7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Collaboration of De Vierkante Meter (a semi-professional hobby brewery in Schoten near Antwerp) and Bryggja in Western Flanders, apparently ’whisky-infused’ - which quite simply means that a bit of whisky was added at some stage in the production process, very clearly inspired by the first version of Gouden Carolus Indulgence. Creamy, pale beige-ish white, dense head, showing large gaps in the middle seconds after pouring but retaining very well around the edge, over an initially clear, deep and very purely copper coloured beer, in all looking quite attractive. Aroma of butterscotch candy, stewed pear, coriander seed, almonds, candied banana and dito fig, bubblegum, lightly toasted bread, very old rocky brown sugar, white port wine and indeed a very clear whiff of whisky (even vaporizing alcohol), dry earth, apple brandy, hazelnuts, red beetroot, honey, marmelade, nectarine, the frosting on a cupcake, ginger. Sweetish onset, candied fig, banana and some ripe peach perhaps, balanced by an underlying sourish hint of redcurrant, softish carbo, filling body though still feeling thinner than expected for a 9+% beer; very resinous too. This resinous aspect from caramelized malts dominates the middle phase, as in hard butterscotch candy, with hints of hazelnuts and something vaguely toasty; the restrained ’dried fruit’ sweetishness continues well over this but bumps into a whole lot of soapy, spicy coriander towards the end, way too much so for my personal liking, but contributing to the overall resinous, hard candy-ish profile of this beer. Some earthy hop bitterness in the finish along with the flow of caramelly malt sweetness and then, at a point where I was not already expecting it, the whisky, establishing not just a large amount of alcoholic heat which I can physically feel going down in my esophagus, but also this unpleasant, wry feeling on the root of the tongue; this is probably a combination of the beer’s own alcohol (made more apparent by the somewhat thinnish body in relation to its strength) and the whisky having been too generously applied. An actual whisky flavour does linger on top of the butterscotch-like maltiness and the coriander spiciness after swallowing. Not that bad from a mere technical viewpoint: no off-flavours here, well-presented with a label depicting a dressed walrus but looking attractive in the glass as well and clearly aiming at the resiny, candy-ish but well-established (modern) Gouden Carolus style, particularly the 2015 edition of Indulgence. A kind of copycat in that sense, but well executed, though in this case both the coriander spiciness and - especially - the whisky alcohol are applied too intensely for my personal taste. Still, considering other beers I had from both Vierkante Meter and Bryggja, I must admit I did not expect a beer of this level.
Tried
from Can
on 03 Jun 2017
at 10:34