75cl bottle. A hazy orange golden beer with a beige head. Aroma of peated malt, caramel, riped fruits. Taste of strong smoked malt, caramel, riped fruits, oak, peated malt.

Fles gedeelt met TomvV. Het is een koperkleurig bier met een volle witte schuimkraag. Het aroma is zoetig, fruitig en rokerig. De smaak is Laphroaigh, turf en zoetig met wat rokerige tonen.

Old Van Steenberge has felt the winds of change sweeping through the present-day beer world and has been tinkering with their flagship Gulden Draak range for a while now, leading to a smoked version and an imperial stout version, but experiments with ageing this beer on wood and flavouring it with liquor have been going on for longer, kicking off already in 2013 with the first edition of Gulden Draak Brewmaster, which is now part of the regular range. I personally cannot believe that this Brewmaster edition was ever aged on actual barrels, but this time, Van Steenberge seems to take this idea more seriously and now – after doing some ‘tests’ at beer festivals – released this Gulden Draak Cuvée Prestige Laphroaig, aged partially on bourbon barrels and partially on Laphroaig barrels, together with an all-bourbon version. Only 9162 (75 cl) bottles of this Laphroaig version were put on the market – for now. Thickly mousy, off-white, relatively large-bubbled, plaster-lacing, irregular but stable head, initially clear deep pure amber robe with ‘metallic’ dark orange glow, misty with sediment, perturbed by slender strings of sparkling. The nose immediately reveals a lot of damp peat even to the point where it becomes iodine-like (the Laphroaig character, in other words), weighing heavily on impressions of caramel sauce, canned apricot, banana, bubblegum, orange liqueur, muscovado sugar, honey, whisky, damp cigarette shag, peach and a vague whiff of oaky vanilla. Sweet onset, heavy banana and peach impressions in a ‘candied’, honeyish way, continuing over a full but slick, bit glueish, medium carbonated body consisting of caramelly malt sweetness ‘filled’ with the old Belgian practice of white candi syrup, but before long, the peat factor from the Laphroaig towers over the whole palate, with a strong retronasal iodine- and smoky (cigarette tobacco) effect. A herbal hop bitter touch cannot prevent the sweetness from remaining rather cloying, but an indeed whisky-coloured booziness, ending up wry on the root of the tongue, does that job instead; actual tannic woodiness from the barrel remains however very subtle. Clearly the ‘9000 Quadrupel’ version of Gulden Draak was used here, basically the ‘naked’ version of the original, without the caramel colorant, which I think was the right choice; in all, the beer’s basic crudeness and overt sweetness is anything but hidden here, but it must be said that the peatiness is much more present than expected. Hardly subtle, this beer, but admittedly more convincing than expected, even to the point where I’d happily drink it again if it weren’t so expensive.

Bottle. Color: In between amber and copper, off-white head. Aroma: Sweetish, sugary and fruity, combined with peaty Laphroaigh notes. Taste: Standard sweetish, slightly sugary Gulden Draak combined with pretty strong, just not overwhelming, peaty and bit boozy Laphroaigh. Hints of smoked meat. Pretty nice, but also quite expensive.