Papesse

At Ghent Beer Festival. Pours hazy dark brown/black with a minimal tan head. The aroma contains roasted malts, sugar, licorice, caramel, some chocolate and bread. It tastes medium to heavy sweet and medium bitter. Average carbonation, creamy texture, warming alcohol indeed. Just my cup of beer.

Bottle 330ml @Le Trappist, Caen
Murky brown color, good beige head. Malty, dark sugars, some alcohol and grass in the nose. Medium-bodied. Very sweet. Kandi sugar, caramel and bread. Too much sugar for my liking. Of course with this sweetness no trace of alcohol.

Tap at Brugge beer festival 2016, Brugge, Belgium. A dark brown coloured pour with a medium beige head on top. Sweet, caramel, dark fruit aroma. Tastes really sweet, dark fruit, caramel, hint of coffee.

’Massieve ale’ by Millevertus with thick and frothy, yellowish white, dense, lacing head and deep purplish burgundy colour, like a dark red wine, with tiny bits of yeast floating around in it. Strong aroma of milk chocolate, banana, brown sugar, FFF (freshly fermented farmland), raisins soaked in brown rhum, overripe pear and peach, medlar, toast, chestnut, caramel, hints of coffee grounds, port, liquorice, dried thyme, fried egg and gingerbread. Concentratedly sweet onset, candied dates, dark candi sugar, ripe banana, some bubblegum even, with a light sourish edge to it, but still cloying a bit; soft carbo, thick and creamy mouthfeel, spicy yeastiness with somewhat phenolic character, layers of caramelly and honeyish malt sweetness, bit toasted and chocolatey in the end, where it meets an earthy, peppery, spicy hop bitterness providing enough balance against the ongoing sweetness (and deep yeasty sourishness), and the expected glow of rhum- and port-like alcohol warmth, stretching deep into the throat but not really burning, only ’heating’. Very rich quadrupel, rivalling the great trappist quadrupels but not achieving the same amount of finesse and complexity; there is something off in the aroma, but there are enough redeeming features to it not to disturb. Slow wintery sipper, I’d say, delivering what it is supposed to.

Trübe dunkel orangebraune Farbe, geringe beige Schaumkrone. Geruch kräfig malzig, süß, alkoholisch, Kaffee, leicht rauchig. Geschmack süß röstmalzig, viel Karamell, rauchig, Kaffee, alkoholisch.

(Bottle, 0.33 l, at Bier-Bier, 20150603) The beer poured dark brown and clear. Its head was medium sized and lightly brown. Aroma had malts, chocolate, fruitiness and yeast. Palate was medium bodied with medium carbonation. Flavours were yeast, fruitiness, malts, chocolate, sweetness, berries and bitterness. Aftertaste had fruitiness, berries and bitterness. A surprising brew: the ABV was rather well hidden and malts were strongly present. The berries in both the aroma and the taste disturbed a bit.