19 April 2025. GBV 2012 Vintage Proeverij Hof Ten Dormaal @ Dracuna. Cheers to the whole crew!

Tobacco, leather, cured ham, peat, charred wood, dried fruits, apothecary. Sweetish prune & fig; smoky tobacco, toast. Earthy hops, smoked meat, warming peated whisky-like alcohol. Oily texture. Quite intense still, nice, and the best of the bunch.

Bottle. Pours dark brown. Off white head. Nose and taste of dark fruit, oak, vanilla, whiskey, peat, yeast and cocoa. Medium body. Finishes with a bit of dark fruit and vanilla with whiskey.

Yellowish head, fast gone over fully hazy darker red-brown beer. Phenolic, tarry nose, Islay jumping out of the glass; coffee cookies. Milder flavour with liquorice, wet pinewood, tarred poles, but surprisingly sweet overall. Medium bodied, alcoholheat, very slick, very carbonated feel. As expected, dark beer suits itself better to this kind of experiment than blond. But if I see what Menno and Kees manage with Ardbeg barrels...

Bottle sample @ 18de Kerstbierfestival, Essen 2012. Cuivre, col fin ebige. Arôme est définitivement tourbe et Ardbeg perce bien. Comparée avec la DDVDK Ardberg, la HTD à la prestance de mettre ce dernier bien en avant sans que cela soit trop mais risquant tout de même de rebuté ceux n’étant pas habitué à ce Single Malt. Palais est tourbe presque de cendre le tout gardant une certaine douceur. Je note très peu d’influence du boisé et au final l’Ardbeg domine le reste du malt qui peine à laisser qcq notes de cara-sucré. Série est agréable mais s’use rapidement car au final, on n’a aucunes bières qui sort vraiment du lot avec cette impression d’avoir bu qcq chose d’exceptionnel.

75 cl. bottle sampled @ 18th Christmasbeer festival in Essen. Unlike some of the others of the second series, I haven’t tried the blond counterpart of this one. I have explained mixed feelings about aging beers on Islay whisky barrels before, whilst I adore Ardbeg like many others as a distillery & find their work genius, I do think that the barrels are far to strong to age beer on them. Sometimes brewers can make it work but often the beer is destroyed in the same, you get something “original” but it is always the same scorched peat flavour variation. A rare exception that does come to mind is for instance La Trappe Oak Aged #8. This beers pour a dark amber amber with no head, dark but far from as dark as #10 & #11 were, quite amber. Smell is lots of medicinal peat, very medicinal, like an open cabinet & little else. Taste is sweet medicinal peat blended with some malts, lightly mineral, bitter clay, some herbs. Lightly sticky body. Okay, not bad – soft of to be expected though but not too scorched.

Sampled at OBER Kerstbierfestival 2012. Dark orange to brown color, virtually no head. Smell and taste malts, lots of ardbeg whisky and alcohol. Sharp finish.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Hof Ten Dormaal Barrel-aged Project (Dark Ale): No. 12 Ardbeg Whisky (by Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5

15/XII/12 - 75cl bottle @ Kerstbierenfestival (Essen) - BB: n/a (2012-1369) Thanks to the Belgian/Dutch ratebeer crew for sharing our beers!

Clear red brown beer, small aery off-white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: oh, it's peated all right! Smoky, yeasty, dusty, bit sweet, some caramel. MF: lots of carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter start, some caramel, sugary, peated, smoky, earthy character. Aftertaste: more smoke, peat, some caramel, bit sweet, dry, woody.