5 May 2024. At De Heeren van Liedekercke. Cheers to Anke’s birthday!

Vintage 1998, so technically this was still a pure Whitbread brew. Best before: 20/2/2000. Hazy dark brown, big, stable, foamy, tan head. Aroma of lots of oxidized raisins, dried fig, prune, ruby port, caramel, old butterscotch, pear syrup, cookie, spices, dusty milk chocolate, old dark furniture, hazelnut. Taste has sweet raisins galore again, prune, fig, pear, all quite oxidized but not in an obnoxious way; smooth malt body of butterscotch, hazelnut, toast and milk chocolate with a herbal edge. Soft herbal hops in the finish, ongoing dried-fruitiness and nuts with a woody character. Medium body, oily texture, flat carbonation. Needless to say it's a peculiar experience to drink a vintage like this but it certainly didn't disappoint. Perhaps my fondness for Scotch Ales has a hand in it as well...