Good, dense light-yellowish head over hazy orange-golden beer; rings of lace. Fusel-laden nose, Be "hot" yeast, orangepeel, orange liqueur, lending a much higher ABV impression than real. Sweet-orange, but yet a dry finish. Yeast features dominating. Feels better bodied, slicker than its 5% ABV. Not bad, but it ain't a beer I'd ask a second round. 6/4/6/4/13

Bottle. Deep golden color dense white head with good retention and lacing. Aroma has a light edge of booze. Taste is sweet vinous caramel.

Cabardouche, a beer company in Antwerp, has been releasing specialty beers under the Escort Deluxe name for three years in a row now; each year we get a totally different beer, and in 2017, we were treated with a pear-flavoured barleywine, of which not one but two versions were released: the basic ("naked") version with pale label and this whisky barrel aged version, with dark label. The whisky in question is Belgian Owl, one of the first - if not the first - Belgian ones, distilled in the Haspengouw region since 2004. Steini bottle from Kevin's Beer Shop in Kontich. Irregularly membrane-lacing, fairly thick, egg-white head with good yet incomplete closure, but remaining proportionally stable over an initially cristal clear, pure and bright amberish-tinged orange blonde beer, becoming misty and deeper amberish orange with sediment. Quite strong aroma of indeed pronounced (unpeated, almost Oban-like) whisky, a bit too pronounced for me personally, deeply penetrating the basic qualities of the "naked" version in impressions of ripe banana, pear compote, sweetbread, honey, light caramel candy, gari, vague lemon curd, powder sugar, faint vanilla (doubtlessly the oak from the Belgian Owl), hints of floor polish, calvados, young sweet sherry, canned apricots, yellow raisins, margarine, bubblegum. Sweet onset, some 'bubblegummy' banana ester as in the "naked" one, 'deeper' hints of ripe pear (even overripe Doyenné de Comice - don't know which pear variety has been added but my bet is on this one), ripe pineapple and dito peach, with an underlying, soft yellow plum and apple sourishness; the sweetness clearly prevails though, to the point of even becoming a tad cloying. Carbonation is softish but still outspoken for anything barleywine; full, rounded, almost vinous mouthfeel. Full caramelly malt sweet core with a fine layer of honeyish residual (white candi) sweetness on top, soft bready edges, vague minerally side notes. Ends in a lot of booziness; the delicate vanilla-tinged properties of the oak rise up retronasally, a dash of late earthy hops provide structurally essential bitterness but gently so, banana ester and caramelly malt sweetness linger but everything becomes increasingly drenched in a clear, unpeated single malt whisky flavour, adding not just the actual flavour of the whisky to the finish in a rather intrusive manner, but also its alcoholic heat, pepperiness and astringency - a bit much so to my personal liking. I have argued here before that a concept of "Belgian barleywine" is more or less conceivable and that "naked" version belongs there, but this means little more than somewhat darker tinged and higher ABV variations on the ubiquitous tripel theme - and that is exactly the case here as well. This is a sweet, very strong and in this case pear juice-enhanced tripel drenched in whisky, too much so for its own good; I personally think aging this one on a white wine barrel rather than a whisky barrel would have been a better option, and if this had to be Belgian, take Genoels-Elderen, Aldeneyck or whatever, most Belgian wine producers (though there aren't many of them) have a Chardonnay or sometimes even a Pinot Gris in their range. In this form, the whisky really is much too present for me; I was hoping for this one to be a step forward compared with the regular 2017 Escort Deluxe, but my hopes are a bit shattered because of this whisky dominance. One of those cases where barrel aging was not such a good idea compared with the basic beer - so even if this is an interesting sipper, I'm afraid I have to give it a lower rating than the highly enjoyable "naked" version. Still, this beer company made a - to me - highly successful buckthorn Gose for this brand in 2016, so I am left very, very curious about what 2018 will bring...

