7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bouteille 33cl, merci Tim, BB 17/10/2020. Bottled 17/04/2020.
Pitch black, col fin moka.
Arôme sur le malté, grillé, tabac, chocolat; fruits rouges et noirs avec presque une touche de réglisse - cerise noire.

Palais est sur le malté caramel, boozy, chocolaté noir amer avec une sécheresse délicate presque de feuille de tabac. Garde une petite touche un peu aigrelette de fruits des bois dont la mûre et le cassis. Sec et poussiéreux avec un côté oscillant vers tourbe et tabac et lichen/herbe humide de plaine entre Ardennes et ballade automnale dans le brouillard en Irlande.

7.5

form a trade with tderoeck

8.2

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

1 March 2020. At Brouwbar, Ghent; shared with Anke. Pours cloudy black with a slowly diminishing, foamy, beige head. Aroma of dark chocolate, coffee roast, cashew, roasted hazelnut, toast, dried fig, leather. Taste has sweetish chocolate, nuts & fig, introducing the bitter core of coffee roast, toast & roasted nuts with a creamy edge (more chocolatey than anything 'lactic') and a soft umami accent. Dry, toasty finish, giving off a powdery effect, earthy hops pairing with solid black coffee, warming impression of whisky-like alcohol. Full body, oily texture, soft carbonation. 'Prototype' Stout almost, accessible too I'd say but indeed very much Brouwbar's best Stout up till now. Retaste of the bottled version. More expressive 'black' character: toast, tobacco, wood, black pepper. Still a solid balance in the taste, perhaps more peppery in the finish with toast, tobacco & coffee liqueur-like alcohol. Points remain the same.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

New ‘basic’ stout by Brouwbar, released during their second anniversary party. Medium thick, creamy-mousy, mocha-beige head, slowly dissolving into (eventually) nothing, pitch black robe with only very thin mahogany edge. Aroma of coffee grounds and cold black coffee (strongly so), unsugared black chocolate, marmite, beef ‘bouillon’, burnt toast, reduced gravy, black peppercorns, toasted walnuts. Subduedly sweetish onset (dried figs, old raisins) with initially quite outspoken umami aspects (beef stock) and very light underlying blackberry-ish sourish touch, quite lively, fizzy carbonation, minerally; full and oily body, dry profile of bitter chocolate, toast and eventually strong roasted chicory and black coffee, providing a mouth-filling roasted bitterness, aided by a spicy hop accent. Bitter black chocolate and coffee grounds linger, highlighted by a warming, gin-like alcohol note. Basically the previous vanilla stout but without the vanilla (and slightly tinkered with), this to me is Brouwbar’s best stout to date, with a lovely old school character – 20th century ‘export stout’ seems to be the most accurate characterization – but very solid and balanced, without added frills shouting for attention but with a pronounced, old-fashioned roasted bitterness as the dominant feature. Having begun my ‘beer tasting career’ more than two decades ago, I love this kind of old school ‘basic’ stouts a lot, so this one hits the right spot for me.

8.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

15/II/20 - on tap @ 2nd anniversary of Brouwbar, BB: n/a (2020-142)

Clear dark brown to black beer, small dense creamy beige head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: very malty, pretty roasted, some coffee, chocolate, more roast, burned bread crust, hint of charcoal, nice stuff! MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: nice roast, charcoal, malty, some chocolate, cocoa powder, pretty bitter. Aftertaste: bit hoppy, malty, coffee, dark chocolate, good!