Poured from a 330 ml bottle, vintage 2022. Aroma is full of roast, dark chocolate and dark caramel. Some burnt sugar and molasses as well. Light anise notes. Medium light alcohol notes. Pours jet black with a large, thick, dark mocha head that recedes slowly to a small, creamy film that lingers. Light lacing and fairly long legs. Flavor is somewhat sweet with lots of bitter bakers chocolate, roast, burnt sugar, dark caramel and treacle. Fairly high bitterness and medium low alcohol warmth. Light anise notes. Hints of ash, leather and tobacco. Mouthfeel is full bodied with medium carbonation. Low astringency and medium low alcohol warmth. Overall, a really nice Belgian imperial stout. Solid chocolate notes with roast, burnt sugar, molasses and caramel. Fairly bitter to balance the sugar. Really nice mouthfeel.from.a Belgian stout.

Imperial stout produced by Struise, pioneers of global or US-style craft brewing in Belgium, for their 22nd birthday last year (brewing since 2001 indeed but reaching an audience only several years later), bottle from Drinks4U in Deinze west of Ghent. It has been quite some years since I had a new Struise beer, so I was looking forward to this one. Thick and dense, creamy, regular, mocha-beige, tiny-bubbled, membrane-lacing head sitting firmly on a pitch black beer with thin copper-red edges. Intense bouquet of toffee, caramel or coffee liqueur, raisin bread, ground hazelnuts, armagnac, cold cappuccino, bayleaf, marmite, onion jam, dried blackberries, mocha ice cream, whisky, vague hints of cinnamon, olive oil, rubber, eraser. Concentrated onset, densely sweet, candied pear, haemoglobin, espresso, blackberry coulis, medlar and candied fig, with a faint sourish undertone enhanced by softly prickling carbonation; utterly full, oily to even somewhat syrupy mouthfeel. The mouth cavity is swiftly filled with layers of toffee-, walnut paste-, bitter chocolate- and marmite-like dark malts, heavy on the tongue and 'spiced' with peppery, whisky-like alcohol as well as peppery, leafy hops, the first element much stronger than the first, burning through his unctuous, almost gum-like, smooth deep caramelliness and chocolateyness - with a prominent coffee-like roasty bitterness coming in soon and filling the rest of the palate, including even a coffee aroma that lingers retronasally. Hints of not just espresso but bayleaf, black pepper, very faint dried eucalyptus leaf, vanilla and rosemary adorn this finish further. Utterly heavy-bodied, demanding and boozy stout, actually coming quite close to what I remember from Black Albert and its pedigree in the days when Struise were actually on top of the world. Cheers to Urbain, Carlo and the rest of the crew, for still continuing this impressive operation after so many years - this beer, though a bit too intensely boozy for me (I feel a - cheap - whisky burn going down my throat with every sip), certainly conveys the audacity and power with which you rocked the Belgian brewing in a time when it could use a boost more than many other brewing countries. Typical Struise 'muscle-flexing', but I have seen birthday beers from breweries pass by with far less force and personality than this one. One to sip slowly, whilst pondering the impact Struise made on craft brewing in Belgium and abroad. Better than present-day Black Albert or Cuvée Delphine, but not as good as those two were in their heydays, which I will remember vividly for as long as I live. Happy birthday, in any case!

Bottle @home. Nera, densa, impenetrabile, schiuma colore cappuccino medio-leggera, non molto persistente. Al naso intense note tostate, di caffè, liquirizia, cioccolato, etilica. In bocca è dolce all'attacco con amaro in chiusura piuttosto lungo e persistente, molto etilica, legno. Corpo pieno, carbonazione medio-leggera. Molto interessante, ma l'etilico a mio avviso è un po' eccessivo.

Almost black beer with a tan head. Aroma of very strong dark roasted malt, liquorice, ash. Taste of strong roasted dark malt, chocolate, coffee, liquorice.

Cremig malziger Beginn. Dunkles Getreide, geringfügig alkoholisch, was sich aber schnell ändert, so ist der Alkohol im Mittelteil deutlich erkennbar. Dennoch überraschend süffig, geringfügig röstig, einige Aromen werden vom Alkohol überdeckt. Mittellanger Abgang. 10/8/7/8/6/8

Poured from 330mL bottle (bottled 26/04/23). Near black with small tan head. Roast malt, a bit of fruitiness, feint hops, decent.

330mL bottle, pours jet black with a small brown head. Aroma is full of sludgy roasted malt, some earthiness, and plenty of wood. Flavour is very hoppy and roasty, with plenty of roasted malt, gentle earthiness, some tepid wood, and plenty of hops to balance. Very roasty, wood, hoppy finish. Very European in impie stout style. Very good.