Slow gushing to just off-white head over fully hazy yellow beer. Bit of asafoetida, leafy vegetables (fresh spinach?), hints at citrus & diary. Light point of smokiness, cigarette ash, overlying mild citrus/citruspeel and mild (hoppy) bitterness. Spritzy feel, bit oily texture, medium bodied at best. OK, if nothing special. Thanks to Stef!

Pours jet black, with a big to very big, very darkly tanned head. Very creamy, pillowy at first, but than fades away relatively fast. Scent is very raw, green, yeasty. Ashy notes, not nearly as smooth and dense as I like these type of beer. In the mouth, the beer presents itself fullbodied, but overcarbonated ( for the style it's very overcarbed, as an average beer i'd say it's mildly overcarbed to Normal ( BE normal) . Not a buttery , sweet cocoa taste, which is fully in line with the actual chocolates by Coup De Chocolat, from whom Cabardouche used the cocoa. The cocoa notes in the beer are very intertwined with the roastyness of the malts. It presents a fine bitterness, again very blended in with the beer. Hard to say if anyone (or me, for that matter) would say it's got added cocoa to it when sampled blindly. The beer really blends in all the factors very, very well. On a personal level, I like my Imperial Stouts (expecially with 'chocolate' ) a lot sweeter, even more thick, and most of all less carbed. So I can't say this is a newfound favorite of mine. However, of their own-brewed batches of beer, this is by far the best one so far by cabardouche.

Dark beige head over virtually black beer. Almost dried coffeegrist, intense coffee and hints @ black chocolate. In the taste much more chocolate, intense black one. Coffee is more in retreat here, though still present. Chicory, chicory coffee addition. Chewy, viscous, full bodied and pretty dry despite some restsugars. Pretty severe stout - but good! At last again a stout as stout ought to be! Thanks to Stef

Gushing to towering, amberish tinted head over copperish amber beer, veiled. Head remains very dense and stable. Caramel malts, parsley, intense malts but also weedy hops; Bretts only appearing after some time. Drier in flavour, slightly roasted and caramel malts. Finish is empty, not only in feel, but also flavourwise. Again only hints at Bretts. Quite slick, bit sticky, medium bodied, lively carbonated. Not without merits, not without fails. IMHO, this might well turn out to be a beer that would seriously better with ( a lot of) laying down and aging. Thanks to Stef!

Pours relatively clear at first, but I poured the bottom as well, making it quite cloudy. between blonde and amber. medium sized, medium stable white head. Scent is quite heavy. Funk (not like brett, not even what i'm used to in honey, than again there's so many different honeys ) As well as a big malty base. BE yeast profile ( or at least very alike ) giving fruity esthers (banana) as well as some phenols ( milder peppery notes ). Taste is medium intense (medium body, medium high carbo), full maltyness. BE yeast profile, taking away any doubts that might have been left. feels a bit rough, perhaps a bit yeaststress. not problematic, but an imperfection nevertheless. Mild bitterness. Honey doesn't add a recognizable profile here, but does make the totallity a bit more interesting than what it would have been without the addition. Blindly, i'd just call it a BE blond / tripel. Alcohol is very well hidden, this drinks like a 7 % beer.

Pours an oxidized brownish dark amber. medium white head forms very bubbly, soapy lookin'. I had a pretty low fill in most of their recent beers, and suspect this has something to do with the oxidized color ( when I compare with other pictures, this is far darker ) . Also, my bottle didn't gush ( some apparently did ) . Scent is sharp, sulphuric. Taste is off too, sulphur, mineral, medium bitterness, fairly malty base. bit sweet. Hints of tropical fruits ( pineapple) but the totallity doesn't add up at all. High carbonation. There's something good in this base, but it's overpowered by the overcarbonation and sulphuric notes, as well as a lack of hops for this type of beer.

Pours very dark brownamber. unclear. Big white head. Bottle was a low fill (which seems to happen a lot at their microbrewery ) so perhaps oxidation is in play when it comes to the looks here. Scent is raw, intense hops. mild malts & yeast, very raw ( and I don't mean DMS, i mean as in not smooth ) . Taste is very bitter indeed. Green, grassy, dank, raw, tea-like. Watery base, high carbo. Little malts ( mild aroma, but no body) . Fermentation profile is overpowered by the bitterness. Pretty 'easy' , as there is no balance or complexity, really. But that doesnt take away it's not a bad drink. Bitter, very bitter, and little to nothing else though.

A flashback to the start of the Escort Deluxe series apparently, described by the brewer as a creamy caramel stout... I have fond memories of this Antwerp series and so, to support the great city at the Schelde which is now experiencing a serious resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic, very well then. Frothy, quite thick, very mousy, yellowish beige, uneven-bubbled head slowly breaking and opening over an initially only very lightly hazed, dark bronze-blackish beer with ruby red glow. Aroma of no other of the previous Escort Deluxe editions: black cherries, raisins soaked in brown rum, candied dates and a lot of them, brown-sugared quince jelly, ruby port, toffee, chewing gum, 'kriekenjenever', molten caramel, elderberry syrup, vague notes of liquorice, sweet cicely, Belgian chocolates, anise, peppermint leaves, bay leaf somewhere very faraway. Syrupy onset, sweet with lots of dark sugariness, a tad sticky even but not quite, as a well-positioned streak of soft, yet still colourfully black cherry- and brambleberry-like sourishness sets in quickly; no discernible umami effects, just sweet ripe black cherries and brambleberries continuing, in a medium carbonated, full, thinly syrupy environment. Inherent caramelly-toffeeish maltiness with a milk-chocolatey edge, but remaining slick and a bit bubblegummy, without ever developing that thick, dark oiliness that typifies a modern imperial stout; hardly any roasted bitterness, too, just a vague and superficial touch of toasted malts, but the treacle- and toffee-like flavours persist. In the end, a very 'kriekenjenever'- and ruby port-like effect dominates, reminding me a bit of the liqueur-containing, chocolate-coated sweet cherries my grandmother loved. A herbal, tea-ish hop note is noticeable, but alas, it does not nearly provide enough bitterness to bring some complexity to this altogether 'kriekenjenever'- and port-like brew; the alcohol does give a warming feeling and even becomes very slightly astringent in the end, but I would never have given this beer a 13% ABV if I hadn't known. Lots of cherry candy- and port-like sweetness lingers, highlighted by the alcohol, with some distant sweat-, tea- and liquorice-like impressions. Caramelly sweetness is obvious, but even in that respect it lacks oiliness. The fact that a lot of red colour passes through here could have been a warning; this is not a true imperial stout, this is an overly sweetened, dark-end quadrupel, dramatically lacking in bittering balance, depth and complexity. I thought some of the previous Escort Deluxe editions were great, but this one, though demanding, is too sweet and port-like for me personally to enjoy. Where are the layers of roasted nuttiness and coffee bitterness? Granted, imperial stouts have become significantly sweeter over the years due to their popularity, but this is so sweet and simplistically caramelly that it remains stuck in the Belgo-Dutch quadrupel idiom, even at 13% ABV. Even for a 'liquid praline', which was seemingly the intention, this needs more layers of flavour; thick, but more from sugary sweetness and alcohol than anything else. Something of a low point in this series for me, I hate 'kriekenjenever' and that is exactly what this beer constantly reminded me of - sorry guys!