25/XI/22 - 33cl bottle @ Mash of the Titans tasting, Gentse Biervereniging, bottled: 10/II/21, BB: 10/II/24, BM MOTT 006 (2022-1684)

Clear dark amber beer, small creamy bit irregular beige head, unstable, little adhesive. Aroma: sweet impression, caramel, dried fruits, a bit fruity, little oxidized, earthy touch, some almonds, tonka notes on warming up. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: wow, very nice, all tonka beans up front, spicy, cinnamon, some chocolate notes, gingerbread. Aftertaste: dry, bitter, caramel, a little sweet, nice, lots and lots of tonka beans, bitter finish with a hint of chocolate, very nice beer!

Pours clear, dark gold. Small white head. Scent is not that expressive. Taste is quite light, not at at a BW mouthfeel. Roasty, tonka provides a mild aroma - recognizable , but different than what i'm used to. Mouthfeel is far to light though. Not expressivly sweet nor bitter, as you should be able to expect from a BW. Decent, still. But would loved a more true-to-style base.

Atrium’s take on this ‘Brewmance’ barleywine theme, with oats and tonka beans, the latter showing Atrium’s affinity with Brazil so I guess this is their way of making themselves noted among the five other Brewmance beers. Medium thick, pale beige, shred-lacing, eventually dissolving head, hazy dark amber robe, a lightly brownish-tinged bronze that seems darker than the other Brewmances. Aroma of soggy brown bread, ground hazelnuts, walnut oil, indeed ‘amandelspijs’- and even lightly liquorice-like effects from the tonka beans, clove, nougat, wormwood, old dusty nutmeg, hard caramel, muesli. Fruity onset, lightly sweetish, hints of peach and pear with a slight sourish undertone, soft carb, fluffy body; rusk- and bread crust-like malts with a toasty-bitterish edge, hazelnutty accent too linked to the tonka beans with indeed provide a ‘praline’- and marzipan-like retronasal aroma but generally remain rather understated. Warming, brandy-like alcohol and phenolic spicy hints add further colour to the finish. Malt-forward and yeasty, this one too feels like a strong Belgian rather than a true barleywine, with a seemingly more sweetish character than the others in this series; the tonka bean addition does lend it a certain exotic fringe, but it is too weak to do anything truly spectacular – I could have enjoyed a more generous tonka dosage here…