Duvel Barrel Aged - Brasil Rhum Edition
Duvel Moortgat in Breendonk, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Series|
Score
7.27
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This year, Duvel Moortgat is taking its inspiration from across the ocean, with cachaça from Brazil. Because - like rum - it is made from sugar cane, you can think of cachaça as a kind of rum.
No less than 446 selected oak cachaça barrels were transferred to our cellars. Our brewers poured Duvel in them, thoughtfully awaiting the precise flavour development.
After 8 months of intensive maturation, master distiller Cédric Heymans tasted pure magic in the unique, natural fusion of the two flavour profiles: 'The cachaça barrels enrich Duvel with a lively fruit punch, which then expands festively with notes of oak, dried nuts and vanilla. In Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition you will discover both the finesse of our trusted Duvel and the fiery character of cachaça.'
AGED TO PERFECTION ON CACHAÇA BARRELS
Aged to perfection on cachaça barrels
Cachaça is a distillate that, according to the protected designation of origin, can only be distilled in Brazil from cold-pressed sugarcane juice. Thanks to its fresh juice, cachaça manages to retain its vegetal flavour essence. What makes it truly special is its fermentation, which takes place outdoors: this allows the wild yeast cells to provide a full and rich flavour intensification. Moreover, our selected cachaça barrels originate from Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil, one of the world's largest sugar cane producing regions.
To blend the aromas and flavour complexity of the cachaça barrels and the base beer, Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition matures for about 8 months. Cédric: 'The flavour and aftertaste will become rounder thanks to the original alcohol that is still present in the soaked oak barrels. This explains the increased alcohol content of 11%.'
At the first taste, we discover a tropical-fruity palate with ripe aromas of vanilla, clove, caramel and toffee. Then, the velvety mouthfeel of marshmallow adds to the harmonious flavour experience.
PARTY AT THE TABLE
Party at the table
Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition is a degustation beer of choice. So make sure you invite your friends, family and loved ones to join the tasting.
Just like with previous editions, we have displayed the roots of this eighth edition in the unique design of each numbered bottle. Apart from Brazil's national tricolour, the playful feathers are our ode to South American party culture. Do you feel the vibes too?
To let you fully experience the fruit of our efforts, we would like to give you some serving and tasting tips. Ideally, Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition should be served at 8°C. Its unique aromas are best appreciated in the specially developed tasting glass, which you will find in each package. Personally, we prefer to sip from a straight glass, while enjoying the combination with cheese, (exotic) fruit and chocolate. Because Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition is all about celebrating life.
Duvel Barrel Aged, The Brasil Rum Edition: 11% ALC - 75 cl - 8 months matured
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Fast gone pale white head over clear copper beer. Sweet, alcoholic nose, with spicy notes, hints of cane sugar, dry autumn leaves. Sweet, with a fine flavour as from rosehips, vanilla, higher alcohols. Bit sticky all the same, medium bodied, alcoholheat and -thinning. Not very carbonated. Definitely sweet, but in a tolerable way. Txs to Stef!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Fles (batch 8) gedeeld door Joep. Geel tot oranjeachtig bier met matig schuim dat snel wegtrekt. Heel licht aroma van mandarijn en hout. Smaak is houtig, fruitig en vanille. Nasmaak is ook fruitig en vanille achtig.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
This year’s edition of barrel aged Duvel, ‘limited’ to more than a hundred thousand bottles (!), made use of cachaça barrels from Brasil – so something very close to rum barrels, as cachaça is a cane sugar distillate and therefore made from the same plant species as regular rum. Bottle from the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren – from a luxury box including, as usual, a glass specifically made for this beer. Off-white, moussy, quite thick and frothy but relatively large-bubbled and gradually breaking head on a clear amber-hued orange blonde robe with fine strings of sparkling here and there. Aroma of obvious cachaça, coconut- and lime-like, vanilla-scenting oak, pineapple, ripe Durondeau pear, biscuit, ripe persimmon, candied orange, hints of cane sugar, clove, lemon zest, apricot jam, white chocolate even – quite exotic, in all, but most of it comes clearly from the liquor added during the process. Sweet and clean onset, red apple, ripe pear, pineapple and persimmon hints with a sourish, lime-like undertone, lively carbonated in a very ‘refined’ way; smooth, slick body, much less ‘full’ than one would expect at this ABV and clearly thinned by the alcohol. Slender pale malt sweetishness with a biscuity edge – the latter coming from wood, not actual biscuit malt; retronasal oak (vanilla) is there, along with a colourful palette of exotic impressions, ranging between coconut, lime zest, white chocolate and even vague liquorice somewhere, along with a clove-like phenolic note and, of course, the actual cachaça, manifesting itself as a strong end booziness, as usual in this series – a booziness drying the back of the mouth (as do tannins from the barrels) and wholly tasting like actual, warming, sweet, exotic cachaça rather than being harshly astringent in a ‘generic’ way. Hop bitterness is almost unnoticeable and the whole does lack body and structure a bit; still, the effect of the cachaça on the Duvel is colourful and surprising, with this edition being even more exotic than the Jamaican rum edition of 2021. Interesting, in all, not even unpleasant and somewhat (beer) cocktail-like, but, as I must conclude every year: not worth its hefty price tag.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
rating overgezet*
Fles geprobeerd met Roelzie. Het is een helder goudgeel bier met een dun wit schuim. Het heeft een aroma van alcohol en rum. De smaak is moutig en rum achtig met een alcohol achtige afdronk. --- Beer merged from original tick of Duvel Barrel Aged (Brasil Rhum) (2023) on 31 Dec 2023 at 21:25 - Score: Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5. Original review text: Fles 03764 gedeeld door Roelzie, geprobeerd met TomvV. Het is een helder oranje kleurig bier met een volle witte schuimkraag. Het heeft een aroma van rum en vanille. De smaak is vol, fruitig, zacht zoet en rum achtig.
