7.2

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

New quad by Liège's city brewery, made with the locally famous 'sirop de Liège' (sweet jelly spread made of fruit, including pear, apple and date), in collaboration with a new microbrewery in France. Thanks to my girlfriend Goedele for the bottle! Regularly shaped, mousy, pale greyish beige, thinnish head, quickly reduced to a retaining ring and flat 'dots' in the middle; dark purplish-bronze robe with rusty red hue and lively sparkling, clear initially but hazy with sediment. Aroma of toffee, blue plum, indeed clear but well-integrated 'sirop de Liège', candied dates, wet toast, sweet paprika powder, soggy brown bread, liquorish candy, touch of beef broth. Sweet flavour, pear syrup and candied dates indeed, some dried plum and baked banana, softish carb, full and slick, somewhat resinous mouthfeel. Smooth caramelly, toffeeish and brown-bready malt body with - eventually - a slight toasty-bitter edge, with the tail coloured by a sweet-and-spicy, almost liquorish-like effect that is probably a combination of the added Liège syrup and phenolic fermentation effects, with even a light, proteins-induced umami touch hidden within, adding a bit of complexity. Ends primarily sweet with hints of bitter toasted maltiness, herbal hoppiness and rum-like alcohol. Nice bitter accents on a sweet beer with a certain originality, an acceptable degree of complexity for the style and an added ingredient which remarkably fits in very well, to me personally at least, but I grew up with the stuff so it's kind of in my genes, I guess... Nice quad, in any case.