Bottle. Color: Clear brownish red, brownish pink head. Aroma: Cherry, dark malt. Taste: Tart and sweet cherries, some other fruit like blackberry, blueberry and citrus. Dark malt, hints of chocolate. Boozy hints. Fizzy, just above average carbonation. Just over medium body. Moderate tart, light to moderate sweet and some light bitterness. Surprising and quite nice one in the Indulgence serie. Just a little too much cherry for me personally.

This year’s Indulgence, the tenth in the series, is quite an interesting one, explained by the brewery as a blend of a dark ale (I assume the regular Gouden Carolus Classic) with an ‘oud bruin’ apparently coming from Verhaeghe (Vichtenaar?), macerated with cherries. Medium thick, membrane-lacing, frothy, off-pinkish head on a deep dark burgundy, clear robe with fiery ruby red glow when held under bright light. Aroma of candied cherries and cherry chocolates (“Mon Chéri” springs to mind), maracuja, caramel, brown bread dough, hints of marzipan and even vague cuberdon, ruby port, Kirsch, some wet toast, dried apricot, unsweetened redcurrant jam, baked banana, maraschino cherries, fruit yoghurt and clay. Fruity onset alright, sweet and tart at the same time with the expected (sweet maraschino) cherries but also effects of blackberry, passionfruit and red apple, fizzily carbonated with rounded, slick body; full caramelly, smoothly brown-bready malt core (supplemented with sugars) remaining soaked in this sweet-sour, red-fruity cherry effect, even acting slightly lemony at the edges of the tongue every now and then, gradually warmed by maraschino liqueur-like alcohol, with lots of lingering ripe black and red fruit effects as well as a brief, supporting bitterish toasty element. A bit puzzling: I was expecting an old school ‘oud bruin op krieken’ of sorts, like Rodenbach Alexander or Verhaeghe’s own Echte Kriek, but there is more going on here: this is clearly sweeter, with more residual sugariness coming from whatever source – in fact this one seems to draw heavily from that annoying ‘rouge’ hype of often strong(ish), artificially sweetened red ‘candy’ beers. If this is Anker’s answer to that hype by involving the old tradition of ‘bruine’ kriek trying to evoke rouge without actually creating one, then I must admit that this is a very clever move, as this beer manages to avoid unpleasant cloyingness and overt simplicity. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a lot in the end. Interesting celebrational brew, but you got to love a certain ‘dessert’ factor in your beer.