2003 draught. Well this weekend certainly made me rethink my ratings. A bells beer to beat batch 6000?? Come on. But it did. Put it to shame. This was awesome. Pure dark brown, with some deep orange tones. Lacing, and a small head that lingered. Smells of vinegar, rich malt, alcohol, raspberries?? definitely some piney hops and some oak. Begins with a big bittersweet malt flavor with the malt and hops being wedded together well. Huge amount of hops comes through in the middle, gets quite grapefruity. The finish was my favorite. Got extremely complex. Red fruits, caramel malt, alcohol soaked in oak, maple, brown sugar, cinnamon and finally a little dose of carbonation. Very full bodied. It’s all there. This one raises the ante on batch 6000. 2003 bottle aged 6 months. Wow, this is definitely as good as I remember. Huge extra full body still. Beer has not calmed down much, huge hops bitterness, stingingly large malt flavor. Needs a long nap still. Oh and the aroma is wonderfully complex with notes of maple, dark fruits, cinnamon, chocolate, alcohol and hops resin, but not quite as full as I would like.2003 bottle aged almost 18 months The vegetables or mint or whatever the leafy, green, herbal-like stuff they brew this with is really starting to show. Still an awesome pour, slight oxidation beginning to show. I think it could be cumin seeds. About 1,000 different things going on in this beer. Full body, very low carbonation, but not syrupy or unbalanced.
1997 bottle consumed 3/19/05 The spice really drives this beer now, with the body being quite oxidized and some thinning as a result. Still, the wonderful malting on this can be felt, even at this age. With much of the sediment out of solution, you can really see the dark raspberry/brown color to the body. Small, beige fizzy head. No alcohol apparency, some sugariness on the finish and plenty of complexity still exists. I find eccentric ale to be one of the most difficult beers to describe. Score reflects sort of a culmination/combination of how I feel about this beer as a whole, taking in to account the different experiences I have had with it.

Pours extremely viscous, nearly "lijmend" (Sacch. viscosus?); disparate foam, yellowish; opaque dark orange-brown. Very vinous nose, rich & complex; woody, blue grapes, slightly coriander, also parsley. Luscious fruit, bitterish taste, spicey and bitter chocolate. Everything which can be good in a beer. Very hoppy-bitterish palate covering malty richness. Fruity as dark plums, preserved oranges, etc. Warming up, the coriander gives some soupy connotations. Viscosity also in the mouthfeel, very thick & syrupy. Long bitterish, spicey aftertaste (black chocolate with nutmeg and coriander). No barley wine could do better than this. love it. Many thanks to J. Mallett from the brewery for bringing this to Belgium!