Sampled at OBER Kerstbierfestival Essen 2011. Pitch black, opaque color, small beige to light brown head. Smell earth, roasty, dark chocolate. Very well balanced. Taste roasty, dark chocolate, lightly coffee and caramel. Again very well balanced! Suitable carbonation, medium to full body. Very nice beer!

25 cl. draft @ Chez Moeder Lambic: Honestly to god I had never heard of either this brewery or this beer before seeing it on the guest tap list – It is a interesting one since save for a handful breweries pretty much no one makes stouts in Belgium, a very slight increase has been noticeable lately & one that has a special hop thing going on at that – It is probably far to early to say that the American craft beer culture is beginning to seep deeper into Belgian brewing culture? – It is dark brown, slight black with a tanned/mocha-kind of head – Smell is surprisingly sweet citrus hops followed by roasted coffee, almost a contradictory combination because you are clearly getting to separate parts but a nice on eat that – Taste is first sweet lemon candy, almost lemon meringue, lots of slightly sweet lemon & citrus hops followed by a brief pause & separately freshly roasted coffee, roasted malts, bitter chocolate, very sharp, bitter, freshly grounded coffee, just quite yet not going into ash territory – Medium roasted malt, stout body – Somewhat contradictory beer but in a very lovely way, tastes a bit like very good homebrew which I kind of suspect this basically is

Updating the rating 03/04/2012, several draft at Delirium, holy hell they have improved the original batches, huge malt moka/cofee nose with nice US hop bouquet coming through. At 4.3%, this is divine. Rest of rating is similar to my previous statement, amazing brew. Draft @ Moeder Lambic, Fontainas. Cheers to ML for making this ltd beer available, and to Sainte Helene for brewing yet another awesome session beer. I hope they continue brewing these small batches of original beers. After the Simcoe Lager this is just another great treat. This is a nice little stout that should be made more widely available in the Belgian stout wasteland. Bire brune claire, col épais beige. Arôme est en premier celui du citra qui laisse là encore toute ces marques et reste un de mes houblons favoris. Note herbacée, malt grillé/cara allant vers le torréfié. En bouche, on reste bien sur une stout, le tout peu par moment rappeler une black IPA, mais dans ce stout, le profile malt est nettement plus en avant. Très légère avec un beau malt à la fois, grillé, caramélisé, qcq note de chocolat pour un fini sec et poudreux de grains Le tout garde en retrait des notes de levure belge et un bel ajout de houblon citra. Ce dernier laissant des notes de fruits tropicaux et conifères tout en gardant un profile ce côté de Goldings qui l’on retrouve dans pas mal de bières belges. Une très belle bière agréable et qui donne vraiment du bon au paysage brassicole belge.