16/IV/20 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconink (Vichte), shared @ home, BB: n/a, bottled: 6/VI/19, batch B0001 (2020-339)

Clear black beer, big creamy dense beige head, very stable, non adhesive. Aroma: pretty oxidized, sherry, port notes, soft roast, more oxidized, dried plums. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: oxidized, some caramel, alcohol, port and sherry notes, soft bitterness, little fruity, soft roast, some coffee. Aftertaste: nice bitterness, coffee, roasted, some charcoal, hoppy as well, pretty oxidized, some alcohol solvents, chemical touch, bit sourish.

One of Jef Piren's latest creations, a mind fucking blond beer according to the front label, but strangely anything but blonde - did he make a mistake there or is this really intended as a mind f*ck? Anyway, the actual beer seems to be a strong lager of sorts and indeed black like the name suggests, so possibly qualifying as a lighter Baltic porter? Initially medium thick, pale greyish beige, regular, mousy, slowly opening and eventually completely dissolving head (not a bubble left in the end); black robe with hazy, brown-mahogany-hued edges, wafer-thin initially but more 'visible' with sediment. Surprisingly sweet, quite delicate aroma of melting 'fondant' chocolate, Belgian 'pralines', caramel sauce, fig syrup, port-soaked raisins, candied cherries, cola, hints of raw cinnamon, young 'jenever', nutmeg, minerals, old liquorish. Sweet onset, candied cherry, fig, ripe pear, fruity but in a clean way and not so much estery - more malt fruitiness, so this could indeed be a lager; quite softish carb for this kind of beer, smooth and oily, also notably resinous mouthfeel. Toffeeish, caramel sauce- and pear syrup-like middle, slick maltiness with a mildly bitterish toasty edge, but sweetness dominates, with a sourish undertone providing balance; meanwhile a tingling, bit burning feeling on the tongue betrays the presence of alcohol, weirdly so at an ABV below 7%. Ends warming, rounded, with a minerally aspect and softly bittering toastiness and herbal hoppiness, with the bitterness a bit accentuated by the alcohol; caramelly malt sweetness, however, remains, in a 'real' caramelly, even weirdly cola-like way - leading me to suspect that this may indeed be a blonde beer (and perhaps, seen the cleanness, indeed a lager) that has been coloured black with some or other additive, possibly caramel, though the light toasty aspect does point at dark malts also having been thrown in here. In that sense, this is indeed a rather puzzling beer, difficult to classify like many other of DOM's creations; it does have the general profile of a Baltic porter (even if a bit less strong than is traditionally the case in that style), so I will contact the brewer in an attempt to find out what the intention was. Regardless of these stylistic question marks, though, it is by all means an enjoyable, heart-warming, rounded and well-made beer, that could just as well have been part of their ongoing Homo Beerectus series...