Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is dark malt and tart fruits with berries, chocolate, oak, roast, and notes of sherry. Flavour is tart and medium sour. Body is medium. Sour Stout is hard to get right, this one is okay.

Backlog 28/12/2020; Best before xx, 330ml bottle bought at La Cave à Bières d'Etre Gourmet online shop;

APPEARANCE: deep brown to black-ish color with mahogany and cherry hues under the light, small beige ring of bubbles on the side of the glass

AROMA: loads of sweet balsamic vinegar on the nose but not sharp or acetic, melting brown sugars, caramel, notes of red wine with berry quality, dried dark fruits, sweet bread soaked in wine, mild plum brandy like alcohol on the nose, a bit spicy but not boozy, hints of walnut liqueur, subtle smoke; no obvious roasted malts on the nose

TASTE: moderate carbonation, medium body (lacks in that part), a bit thin and wet on the edges, light slick and viscous mouthfeel; immediately impressions of “imperial oud bruin”, moderate sweetness of melting caramel, brown sugar, mild butterscotch, sweetness is cut by lactic tartness (notes of yoghurt and whey) but not in a offensive way; hints of walnut liqueur and plum brandy before light roasted character kicks in - hints of charcoal, chicory, burnt grains; soft spicy notes, alcohol is nicely hidden on the palate; subtle umami & savory presence (stewed mushrooms, meat gravy), hints of earth dust;

OVERALL: slightly quirky beer; tart - sour aspects of the beer are clearly noticed and in the foreground; feels more like “imperial oud bruin” than IS but there is light roast character to justify imperial stout designation; nonetheless enjoyable sipper

Sour stout by Hof ten Dormaal - and since the brewer's son is a Star Wars fan (like myself), it should come as no surprise that this one is named after a Star Wars character. Probably a very close relative of the sour coffee stout the brewery made for last year's BXL Beerfest, maybe even the same beer but without the coffee, who knows... Anyway: very mousy, quite dense, thick, audibly crackling, yellowish beige, thickly plastery lacing, regular head on a near-black beer with still some translucency, showing its deep and warm ruby red glow, turning beautifully misty in the end with the sediment added to the glass. Aroma of ripe blackberries, raspberry vinegar, marmite, old dry madera, maracuja, soaking wet oak wood with a whiff of background vanilla, damp forest floor, coffee grounds, plum wine, jostaberries, 'fondant' chocolate, hints of moist pipe tobacco, 'jenever'-soaked cherries or 'boerenjongens', brown bread dough, sour grapes, caramel, varnish, Japanese umeboshi, medlar, wet cinnamon powder, Limburgian 'zoervleisj', dusty dry black tea, old sweat. Estery onset but in a well-ordered manner, blackberries, blueberries and blue plums, sweet raisiny core surrounded by fruity tartness, medium carbonated. Slick mouthfeel, feeling dangerously lighter than its ABV at first, with a caramelly, lightly dark-chocolatey and brown-bready character ending with clear coffeeish roastedness and thinned by the tartness, which adds a dry, still remarkably fruity (blackberry, jostaberry) effect till the last drop; tannic woodiness supports this fruity sourness and the alcohol, eventually becoming more and more obvious, blends in a lot of whisky-ish warmth, yet without interfering too much in the overall play of flavours and instead creating a vinous effect. Complex finish, with some light shoe polish-like solvents coming into play as well, but not in a bothersome manner; dark fruit, dark malts, dark wood - I think the Zabrak villain from Star Wars, Sith lord and later organized crime kingpin, was a good choice to name this beer after... I'm looking forward to the Prince Xizor, Dryden Voss or of course Jabba the Hutt beers this brewery may bring forward if this trend is continued. As for this one: very fruity and lively, tart but still roasty and 'deep' and in that sense clearly a stout, complex, warming and surprising - I was expecting much less, to be frank. Beautifully constructed beer with doubtlessly great aging potential, like a roasty, superstrong 'oud bruin' of sorts - like all these 'sour stouts' tend to be, so I wonder why 'sour stout' still isn't a category of its own here. If it ever becomes one, this beer deserves to feature in its top-50, as far as I am concerned. To be situated in the top layer of Dormaal's vast output, in any case.

Black with thin head. Aroma and flavour are very vinous, woody and astringent. Elements of raisin sweetness and port wine too. Decent stuff.

Lci. Zurig

Draught Greige head, irregular, over pitch-black beer. Roast, alcohol, juniperberry, wood, winter clothing. Quite sour, lemony, but still much roast. Brings "stout acidity" to a whole new level. Hint at some alcohol - rum, bourbon,... difficult to say what. Acidity has a strange fruity-vegetable streak, again difficult to pin down - rhubarb? sour star fruit? Serious acidthinning for such a strong stout. Bit slick, not really viscous. It's weird, needs some accustoming to.