Quercus Alba
AB InBev Belgium (formerly Artois) in Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium 🇧🇪
Stout - Imperial Special|
Score
6.00
|
|
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
20 May 2023. At Leuven Innovation Beer Festival. Shared with the lovely Anke - and eventually with the esteemed colleague Alengrin!
A: hazy dark brown to black, no head.
A: shoe polish, nail varnish, old fondant, wet tobacco, pear, vague fish guts.
T: sweet green apple (acetaldehyde), banana, spoilt fig, diluted dark fudge, shoe polish and paint.
F: vague earthy hops; heating 'pure' alcohol (jenever, 'white spirit' effect even).
P: medium body, thin oily texture, soft carbonation.
Well, this is the beer equivalent of Steve Buscemi's "How do you do, fellow kids?" in 30 Rock. Evidently expectations were low for this, but it's amazing how this brewery could not prove me wrong in the slightest. One would be surprised if they were able to pull off a regular Imperial Stout at least, but alas.
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 4.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Arguably the most unlikely beer at Leuven Innovation Beer Festival 2023, this is apparently an imperial stout of sorts, aged on American oak wood and fermented with some kind of ‘super yeast’ to achieve a whopping 21% ABV – there is hardly any other beer concept I would associate less with AB InBev but here we are, an experiment developed in their laboratory in Leuven by Lode Geerts and his pilot brewery team, working with AB InBev’s GITEC crew (their technological department, so to speak). Apparently this creation was also submitted to the World Beer Awards – and obviously got a gold medal, because everybody knows that these awards are fake, paid for by the brewers and serve commercial purposes only (they mean little to nothing to the educated beer lover, but imagine the impact AB InBev can have on those less ‘in the know’ and still seeking out craft beer – these huge crowds of beer drinkers may even get convinced that AB InBev actually has the creativity and abilities to produce a truly astounding beer). Prejudice aside, let’s try to judge this more objectively than the World Beer Awards – so thanks to nathanvc for sharing! Completely headless pour, clear mahogany brown robe with ochre-ish edges. Aroma of caramel candy, sweet peanuts, low quality whisky, dried banana slices, sugared tea, varnish, tree leaves, something sweaty, overripe pear, fresh paint to even nail polish remover. Oddly dryish onset, dried medlar, dried apple peel, touch baked banana perhaps, vague sourish undertone, no carbonation at all; slick body but unusually thin, in fact severely thinned by the alcohol. A peanutty, brown-bready and dry-caramelly maltiness is burned from the inside out by scorching, moonshine-like alcohol while a notably herbal effect (I assume from hops) makes its appearance in the finish, in a nutmeg-, old tea bag- and even dry autumn leaf-like way, before strong and unpleasant varnish- and other solventy effects burn away the thin flavour that was there. Feels like a brown Leffe diluted with some kind of homemade and absurdly strong Eastern European vodka – but as to ‘wood aged imperial stout’, not even close. AB InBev has apparently followed Moortgat’s example in trying to be hip and creating ‘extreme’ craft beers on a very small-scale, experimental level, but contrary to Moortgat, which produces such ‘pilot beers’ at a very acceptable quality level from time to time (see De Koninck), has no clue what the very ‘substance’ of craft beer really is. One consolation: I was not expecting anything else from this. Says enough about those World Beer Awards, too…