Vignale (8447) reviewed Trappist Ale from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Flaska från SB. Skummar kraftigt ur flaskan, bärnstensfärgad med ett stort skum som lägger sig relativt snabbt. Doft av torkad frukt, honung, jäst, hö och lite kryddor. Söt smakbild men relativt lägg kropp och en lätt örtig beska gör att den inte blir så tung eller kvalmig. Den skulle nog kunna kallas tunn men jag tycker det funkar bra då smakerna är väl tilltagna. Kryddig beska möter söt fruktighet. Söta äpplen, aprikos, torkade päron, honung. Trevlig. Man känner släktskapet med trappisterna i Belgien. Liknar en Rochefort 6 om man skall nämna någon.
Sebletitje (15913) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle sample @ RBBWG 2016, thanks Erwin. BB 2017. Plaisante surprise que ce stout impérial venu directement des US. Ce qui surprend au premier abord c’est le fait qu’il faille oublier son habitude de RIS version US pour arriver sur un style versant, en grande partie grâce à la levure, dans une approche bien plus belge. De ce fait cette bière prend plus une inspiration de quadruple revisitée que de RIS au sens vaste du style américain. La couleur oscille entre un brun et acajou avec un col léger crémeux beige. Arôme reste essentiellement basée sur des esters de levure belge qui apporte une petite note banane qui tranche très bien avec les effluves de fruits noirs, malt caramel, pâle. Palais n’est pas en reste et garde également son côté belge de par la levure, retrouve un malté correcte chocolaté, légèrement grillé et où le caractère Westmalle ressort bien dans l’ajout ester modéré. Fruité noir en retrait avec un petit sucre résiduel qui offre une impression de bouche plus proche d’une quadruple.
Zlotta (10012) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
0.75 l bottle at RBBWG 2016 in Antwerpen. Clear, very dark red to black with a thin, frothy, tan head. Sweetish-malty, minimally fruity aroma of dark chocolate, some coffee, dark ripe fruits and some caramel. Sweetish-malty, slightly roasty, minimally spicy taste of dark chocolate, some licorice, dark ripe fruits and some caramel, followed by a short, slightly roasty-bitter, spicy finish. Medium body, slightly creamy to oily mouthfeel. Tasty, but rather one-dimensional. Expected way more.
Tinus (5082) reviewed Trappist Ale from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Gusher. Slightly hazy warm golden colour, white head. Malty aroma, yeast. Malty flavour, light sweet. Spicy finish. Meh.
(from 33cL bottle shared @ Cat’s place)
77ships (14509) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Thank you for sharing Erwin! 750 ml. bottle sampled @ RBBWG V. Black with a very solid creamy mocha head. Nose is heavy on powdery herbal licorice, powdery malts, cacao. Taste is very herbal, powdery herbal with licorice, roots, tad boozy, wine leaves, bitter herbal roast,.. Almost lively carbonation, very dry, powdery. Very different from what you would expect from an American USA, this one seems be more Belgian in style than anything else, dry, easy to drink, strongly herbal, bitter with licorice & wine leaves. By far their best beer, interesting & not bad even if it isn’t wat it advertises to be.
Lilja (4691) reviewed Trappist Ale from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Flaska från SB. Smak och doft av humle, malt, aprikos, örter, jäst med toner av ljus torkad frukt. Lagom sötma, fin beska med god kryddighet.
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Spencer Trappist Imperial Stout (by Spencer Brewery):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.7/5
20/II/16 - 75cl bottle bought at Rotsaert (Zedelgem) @ RBBWG V (Ben's place) - BB: n/a (there's some number in the BB-square on the label, but they sure don't make up any kind of date format (2016-204) Thanks to Erwin for paying for and sharing the bottle! ;-)
Clear dark brown to black beer, creamy beige head, pretty solid, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: green banana, yeasty, soapy touch, some chocolate. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: pretty bitter, soft roast, bit yeasty, metallic, chocolate, hoppy. Aftertaste: hoppy, metallic touch, caramel, fruity, bread, mocha, some coffee, dark chocolate, bit herbal, banana peel, pretty roasted, bit vegetal, malty. Wondering if they're still using the Westmalle yeast for this one as well... Ker-tching! Third Spencer beer in a row for which I'm the first European rater! :p Now to get that IPA...