Last year's edition of Escort Deluxe, the luxury beers Cabardouche changes every year, steini bottle from The Beer Shop. Belgian barleywine "with pear", label does not state the "naked" specification and this doesn't seem all too necessary to add either, as the barrel aged variant - which I have waiting in my cellar - explicitly mention the barrels and has a different coloured label. Anyway, this "naked" one shows a tightly membranously lacing, medium thick, creamy, dense, largely stable, egg-white head and initially cristal clear, warm amberish orange blonde robe, turning misty and deeper amber, if not coppery, with sediment. Aroma of fried pear and pear brandy indeed, embedded in impressions of freshly baked white bread, nectarine, banana, soap, straw, dried apple peel, orange zest, old 'jenever', vaguer hints of cigarette tobacco, fried tomato, cumin seed, wet cloth, white pepper, old dried ginger roots and - alas - a faint but unmistakable whiff of DMS (extensively cooked, sulfuric cauliflower) which, as is too often the case in Belgian ales, decreases the enjoyment. Sweet, fruity onset, pear-like I suppose but not too explicitly so, flanked with banana-, apricot- and green apple-like notes, very dimly sourish around the edges, well-carbonated but still with a resinous, vinous mouthfeel. Smooth caramelly malt sweet basis, very lightly bready and honeyish due to residual sugars, but with a very soft and mild toasty bitterish accent as well. Ends primarily sweet, a tad cloying even, but at the same time dried by a strong, heating, calvados- or (autosuggestion at work) Poire William-like alcohol effect, a bit spirit-like even, yet somehow managing to refrain from unpleasant wryness; white wine-, peach- and phenolic clove-like flavours add a certain amount of complexity, as does a late but undeniable, rooty, spicy, even a bit wormwood-like hop bitter accent which tenaciously clings to the root of the tongue after swallowing. Something very thinly metallic seems to linger as well. The pear (juice, I suppose) adds subtle sweetness and aroma, sure, but if an Anglo-Saxon (or in this case: English) style barleywine was the aim, I don't think it was a very useful addition and keeps it a bit too "Belgian". I suspect a Belgian yeast strain was used too, seen the estery and phenolic aspects of this beer, which, and I love to place beers into stylistic perspective, makes this qualify as an old school Belgian style barleywine. The term itself has hardly (if at all) been used by Belgian brewers in the traditional sense even in its Dutch translation 'gerstewijn', but things like Bush Ambrée or Stille Nacht (and their respective variants) do qualify for me as a kind of old school Belgian interpretation of English style barleywine, even if both these beers evolved independently from each other and share no common ancestor. This one fits neatly into that category - but style issues aside, this is a highly profiled Belgian luxury beer for sure, just too bad for the DMS, although in this case it remains so limited that even I, being highly sensitive to this substance, am not bothered by it too much. Very boozy, sweet and 'amplified tripel'-like, not entirely the thick yet clean vinous sipping ale I expect when I see 'barleywine' on a label, but a Belgian of relatively high class for sure. Looking forward to try the barrel aged variant, if this has been done right, something really remarkable may come out of it...

The first Belgian Gose, released in 2016 and immediately a 'modern' one with fruit, buckthorn berries to be precise... Far from evident in Belgium, even nowadays. Bottle from Kevin Devos' Beer Shop. Thick and frothy, lightly lacing, egg-white, moussy head, slowly showing gaps in the middle but very well-retaining otherwise; lightly hazy, warm peach-tinged 'old gold' robe. Aroma of pink grapefruit and sourish pomelo flesh, stewed rhubarb, sourdough, Sauerkraut, old bread crust, a vivid, sour apple-like fruitiness mixed with a dried herb aspect which together must represent the buckthorn berries, dried apricots, a salty cheese-like accent, fresh piccalilly somewhere, dusty old coriander seed, hints of caramel candy, withering lettuce, cooked cauliflower, gin and margarine; some very slight, onsetting oxidation is noticeable as it warms up, but anything but bothersome. Crisp, vivid onset, peach and pineapple sweetness but stronger in bright, juicy, citrusy and redcurrant-like sourness, a mixture of buckthorn berry acidity (and astringency) with drying lactic tartness, but relatively softly so; as can be expected from anything labelled as a Gose, a soft, pleasant, 'salted raw vegetable'-like saltiness sits on the sides of the tongue, adding complexity. Carbonation is spritzy and minerally, but not overly sharp, fit for this style; rounded, supple, even little bit creamy mouthfeel. Cleanly bread crust- and lightly caramel-like malt body, sweetish in its nature but dried by the sourness, leading to a juicy, dry, quenching finish in which everything comes together in a balanced, elegant and, in all, fairly gentle way: the buckthorn berry astringency, the malt breadiness and a deep, very vague but structurally important hop bitterish echo, all highlighted by a mild and gentle glow of warming, gin-like alcohol - this is, after all, an 8% ABV beer. Some wheat and coriander soapiness as well, but in a refined, subtle manner. Basically a Belgian tripel turned into something hip and different by adding salt and buckthorn berries, though these ingredients are nowhere mentioned on the label; in any case this is an altogether different brew than the average Belgian consumer is used to, I must admit that I love this brewery's bold approach. Technically well executed by Anders as well, making for an idiosyncratic, pleasant, well-balanced and multi-sided ale - which, with a certain amount of imagination, can indeed provoke images of the seaside in late summer, as is suggested on the label. I especially appreciate the balance that has been sought and found between sour, sweet and salty, with a pinch of mild bitterishness to it. Nice surprise, glad I ticked this one.

33 cl bottle. Pours clear and golden orange. Small white head. Aroma is mild fruity and phenolic. Toasted malt mild sweet. Fruity. Mild phnolic. Toasted malt. Light sweet and slight fruity finish.

Bottle before the release @ Beerlovers bar. Pours similar to the base , just as well as the smell and taste. i'll more describe the differences in both here. It has def. got more 'almonds', bit more sweetness as wel, more towards the caramel. Not as bitter as the regular one. Mild notes of the oak. Works better than the base for me.

Bottle before the release @ Beerlovers Bar. Pours a bit amber, small white head. Smell is medium malty, thick sweetness, breadcrust, very caramelly. Decent bitterness. Taste is medium-high bitterness. Very caramelly, complex malts, lasting bitterness, as well as some caramel. Nice Barleywine.