Kompaan's contribution to this year's 'bok' season in Holland, longneck bottle from an Albert Heijn supermarket. Strong bottom-fermented Bock with figs apparently. Medium sized, bit 'fringed', pale greyish white head forming a slightly irregular 'ring' and dots of foam in the middle, as well as patches of Gruyère cheese-like lacing; clear, dark chestnut brown robe with warm copper-red hue, looking exactly like that till the very end so clearly filtered. Aroma of hard butterscotch candy, brown bread crust, pecan nuts, dried prunes, raisins soaked in rum, brandy, muesli, chocolate bars with hazelnuts but more hazelnut than chocolate, notes of soap, dry kitchen towel, rock-sugar, fig jam indeed noticeable, raw beetroot, coffee grounds, nougat. Sweet onset but nothing too cloying, plum and raisin aspects but indeed a thin, yet recognizable touch of fig makes it a bit 'different'; sourish undertone, softish carb. Supple, full, rounded, bit oily mouthfeel; very caramelly and pecan-nutty maltiness, sweet at first but in a 'dark' kind of way, acquiring a toasty bitterish edge in the end (even a bit coffeeish in a superficial way) while the fig element, however subtle, keeps playing its role. Malt bittersweetish ending with a 'deep', leafy hop bitter note but it is the alcohol, brandy-ish in nature, that provides most of the end bitterness, in a somewhat wry way - at seven-ish per cent alcohol by volume, this aspect should have been much better hidden. A pleasant bittersweet caramel-nutty maltiness, constituting the bulk of this beer's flavour profile, remains. Interesting beer, normally it is only the large, more industrial breweries in the Netherlands that produce bottom-fermented 'boks' in this time of the year but here we have a new and still relatively small - yet commercially very successful - Dutch brewery opting for a 'Lager Bock'. What makes it more unusual even, is the addition of fig, but then the proud new brewing generation of this country has been experimenting with a lot more than that when it comes to renewing their once-lost 'bokbier' tradition so this didn't completely come as a surprise. In all: this is what you'd expect from a bottom-fermented 'Dunkler Bock' the Dutch way, with the fig element remaining altogether (too?) subtle; warming, thoroughly malty, rounded and smoothly drinkable. Enjoyable Bock - but I need to get my ass to the Netherlands much more often in this time of the year, as I have a feeling I missed out on a lot of other, perhaps more exciting Dutch Bocks this year...

Thuis uit een flesje. Goede donker bruin/rode kleur, helaas nauwelijks schuim. De vijgen haal ik er niet echt uit. Aardig, maar niet top.

Trockener, röstmalziger Beginn. Herb, geringe Bitterkeit, rund. Vollmundig, deutlich süß werdend, Nuancen von Espresso und Karamell. Gut. 10/11/11/11/9/11

33cl Bottle from AH. Clear ruby brown colour, beige head. Aroma of dark malts, cocoa, dark fruits, hint of figs. Flavour is medium sweet to sweet, malty, dark fruits, figs certainly there but don't see why they needed to be added, this just tastes like a regular Dutch bock. A decent one though.

Bottle shared at home thanks to Maakun! Dark brown with short lived offwhite head. Big sweet toasted malts, old leaves, tea, chestnuts and dried figs. Big sweet and moderate bitter. Slightly over medium body and low carbonation.

Bottle shared at home thanks to Maakun! Dark brown with short lived offwhite head. Big sweet toasted malts, old leaves, tea, chestnuts and dried figs. Big sweet and moderate bitter. Slightly over medium body and low carbonation.

Bottle shared. Clear dark reddish brown with no head. Lots of sweet caramel, raisins, figs, light orange, dusty malts, some sugar, dry oaky notes, bready. Actually not really that sweet, I’d say medium sweet and medium bitter. Over medium bodied with slick oily feel and very low carbonation. Bit under carbonated but otherwise decent enough.

Bottle. Clear ruby color with beige head. Aroma is peas, strawy, caramel. Taste is peas, caramel, chocolate, figs indeed, a bit earthy. Sticky mouthfeel with medium carbonation. Ok.