like and less alcoholic; somewhat crude, let’s say, but certainly generous, pungent and intense.

Fairly bitter, alcoholic, plenty coffee and a rye sharpness. Some smoke in the taste, none in the smell. Unbalanced, needs body & sweetness, just not malty enough? After warming some improvement, but still overly alcoholic, a bit sharp and too bitter.