I have often praised Ermitage as being the best of these ‘nouvelle vague’ brewers in Brussels that came to the city as a wave after the establishment of Senne and BBP and even if La Source is clearly a very serious contender, I am inclined to stick to my viewpoint thus far – as I have tasted nothing that has proven otherwise to me. So when it was announced that they would, for the first time in their five years of existence, tackle the prestigious imperial stout genre, I was psyched to get a taste of it. Medium thick, pale greyish beige, opening, mousy head leaving shreds of lacing and dissipating slowly over a black beer with about one millimetre of burgundy around the edge. Aroma of cognac first and foremost, only then followed by black chocolate bars, espresso, toffee, black pepper, molasses, hints of methylated spirits, soy sauce, old cinnamon powder, cigar ashes, ‘oude jenever’,, walnut oil, ‘boerenjongens’, pear, wet oak wood with a faint vanilla touch to it. Full, dense onset, quite restrained in sweetness with notes of rum-soaked raisins, pear syrup and a dash of porcini (umami aspect), softly carbonated, full and oily body; walnutty and bitter black-chocolatey malts, dry and clearly more bitter than sweet, with a strong toasted bitterness accentuated by the coffee (which in my view could have been applied a bit more generously as it remains relatively subdued, for a ‘coffee stout’ at least). Turns a bit ashy even in the finish – but briefly so, as it is abruptly interrupted by the cognac part, establishing an astringent woody tannins effect and a strong, thinning, heating, burning cognac booziness – too strongly so for my liking. This ashy aspect turns a bit dusty in combination with the wood, while impressions of soy sauce, cigars and molasses linger. Dry, bitter in a coarse kind of way and too astringent from the alcohol: I have the impression that too much actual cognac was left in the barrel and I tend to dislike stout drowning in liquor, but the basic beer as such seems to be a very decent one, not an overly sweet one like you see everywhere these days, but an old school roasty-bitter one with that typical Belgian streak of ‘ashiness’ and slight dirtiness, packed with flavour and character. I would love to taste that basic stout and expect it to be a very good, if old-fashioned one – too bad it is drowned too much in booze here. --- Beer merged from original tick of L'Ermitage l'Arcane Sans Nom on 10 Mar 2021 at 14:38 - Score: Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5. Original review text: I have often praised Ermitage as being the best of these ‘nouvelle vague’ brewers in Brussels that came to the city as a wave after the establishment of Senne and BBP and even if La Source is clearly a very serious contender, I am inclined to stick to my viewpoint thus far – as I have tasted nothing that has proven otherwise to me. So when it was announced that they would, for the first time in their five years of existence, tackle the prestigious imperial stout genre, I was psyched to get a taste of it. Medium thick, pale greyish beige, opening, mousy head leaving shreds of lacing and dissipating slowly over a black beer with about one millimetre of burgundy around the edge. Aroma of cognac first and foremost, only then followed by black chocolate bars, espresso, toffee, black pepper, molasses, hints of methylated spirits, soy sauce, old cinnamon powder, cigar ashes, ‘oude jenever’,, walnut oil, ‘boerenjongens’, pear, wet oak wood with a faint vanilla touch to it. Full, dense onset, quite restrained in sweetness with notes of rum-soaked raisins, pear syrup and a dash of porcini (umami aspect), softly carbonated, full and oily body; walnutty and bitter black-chocolatey malts, dry and clearly more bitter than sweet, with a strong toasted bitterness accentuated by the coffee (which in my view could have been applied a bit more generously as it remains relatively subdued, for a ‘coffee stout’ at least). Turns a bit ashy even in the finish – but briefly so, as it is abruptly interrupted by the cognac part, establishing an astringent woody tannins effect and a strong, thinning, heating, burning cognac booziness – too strongly so for my liking. This ashy aspect turns a bit dusty in combination with the wood, while impressions of soy sauce, cigars and molasses linger. Dry, bitter in a coarse kind of way and too astringent from the alcohol: I have the impression that too much actual cognac was left in the barrel and I tend to dislike stout drowning in liquor, but the basic beer as such seems to be a very decent one, not an overly sweet one like you see everywhere these days, but an old school roasty-bitter one with that typical Belgian streak of ‘ashiness’ and slight dirtiness, packed with flavour and character. I would love to taste that basic stout and expect it to be a very good, if old-fashioned one – too bad it is drowned too much in booze here.