Benzai (24654) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Sampled from bottle @ Ratebeer Belgian Winter Gathering 2016. Opaque dark brown to black color, medum sized off-white to beige head. Aroma is malts, sweetish, toasted malts, brown malts. Taste malts, brown malts, malt bitter. Decent body and medium carbonation.
Nische (5609) reviewed Trappist Ale from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle from Systembolaget. Gusher! Pours hazy orange with frothy off white head that quickly disappears. Aroma of caramel, candied sugar, yeast and dough. Lightly spiced taste with caramel, pear, yeast and light grainy hops. Woody, dry finish. A little bit to sweet for my liking.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Trappist Imperial Stout from Spencer Brewery 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
The newest trappist beer at this moment. The monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey started off in the Belgian ale traditions like all the other trappist breweries including all the new ones, but with this one, they are determined to expand their range into a style which was basically resurrected by the Anglo-Saxon craft beer movement so this one seems to mark a new direction in the world of trappist beers. The future will tell where this will lead to in a few years, but I am willing to bet my last Westvleteren bottles that the next thing Spencer will come up with, will be some form of American style IPA... This ’trappist imperial stout’, the first trappist stout ever, bears a notably creamy, cappuccino-like, thickly lacing, dense, stable, yellowish beige head and shows a black colour only revealing itself to be actually very dark ochre-hued burgundy on the edges. Lovely aroma, but with more dark fruit and less chocolate than expected based on style designation, with still certain Belgian traits but in a noble, restrained kind of way; I get hints of chocolate-covered cherry ’bonbons’, black chocolate bars, lots of toffee, cappuccino and some coffee grounds but subtly so, quite a lot of liquorish, very old raisins, coriander (what is this doing here?), dry brown sugar, roasted peanuts, cinnamon rolls, dried banana, dry tree branches, candied figs, leather, more subdued hints of rosemary, elderberry syrup, cured meat or biltong, cloves, fried egg but also a very faint accent of cooked cabbage. Dense, savory onset, appetizing, with restrained dried and candied fruit sweetness cleverly balanced with a deep, basic, dried berry-like sourishness and an equally restrained umami flavour (dried mushroom, even a hint of soy sauce); carbo remains soft as expected from a decent stout, with a slick, oily, ’full’ but not overly viscous mouthfeel - about the amount of body one can expect from an 8.7% beer. Full-fledged dark malts make up a solid middle phase, caramelly and slightly sweet at first, going through a thoroughly nutty phase and ending with a soft yet tangy edge of roasted - or rather, black chocolate-like bitterness. This wave of bittersweet, dryish, thick malts goes down into the finish, accompanied by a late but notable, peppery, leafy hop bitterness coming afterwards; alcohol, though palpable as a warming glow in the back of the throat, remains well hidden and retronasally, faint hop spiciness and stronger clove-like phenols linger a bit; the candied cherry sweetness from the beginning, however subtle, also keeps hanging around at the back. This is a very solid beer by any means: well crafted and boasting the technical accomplishments one expects from anything bearing the "authentic trappist product" logo (though unfortunately even this is no longer dogmatic fact with all those new trappist beers); the yeast strain has unmistakable Belgian characteristics, albeit fortunately subdued (for this style at least). If a new substyle of ’Belgian imperial stout’ will emerge one day - and I can see that happen with all those new Belgian micro breweries much in the same way as it is safe to speak of ’Belgian IPA’ nowadays - then this beer, though made in the US, will certainly be one of its finest examples. Do not think BCBS, KBS, Hunahpu’s or anything in that league when tasting this: think Belgian trappist at its very best, disguised as a big stout, and then this will surely be much more appreciated. I, for one, enjoyed it very much.