Bottle picked up from Delhaize Sint-Kruis Brugge, Belgium, and consumed Wednesday 4th December 2024, Rawson Green, Kilburn Derbyshire shared with Dad. First things first I always knew that this was silly expensive for what it is, €19.99 a bottle, secondly I also knew that I would come away thinking that the regular Duvel and the Tripel Hop version would kick this into the long grass and they do. It's not that it's a bad drink, because it isn't, however it's just not really Duvel anymore. The trademark Duvel flavours, so bold and assertive are completely gone to be replaced by what could be any old barrel aged Belgian Golden Ale, it's sweet, there's vanilla, it's warming, smooth, bourbon clearly showing but the Duvel we know and love is lost. Pours clear warm orange gold actually perhaps a little darker with mid sized foamy head. The nose displaying the usual barrel ageing characteristics. It's fine but I am bored and more than a little disappointed, on reflection I should have trusted my instinct and purchased 6-8 Duvel Triple Hops instead, but I just had to try it and this was the cheapest that I had seen it.

It is that time of the year again when Moortgat releases its yearly barrel aged Duvel, now in its ninth year. This 9th edition is referred to as 'Kentucky style bourbon' and uses a combination of 351 bourbon barrels of undisclosed origin (apart from coming from Kentucky), on which the old classic Duvel spent six to seven months. It remains unclear if this one really deviates from the first four batches of 'Duvel B.A.': those were four times the same thing, namely also aged on Kentucky bourbon barrels, for the same amount of time; the difference is that back then (2017, 2018 and 2019 with batches 1 and 2 both in the first year), the bourbon brands were published as being Buffalo Trace and Four Roses. Perhaps this is the same thing (likely in different proportions), or perhaps other brands were used or added; or maybe the brewery does not even know which brand each barrel originally came from? Something worthy of further investigation, but for the time being, I added this new one as a separate entry, which may or may not be aliased to the 'general' (batches 1, 2, 3 and 4) bourbon edition later. Anyway, on to the beer: expensive luxury bottle as usual, crown-capped, from a neat cardboard package - but not including a tasting glass this time. Egg-white, very regular, densely moussey and foamy, crackling head slowly receding over a clear, beautifully deep orange-tinged 'old golden' robe with very fierce, champagne-like sparkling rushing through. Aroma of indeed clear bourbon upfront but somehow less agressive at the second 'sniff' than I was fearing, vanilla from oak wood, apricots soaked in brandy, red apple peel, nougat, ripe pear, some butterscotch, cold margarine, sweet corn, raw biscuit dough, subtle background hints of candied orange peel, glazed carrots, unsalted peanuts, grass, liquorice, horseradish. Sweetish onset, sweeter than ordinary Duvel but in a very clean, slick way and clearly coming from the bourbon, some pear, apricot and red apple notes but not very estery, with a slight sourish edge; lively carbonation but in a very fine-bubbled way, nowhere as coarse and stingy as in regular Duvel (but still a tad more than what I recall from earlier Duvel B.A. batches), very smooth, bit oily mouthfeel, clearly thinned by alcohol because not feeling anywhere close to 11% ABV. Slender pale malt sweetishness acquiring a biscuity edge due to the bourbon and the wood (not because of biscuity malts), remaining very slick and sweetish, with strong retronasal vanilla from the oak - immediately followed by unmistakable, yet somehow 'softish' bourbon, with a sweet corn-like aspect as well as a further confirmation of the vanilla effect. Unsurprisingly, a pronounced warming bourbon effect sits at the back, overruling the floral hops in their background bitterness and eventually becoming quite astringent, hindering drinkability somewhat (though admittedly an 11% ale does not need that much 'drinkability', perhaps). Effects of margarine and vague butterscotch linger in its trail, but the warming, even retronasal spirit-like effect of the booze takes over completely in the end. What initially felt as a rather 'soft' application of bourbon, ultimately became quite pronounced and dominant - a bit like the bourbon in the first four batches, but those are too long ago for me to remember precisely enough for comparison; in any case, this one does fit the rest of the series perfectly, in being notably un-Duvel-like, boozy, warming and still colourful and interesting - though not interesting enough to justify the high price tag. But that is a conclusion I draw every year in this series, I believe...