Imported from my RateBeer account as Hedonis Excuse Me While I Kiss My Stout (2018) (by Hedonis Ambachtsbier):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.9/5

28/IV/18 - shared @ Zythos Bierfestival 2018 (Leuven) - BB: n/a (2018-537) Thanks to the ratebeer crew for sharing today's beers!

Clear deep brown beer, creamy beige head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: nice roast, lots and lots of chocolate, vanilla, sweetish impression. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: sweet start, nice roast, lots of chocolate, caramel. Aftertaste: lots of chocolate, nice roast, bit sweetish, nice stuff.

Tap @ GIST, Bruxelles. Black with a light brown head. Aroma is sweet, roasted malt, chocolate and licorice. Flavor is quite sweet and moderate bitter. Sweet and moderate bitter finish. 120418

pours black, good dark head, seemingly stable. Smell is roasty, burnt. taste is sharp, roasty, burnt, no real notes of any of the adjuncts. Did the maple ferment out? Or did they add too little of them ? I was psyched about this beer, but feel let down by the absence of the adjuncts... Body is agreeably thick, but not as creamy and dense as one might expect from a pastry stout... It's a nice idea, and perhaps it deserves a re-rate... Maybe my bottle was, for some reason, less intense ? can't think of a reason how this'd be possible, but knowing Janos and the good brewer he is, I did expect more here...

This year's version of Hedonis' Kiss My Stout, the third one in the row, inspired by the pastry stout hype: flavoured with maple syrup and hazelnuts, and made with non-fermenting lactose for a creamy mouthfeel. Has been on the market for a couple of weeks, had this from tap at Brouwbar in Ghent. Very thick and frothy, densely creamy, lightly lacing, pale yellow-beige head over a black beer with hazy burgundy edges visible for not more than a few millimeter off the edge. Aroma teems with toffee, fudge, hazelnut paste and milk chocolate, a combo almost reminiscent of the Chocotoff candy that still enjoys popularity in Belgium, with more subtle notes of coffee cream, coffee liqueur, honey-glazed spareribs, black peppercorns, cured meat, bayleaf, toast, rum, cola, some 'natural' iron. Sweet onset, chocolate-coated raisins and candied dates, some apparent maple syrup stickiness but made lighter and pleasant by finely stinging carbonation; thick and - as expected - very creamy mouthfeel due to the lactose, slick, like liquid Nutella paste and Belgian Chocotoff toffee candy, without going over the top. Near the finish, however, a robust, black coffee- and burnt toast-like, even slightly ashy roasted bitterness comes in, balancing the initial sweetness - and being notably more prominent than what you normally find in pastry stouts (think Omnipollo and the like). Long, warming, rum-like alcohol effect and a pinch of peppery hop bitterness further accentuate this end bitterness, while hazelnut and maple syrup remain recognisable as added, colourful accents of sweetness. The first intentional pastry stout in Belgium to my knowledge, this year's Kiss My Stout is a turn into another direction than last year's version, while at the same time remaining firmly connected to it; I particularly like the fact that the desserty sweetness, just before it becomes a bit much, is halted by a firm roasted bitterness in the finish, resulting in what could be considered a 'semi-pastry stout', if you will. Hugely enjoyed this - surely the best Hedonis beer I had so far, a great piece of work, seems these guys continuously keep improving. I'm already looking forward to what they will come up with for 2019...