Pours black, no foam. Smell is sweet, coconut, intense. Taste is sweet, coconut, intense, mild boozy touch. Nice

Flavoured imperial stout created this year for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Brasschaat – the town where this brewer is located – from the Nazis, and apparently the starting point of a number of barrel aged versions that will soon see the light of day. This rating concerns the regular version, sampled at Gents Bierfestival (thanks Johan for sharing). Thin, mocha-beige, open, loose and eventually disappearing head on a black beer with hazy mahogany edges. Aroma of ‘Haagse hopjes’, melting toffee, Bounty candy (the coconut), chocolate-coated peanuts, cinnamon, kahlua, chocolate milk, coffee cream, hazelnut paste, nougat. Sweet, candied onset, sugary even and a bit sticky, but with a very light sourish undertone; candied fig, ‘Haagse hopjes’ and bubblegum, medium carbonated, very full, round and oily body. Toffeeish, very chocolatey and peanutty middle, heavy and sticky with a touch of umami somewhere, lightly sourish in the end from roasted grains but never turning roasted bitter; the sweetness seems accentuated by marzipan- and vanilla-like impressions as well as the expected coconut (though nowhere overpowering the way it often does in coconut-flavoured stouts), before a hot alcohol effect warms the throat. The sweetness does stick to the teeth a bit. Quite intense, interesting and unexpected from this company, pastry stout-like, but too sweet for me personally, a bit too boozy as well and a bit crude – it has, however, sparked my interest so I will certainly try and get my hands on the barrel aged versions that are coming up next, according to what the brewer himself told me.