Bottle. Opaque deep brown to black colour. Lively beige head. Aroma: fruit esters, light solvent, roasted & toasted malts. Medium body. Taste: roast & coffee, caramel, dried fruit, medium bitter finush derived both from roast and alco. Quite different and good.

Flaska från belgiuminabox. IS åt det sötare hållet med mycket choklad. Smakar som en stor belgisk stout med stor sötma och inte så mycket rostade eller kärva smaker. Dessutom karamell, fudge, kaffelikör och lite torkad frukt. Kanske aningen tunn kropp annars riktigt maffig och stilmässigt

Bottle shared at THT July. Very dark brown with beige head. Roasted malts, soft milk chocolate, light tobacco, paper, old wood. Medium sweet and bitter. Over medium bodied. A bit poor for a RIS.

THT July, outside of Kwartje. Black with tan head. Sweet roasted malts. Moderate sweet and bitter. Medium body and soft carbonation.

6 3 7 3 12Bottle shared at THT July. Dark brown with a ring tan head. Aroma of caramel, herbs, yeast, veggies, chocolate and malt. Flavour is above moderate sweet and light moderate bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle shared at the July THT. Very dark brown pour with a tan heah. Notes of perfumey fruit, alcohol, vanilla, rosted malts. Not a good imperial stout.

Bottle at home, Nivala. BBE 9/18. Color is black with small slightly brownish head. Aromas and flavors: Licorice, coffee, some dark chocolate and roasted malts. Quite good.

Apparently never had the regular version of this beer before, so here we go... Moussy, thick, regularly shaped, tanned yellow-beige head, slowly dissolving in the middle but well-retaining on the edges, on a very dark chestnut brown beer, hazy with a reddish mahogany hue, but black in its general appearance. Pretty strong aroma of old bitter chocolate, leather, dried plums, black tea, whisky, banana touch, hazelnut oil, bayleaf, dried thyme, ’grey’ rye bread, liquorish candy, caramel, autumn leaves, dusty dry earth, muesli, pear peel, blackcurrant. Fruity onset, brown sugary sweetness on top of pear- and slight banana-like esters but altogether clean, with a deep sourishness of roasted barley lurking below, blackcurrant and fig notes, very light black olive-like umami accent, medium carbo (a bit on the fizzy side for the style, adding sourishness and prickly minerally ’stings’), thick but ’fluffy’ rather than oily, heavy, filling body. Thick, bit syrupy caramelly and very nutty maltiness in the middle, quickly turning toasted bittersweet and ending in a roasted, vaguely black coffee-like bitterness, supported by spicy, earthy hop bitterness; esters remain at bay (though some banana stays retronasally), quite pronounced clove- and liquorish-like phenols do show up but fit in quite well. Long, bitter, bit earthy ending, very malty, heated by a robust, whisky-like alcohol effect, a tad wry all the way at the back. Toasted malt bitterness lingers. Clean, to the point and technically very correct like all of Nest’s beers and a laudable but still deeply Belgian attempt at an Anglo-Saxon style, which - a few Struise and Alvinne exceptions aside - has still not been completely mastered by Belgian brewers; like the ’Belgian IPA’ concept, which is basically a Belgian compromise between tripel or blond on the one hand and ’real’ new IPA on the other hand, I think it would be worthwile to consider a ’Belgian imperial stout’ concept as well, which could be regarded as a compromise between quadrupel on the one hand and ’real’ imperial stout on the other hand. This is not the first beer for which I think a hybrid categorisation like this could be useful: most Belgian brewers simply seem to stick to their Belgian yeast and quadrupel brewing methods in trying to make a heavy stout, and then this is what you end up with: stout-ish, but overcarbonated, not ’oily’ enough and teeming with Belgian esters and phenols. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, and within that specific hybrid class of ’Belgian style impy’, this one to me is clearly among the best and demonstrates Nest’s skills in finetuning ’the Belgian way’ to the best of its potential.

330 ml. bottle @ home. Purchased @ ALBO. BBF 09.2018. Black to extremely dark brown, nice creamy coffee head. Nose is grainy, coffee beans sour, almost vinous, big BE spices, bark, grainy, faint ashes, almost licorice,... Taste is thin grainy licorice, herbal, spices, grainy, ashes, coffee bean sour, herbal, thin grainy,.... Too much BE qualities, thin grainy with some coffee bean sourness, almost vinous, ashy, licorice,... Not the most impressive BE stout,... Wine BA version was much better, I can see why, this needs some more body, roundness etc.