Dutch pastry stout trying to evoke, wait for it, “blueberry cheesecake pancake”, a combination of familiar and delicious flavours indeed. Moussy, thick, yellowish beige, membrane-like lacing, eventually breaking and thinning head on a black beer with wine red edges. Aroma of indeed very obvious blueberry crumble and even blueberry jam (rather than fresh blueberries), toffee, latté macchiato, cola, raisins soaked in rum, glühwein, coffee powder, cashew nut purée, ruby port, chocolate notes. Sweet onset but not sticky – even less sweet than the average pastry stout, which in my book is a good thing; very pronounced, dominating blueberry flavour but again as in blueberry crumble, delivering the sweetness and spiciness of the fruit but not the acidity; a faint blood-like ‘metallic’ edge then accompanies a finely carbonated, oily and slick, toffeeish, caramelly and hazelnutty middle, remaining deeply blueberry crumble- or blueberry-jam-flavoured. Feels thinner than one would expect from a pastry stout of this strength; ‘black’ maltiness nevertheless lurks in the background, even a vague coffee roastedness, but the sweetness does prevail, with the lactose – combined with the chocolate malts – providing a moment of milk chocolate. Blueberry jam and sweet chocolate linger over a caramelly base, warmed by ruby port-like alcohol and very cautiously bittered by a sprinkle of coffee. Utterly blueberry-forward, in all, but in a good way, maintaining a surprisingly high drinkability for this genre, delivering all the flavours it promises and managing to keep them well in balance with each other, which in a pastry stout with multiple flavourings seems notoriously difficult. A seriously good one in this segment, as far as I am concerned.

4th September 2022
Hazy deep brown beer, teeny tiny pale tan head. Smooth but fairly light palate, decent fine minerally carbonation. Smooth dark malts, light but flavoursome, a little creamy sweetness and a touch of dark chocolate. Good rich ripe fruity bourbon with really nice oak barrel induced vanilla and a little super mellow wood..The apricot brandy plays second fiddle but does it as the best supporting musicians do. It's more obvious as the beer warms a little. Whiskey? Yeah I am sure it's in there somewhere but it's a bit lost in the fairly sumptuous bourbon.

Blik gekregen van Tomhendriksen en thuis gedronken. Diep donkerbruin tot zwart bier met weinig beige schuim dat snel weg trekt. Aroma van gebrande mout maar als het iets langer geademd heeft heeft het een vanille aroma. Smaak van vanille, mout en chocolade. Nasmaak van caramel; toffee. Ook een plakkerige mond na het drinken.