Hulstlo Darkspawn
Vliegende Paard Brouwers in Oedelem, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Stout - Imperial Regular|
Score
6.97
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Ode aan metal en craftbier zonder compromissen.
Proef een op en top Beernems bier, gebrouwen bij Vliegende paard brouwers.
Artwork Maarten jonckheere instagram.com/jonckhm
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle from Stacks.Hazy black, small, foamy, beige head. Aroma of coffee liqueur, fondant, espresso, vanilla, vodka, prune, raisin, vague varnish. Taste has sweetish prune & raisin in a dark-chocolatey, toasty malt body with some spicy notes. Earthy hops in the finish, lingering espresso, coffee roast, fondant and warming vodka-like alcohol. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation. Quite good, somewhat on the rough side.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Hulstlo Darkspawn from Vliegende Paard Brouwers 1 year ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Strong coffee stout by this still largely unknown client brewer in Beersel, operating at Vliegende Paard (known for their Préaris brand); 37.5 cl bottle from Stacks. Thick and moussey, dot-like lacing, pale beige head gradually dissipating over a blackish beer with thin copper red edges. Aroma of black chocolate, caramel, soggy brown bread, coffee grounds indeed but no overwhelming or particularly sophisticated coffee profile, old liquorice, roasted walnuts, brandy, subtle notes of beef broth, wet limestone, forest floor, Antwerp ‘borstbollen’, dried prunes, damp earth and coffee cream (the coffee indeed returning somewhat). Restrainedly sweet onset, prunes and old raisins with a faint beef broth-like umami touch, moderately carbonated with full mouthfeel (though not as oily as I prefer it to be in this genre); toasted brown-bready, hard-caramelly, slightly old-hazelnutty and Ersatz-chocolatey malt layers then fill the mouth, nowhere too sweet and nicely rounded, with a leafy hop bitter dosage in its trail along with a yeasty, almost ‘Belgian’ earthiness and phenolic accents. The coffee provides a deep roasty bitter layer, but it remains altogether quite soft and subtle, while gin-like alcohol warms everything in the end. Needs less earthiness, more focus and more subtlety, but also more coffee for what it intends to be; typically postmodern Belgian attempt at these prestigious Anglo-Saxon flavoured stouts of nowadays, in all, but only few Belgian breweries have proven to be really good at that (BramBrass, Galea and Zwarte Bron being a few of the more recent examples) and this one remains stuck in too much yeasty ‘Belgianness’, if you get my drift. Nonetheless, I did enjoy it for what it is, it does pack quite a bit of flavour and power and I must honestly admit that I was expecting something of a lesser quality than what I got – so not a bad start at all, everything considered, but open to improvement.