Licht troebel lichtgeel bier met veel schuim wat redelijk lang blijft staan. Smaak is bitterzoet met wat citrus, mandarijn en hop. Heel fijn zomerbier.

5th September 2026
Pretty much a clear dark amber brown beer, small tan head. Light palate, semi dry, good fine minerally carbonation. For an Impy, this has thin bodied dark malts. Furthermore, the dark malts taste a little watery. Mild dark chocolate and malt cream - wishy washy. Some roast bitterness, perhaps some coffee. Ripe plummy fruits on the back end. Not ticking many of my boxes. Not awful at all but, I just don't understand why the brewer thinks I would want to drink much of this. Much being a 330.

Flesje thuis gedronken.
Goudgeel licht troebel bier met mooie schuimkraag.
Aroma is moutig.
Smaak is zoetzuur en moutig.
Nasmaak is zurig en hoppig.

Bruin bier met weinig schuim. Smaak is krachtig warm en sterk met veel alcohol, port en druiven. Is helaas voor mij iets te sterk in alcohol om echt goed te zijn.

The first one in a new series ("Basement Jack", no doubt referring to the British dj duo Basement Jaxx) of barrel aged beers - more precisely Schuppenboer Maxima, a ridiculously strong tripel (or Belgian barleywine if you will) of which several barrel aged versions were already made five-odd years ago including a calvados barrel version - so I really wonder what the difference with this one is... I think none, to be frank, especially considering the exact same but oddly specific ABV - the admins will surely decide to merge both entries into one. Thinnish but regular and stable, snow white, tiny-bubbled head leaving a thin yet creamy ring and flat 'islands' in the middle of a hazy peach blonde robe with 'burnt orange' (brownish) glow. Aroma of very dominant calvados booze, Grand Marnier, banana, peach 'jenever', ripe pear, brioche, honey, clove, nail polish solvents, candyfloss, almond, vanillin from oak wood, caramel sauce, wet cloth, oxidized blonde beer (in a 'rusty' and honeyish way but also a bit sherry-like). Sweet onset, honeyish white sugars draped over impressions of ripe pear, ripe banana and ripe pineapple, not overly sticky but still - with sparkling effervescence bringing some relief from not only this heavy sugariness, but also the heavy booziness, already apparent at this stage. Brioche- and slightly biscuit-like malt middle under this heavy load of residual sugars, while the calvados, already knocking at the door early on, breaks in and takes over - but not completely: its brandy-like sweet-alcoholic booziness with recognisable apple effect is surely dominant from the middle onwards, still some of the beer's basic features manage to pierce through and withstand the alcohol, including the banana ester, brioche-like malt sweetness and even a touch of softly bitterish floral hops. Retronasally, the oxidation of the basic beer gets the last word, in all its aspects: honey-like as in an aged witbier, but also more sherry-like as in a very old barleywine. Perhaps this 'aged' aspect is what distinguishes this reprisal from its original form: I had to look up my rating of the latter, but found no associations with oxidation nor a mention of it being aged on the barrels for as much as three years - so I guess this was just the younger batch of the very same thing. If that is the case, then it has indeed improved a bit at least aromatically, gaining a level of complexity there, but it still remains an exaggeratedly boozy, sweet, liqueurish kind of 'super tripel'. I really disliked the basic beer, found it to be slightly improved when aged in calvados barrels later on and now find it to be very slightly improved again just by further ageing, but still this whole concoction feels tiring, crude and needlessly boastful. Too alcoholic for me to enjoy even when slowly sipped - but I still blame the basic beer, which in my opinion is a monstrosity of harsh roughness, abominable sweetness and unnecessary booziness. This one is just a notch or two above that. Then again, and in overthinking all my experiences with barrel ageing tripels, maybe a wine barrel version would prove more enjoyable, and I noticed that there is apparently a Loupiac version in this series already - maybe I need to find that one.

Troebel ietwat lichtbruin bier met weinig schuim. De krachtige rum geur zegt genoeg. Smaak is krachtig warm, licht bitterzoet en sterk, met overduidelijk de rum die wat mij betreft te veel overheerst. Dit had wat subtieler gemoeten denk ik. Jammer, maar als je niets probeert zal je nooit succes hebben zullen we maar zeggen.

Flesje gedronken na afloop van Brew @ the Zoo.
Bleek-Geel licht troebel bier, flink schuimend tijdens inschenken.
Aroma van hop en licht fruitig.
Smaak is hoppig.
Nasmaak is bitter.