7.9

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

The second 'official' beer by this new microbrewery in Kortrijk, launched during Diesters Bierfestival last Saturday; an imperial stout spiced with liquorice. From a 75 cl bottle with crown cap, shared with my girlfriend. Regular, thickly moussy but slowly dissipating yet stable, pale yellowish beige head over black beer with hazy mahogany edges. Aroma of indeed old dry liquorice candy but nicely embedded in a wealthy fragrance of toasted hazelnuts, dried prunes, old 'fondant' chocolate bars, walnut oil, mocha ice cream, toffee, whisky, dates, fresh paint, salmiak, black coffee, leather, dried sage. Quite 'dense', sweetish onset but nothing cloying, lots of dried plum, old raisin and fig effects, touch of red apple, initially sharpish and bit minerally carbonation but not unpleasantly so; thick walnutty, rye-bready, caramelly and eventually lightly chocolatey malt body developing a pleasant coffeeish and black toast bitterness in the end, highlighted by a well-positioned spicy hop accent and heating, rum-like alcohol which does not come too soon. The liquorice pierces through all of this in a subtle, almost sneaky way, but eventually manifests itself as a sweet-and-spicy 'dropveter'-like effect lingering along with the nutty-coffeeish maltiness and alcohol warmth. I haven't had Benoit's first so far, but for a beginning microbrewery, this was quite impressive; a very enjoyable, full-bodied beer, imperial stout the way any modern Scandinavian or Dutch craft brewery could have made it. I normally don't even like liquorice and certainly not as an added beer ingredient, but in this one it didn't even bother me at all and that in itself is quite an accomplishment. Delicious.