Café Noir

One of the new additions to this quiet little range of artisanal beers, steini bottle from Kevin Devos’ Beer Shop in Kontich. Fairly thick and very dense, lightly lacing, yellowish beige, creamy head of great stability (only very slowly and limitedly opening and perfectly retaining on the edge), generally black appearance but in reality a very dark and hazy chocolate brown with burgundy tinge. Aroma of indeed ’real’ and aromatic coffee powder, ’Haagse hopjes’, ’fondant’ chocolate, candied figs, nougat, beef stock cube, elderberries, toffee, stewed pear, mashed banana, black pepper, ginger powder, dried plum, brown rum, dry earth, hay, treacle, black cherries, burnt brown sugar, toast, cold cappuccino, old cloves, cloth, damp tree leaves on a forest floor. Sweet onset, stewed pears and plums, banana ester but not overly so, fresh fig and elderberry sourishness providing counterweight agains the sweetness, which also comes from residual candi sugar, clearly, yet nothing cloying; perhaps a vague umami accent (beef stock) but it’s the sweetness which prevails. Carbonation is on the sharp side for a 10% stout, distracting a bit from the taste and initially coarsening an otherwise smooth, thick and ’fluffy’, bit oily mouthfeel, but luckily receding after a while so that the creaminess of the added oatmeal comes to full glory. Along with this oat factor, a thick caramelly and nutty maltiness makes up the core of this beer, evolving from sweet (even notably chocolatey) to bittersweet, while the fruity aspects linger and the added coffee powder rises up at the back, filling the nose cavity ’from behind’, blending in nicely with the toasted maltiness. Some minerally and subtly phenolic notes in the finish, along with an earthy and mildly spicy hop bitterness and, unsurprisingly, a strong afterglow of rum-like alcohol, balancing on the brink of wryness - maybe just a tad too much so for my personal taste. Lovely bittersweet, chocolatey and mildly toasty malt flavors, lingering brown sugary sweetness and some delicate coffee remain after swallowing, along with this alcohol heat. Rich, potent beer, a big stout "the Belgian way" (Hercule is not that far away), i.e. with certain quadrupel-like Belgian yeast traits; in this case, these Belgian yeast aspects remain fairly limited and elegant, positioning this beer somewhere in between classic Belgian quad on the one hand and ’true’ Anglo-Saxon coffee stout on the other hand. By itself and not seen in style context, certainly a very enjoyable, technically accomplished, opulent Belgian sipper, way better than I had expected, frankly.

Pours black ( yes, black ! that already puts them in an exclusive zone here in Belgium, where many (imperial) stouts are brown, for some reason. Good grey head that builds up, seems very fluffy and thick, and stays very stong. Some visible carbonation that rises at medium speed, and looks very, very fine. Awesome look of a beer, for sure ! Smell is coffeebitter, some roasty character. Taste is very full, sharp coffeebitter. Some coffee, but not too much at all, not even specifically more than you can get trough maltroast. Anyway, the taste is good, that’s a given. Mild bitterness, not sweet. OK carbo, indeed very fine (champagneyeast in the refermentation, perhaops ? ) but the body does lack a lot of creamyness. The beer has builded up from the rather low expectations I had, and the view is simply amazing here. if only the body would have been (a lot) thicker, it would have been the top in it’s country in this style. The taste and scent are very decent as well. Aah well, it’s a very nice attempt, at least, and who knows what else will come along when the Brewery has done more beers.

Imported from my RateBeer account as KEUN Café Noir (by Microbrouwerij KEUN):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 2/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5

11/XII/16 - 33cl bottle from a trade @ home - BB: VIII/2019, bottled: VIII/2016 (2016-1465) Thanks to Bierridder_S for the trade!

Clear dark brown to black beer, big crackling fizzy beige head, unstable, falls down quickly. Aroma: lots of dark chocolate, vanilla, some coffee, bit of liquorish. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: little sourish, sweet, pretty roasted, ripe banana, dark chocolate. Aftertaste: bit sweet, vanilla touch, soft roast, little sourish, some alcohol, very fruity, orange peel.

Huge russet head, not stable, over deep brown-black beer. Rich chocolate nose, roasted malts... rather Ersatz- coffee than real one (at least in the nose). More coffee in the taste, if rather moccha; and very sweet (maybe with a dash of coffeemilk?). Roasted nuts, meatroast, sweet-salty soy sauce (purists might speak about ""umami""). Drier in the finish. Quite slick, viscous, well-bodied, good carbonation, alcoholwarming. Decent, but rather sweet.