Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

0.33 l can from 'Sterk Avondverkoop'. Clear, very dark reddish brown to black with a thin, frothy, slowly diminishing, beige head. Sweetish-malty, fairly smoky-medicinal and slightly fruity aroma of lots of peat, iodine, caramel, some raisins and a touch of chocolate. Quite sweet, malty, very smoky-medicinal and a bit fruity taste of massive peat, iodine, caramel, some chocolate and hints of raisins, followed by a long, gently bitter, rather smoky-medicinal, actually quite harsh finish. Medium to full body, slightly oily mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Wow, this is intense and everything but well-balanced, the barrel is totally dominating the base beer (where's the Scotch Ale?) but it has also a lot of character which provides for something really special. I prefer the PX variant by a mile though.