4.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5

Sampled at Borefts Pre-Tasting 2019. Dark brown to black color, medium to full sized beige head, kind of creamy even. Looks nice. Aroma is malts, something weird I can't put my finger on. Flavor is malts, dark malts, malt bitter, but also a slight tart hint. I don't know. Carbonation is way too heavy for my liking as well. Not a fan of this at all tbh.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Another beer delivered from Belgium, I am pleased to have a taste. Vanilla Orange Quad it says on the label, interesting. I have the 33 cl bottle opened and going into my ABGB glass. The pour is a an amber-brown followed by a quickly receding eggshell brown head, decent carbonation however. The smell is all right, ripe fruit and biscuit. Oh now, the taste is a jump up from there. Figs, orange peel perhaps, cane syrup, wheat bread and cough drop. Curious. It has a nice burn, very full in the mouth. Why am I thinking of malt liquor? Better than expected, different for a quad, I would like to find this again.

7.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Keg at the Rusty Bucket, Eltham. Gold pour with a white head. Orange barley,tangerine,guava aroma. Lots of bittersweet fruit (mainly citrus) in the taste. Quite a tongue tingler. Very nice.

7.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

The smoked porter in Siphon's 'noble gas' series, a series of remarkable and unlikely collaborations, each one between Siphon and two other breweries one would often not associate with each other (or with Siphon, for that matter). This one was crecoated together with Galway Bay in Ireland (which makes sense considering Siphon's brewer is an Irishman) and the Dochter van de Korenaar in the Belgian enclave of Baarle-Hertog in the Netherlands. Thick and foamy, deep mocha-beige, dense and creamy, membrane-lacing, stable head on an initially clear black beer with bright ruby red hue, visible when held before a bright light source. Quite strong aroma of bitter black chocolate, smoked mackerel, the smokiness even hinting at bonfire and burnt cardboard, black coffee of two days old, toasted walnuts, dry brown bread, leather, bayleaf, dried porcini and even slight (dry) forest floor, muddy puddles and hot cobblestones first touched by rain, mocha ice cream, nutmeg, old straw. Cleanish-fruity onset, hints of red apple, fresh fig and elderberries, dim but still quite clear sourish undercurrent from the roasted grains, sweetish core surrounded by an umami edge (beef stock, dried porcini), all relatively gently carbonated, though exhibiting a lot of stone-like mineral effects as well as a subtle blood-like iron aspect. Rounded, slick, lean, oily body, toasted-walnutty and black-chocolatey maltiness with a coffeeish roasty bitter, even somewhat ashy finish - yet this roasted bitterness is balanced against an equally strong smokiness, very clear Rauchmalz effects (smoked mackerel, bacon) adding complexity and depth. A peppery, leafy hop bitter note helps to push the balance back to bitterness in the end, but an inherent soft-caramelly core in the malt bill provides a softening effect, with even a subtle sweet-chocolatey tone popping up after swallowing. Bayleaf-, wet leather- and salmiak-like aspects trail behind retronasally, while a blood-like flavour lingers on the back of the tongue, all adding some complexity and versatility. The old Alaskan Smoked Porter theme revisited, with a somewhat more fruity character and a slightly 'wilder', yeastier edge in comparison with the famous original - this one arguably has more to say, in a sense... Should age interestingly, maybe I should buy a few more bottles for that purpose. I would not say this is so 'subtly' smoked as the description above reads but admittedly there aren't enough truly 'Rauchmalz-y' smoked beers around at least to my taste; at the same time it's a very good porter as well, like Alaskan's original of this concept. Very well done, only one of the six noble gas beers let me down (Radon, see there) but this one ups the ante again and makes for a lovely closure of the series at least in the order in which I had them. Too bad there aren't any others left to explore now!

5.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

7

Well balanced... As always with Siphon beers. Really nice.

6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5