Bottle 0,33ltr: Very dark brown coloured brew with nice dry bitter taste. Hints of dried fruits and chocolate, must say marvelous beer despite its boring beer label.

Bottled. Brown colour with a big foamy beige head, that leaves some lace. Aroma is nutty, some earthy, coffeeish and mild toffee tones. Flavour is coffee, some slight yeasty, alcohol and mild spiciness with some toffee and mild nutty elements too. Yeasty/spicy aftertaste with some toasted sweet malts too.

33cl bottle from ABS Drinks near Herent. F: medium, tanned, almost good retention. C: dark brown with dark red brown hue against the light. A: rich malty, brown sugar, dried fruits, banana, honey, figs, candy sugar, cocoa touch. T: full malty base, dried fruits, cocoa, candy sugar, bit herbal, decent bitterness, molasses, raisins, toffee, medium to full carbonation, nice balanced beer, enjoyed.

Donkerbruin, beige schuim. Geroosterd brood in geur, caramel in smaak. Mooie dubbel.

Bottle from Prik & Tik, Sijsele. Pours hazy dark brown with a lasting, small, foamy, tan head. Intense aroma of licorice, raisin, caramel, stewed plum, candied prune, fruit liqueur, cookie dough, ripe peach, cinnamon or speculoos, 'stroopwafel', molasses, faint port. It tastes medium to heavy sugary sweet, lots of cookie & molasses, syrup, and light spicy bitter, subtle hints of herbal tea, spicy licorice, with a basic raisin-like sourness. Dryish, syrupy finish, slightly herbal hoppy, with lingering dough and warming coffee liqueur alcohol. Medium body, creamy texture, lively carbonation. Oh so sweetly unbalanced, but could this be a guilty pleasure? I guess so.

Dark brown beer, small head. Aroma is chocolate, malt, roasted coffee, dark fruit. Taste is the same, light sweet, fizzy and a bit watery.

Opaque dark brown colour, good frothy beige head, slowly diminishing, light lacing. Aroma roasted malts, dark fruits, caramel, cane sugar, spicy notes. Taste light heavy sweet and medium bitter, malty, fruity, toffee. Sweetbitter aftertaste, sugary, quite spicy. Full-bodied, oily texture, soft carbonation, very rich and complex.

A ’Diesters bier’ in more than one sense, with lightly lacing, medium thick but very stable (especially seen its ABV), pale greyish beige, moussy head and deep, warm chestnut bronze colour with mahogany hue and very calm, quiet sparkling rising up from the bottom of the tasting glass. Aroma of rum-soaked raisins, burnt sugar, fig, ’speculoos’, strong clove-like phenols and even some shoe polish paint-like solvents, dried banana, roasted hazelnuts, medlar, some FFF and damp forest floor, honey, pear syrup, dried plums, subtle hints of candied cherry, old dry kitchen herbs, mandarin peel, gari, cocoa powder, carrot. Fruity, predominantly sweet onset, residual candi sugar sweetness along with estery banana, fig and peach as well as a deep, soft yet effective elderberry sourishness, medium carbo, bit minerally and making the mouthfeel just a bit more coarse than it ought to be, thick caramel and honeyish malt sweet body with nutty edges while spicy phenols and fruity esters play on top; finish continues this play of full sweet malts, spicy phenols and fruity (restrained banana) ester but adds some herbal, earthy, soft background hop structure as well as warming, brown rum- or even slightly kahlua-like alcohol, which manages to avoid astringency in spite of my expectations. Very stereotypical quadrupel (rather than just plainly ’Belgian strong ale’), but thick and rich as well as almost flawless; too sweet for my tooth, the only thing I am really missing here, is hops. The subtle earthy bitterness in the end is no match for the brown sugar sweetness, which even cloys a bit to the teeth in the end. Alcohol is very noticeable but does not disturb me at any point. Sweet and cliché, but well made and decent, with an unambiguous nod to the old ’Diesters bier’ tradition, which eventually led to things like Verboden Vrucht or Keizer Karel Robijnrood - and in that very particular sense, I would recommend this (and a few other Loterbol brews) way over those industrial remnants of a once prolific regional Belgian ale style, which has now all but merged with more dominant genres like ’dubbel’ and / or ’quadrupel’.