Arctos
(has 6 batches)

10 November 2023. At Billie's Craft Beer Fest. Thanks to tderoeck for sharing today's beers - cheers to so many more!

Hazy black. Candied cherry, marzipan, mulled wine, clove, liquorice. Sweet dark honey, cherry, dried fruits. Peppery hops, spices, warming liqueur-like alcohol. Oily texture. Lacks some wholeness as a Stout, but interesting for sure.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Friday. Very dark brown beer. Aroma and Taste of dark roasted malt, resins, liquorice, dried fruits, plums.

Swedish ‘impy’ containing honey, tasted as a one year old vintage at Billie’s Craft Beer Fest 2023. Medium thick, mocha-beige, opening head on a black beer with mahogany glow. Aroma of black coffee, soy sauce, smoked mackerel somewhere, cigar tobacco, aquavit more than bourbon, black tea, dry caramel, toast, shoe polish, tar. Sweet dried fig and blackberry jam in the onset but tempered by soft porcini-like umami, softishly carbonated with full oily body; bitter-chocolatey, toasty, burnt-nutty middle with again those smoky and solventy notes coming up along with a ‘floweriness’ possibly linked to it – and almost certainly linked to the honey that was used. Long toasty and peppery-hoppy bitter finish with somewhat wry, wodka-like alcohol and lingering solvent effects. A tad crude and overly solventy to be truly great in this prestigious genre, in my opinion.

10/XI/23 - on tap @ Billies Craft Beer Festival (Antwerp), Day 1 - part 1, BB: n/a (2023-916) Thanks to NathanVC for sharing today’s beers!

Pretty clear dark brown beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, falls down quickly. Aroma: some ripe banana, cloves, star anise, some liquorice, coffee touch, sweet malts, cow fodder. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: oxidized, malty, grains, lots of white raisins, some dried figs, a little bitter, good roast, hint of coffee, spicy, some black liquorice, sugary, caramel, cloves, alcohol, meh.