Bottle from Delhaize. Hazy amber, small, foamy, off-white head. Aroma of golden raisin, fig, brioche, cookie, cinnamon, vanilla, sweet whisky, wet wood. Taste has sweet raisin, fig & pear in a malt body of brioche & brown sugar; some spicy cinnamon & clove in the back. Peppery hops in the finish along with dried fruits, vanilla and boozy sweet whisky-like alcohol. Medium body, syrupy texture, soft carbonation. Boozy but enjoyable. The 'real' Gouden Carolus Infused by Het Anker is still the better example for balance.

Blonde 'barleywine' aged for eight months on casks that previously held Gouden Carolus Single Malt, the local whisky made by Het Anker. Medium thick, pale greyish white, thinning and opening head lacing in shreds on a clear pure orange blonde beer with pale amberish tinge and tiny-bubbled sparkling, turning misty with sediment. Aroma of soggy biscuit, dried peach, Irish whiskey, some vanilla-scenting oak wood, baked banana, Grand Marnier, salted tomato, dired orange peel, stale croissants, hints of stale industrial lager (!), cooked chicken and something oddly pilchard-like. Clean, rounded onset, sweet with elements of dried peach, apricot and cherry tomato, boozy from the start, softishly carbonated; slick biscuity maltiness with light caramelly and toasty edges, along with a top layer of honeyish sweetness. Orange peel and minerals in the end, but also cooked chicken and lots of bourbon- or whiskey-like alcohol; the vanilla effects of the oak barrels remain subdued. Instead, the booze turns increasingly hot, thinning the mouthfeel (which was not too full to begin with) and turning astringent, scorching away the main flavours. Too thin, too simple and insufficiently malty for a barley wine, and adding insult to injury, suffering from overt booziness - for the umpteenth time and with that one notable exception of Mok Master, I still fail to see what others like so much about this Meester brewery, this is once again a beer with high ambitions failing to achieve them...

Magus, linnaseline, karamelline, alkone, viskine. Ok.