330 ml bottle. Pours a thick dark brown with light tan head that dissipates quickly. Aromas of dense chocolate syrup, chalky rum, dry vanilla, and slick roasted malts. Flavors follow same with emphasis on rum plus additional molasses, figs, and a little bit of charred wood. Maybe a little heaven on the rum barrel, but still has some complexity. Good stuff.

One of two beers which were created for Filip 'Hopbelt' Muylle, the driving force behind The Beer Pilgrims, perhaps best known for their yearly trappist festival in Oostvleteren - indeed, the location even more beer lovers associate with the Struise Brouwers, and the Molenhof restaurant which benefited from their success, becoming perhaps more known as a beer café than as a restaurant. Filip sadly said goodbye to life last week on his own terms after a devastating and incurable illness, but nine days before the euthanasia was carried out, went out with a bang - a party of beer lovers gathering at Molenhof and enjoying the two beers brewed in his honour. What a way to go, I am almost inclined to say... This one, created by Bart Van Poucke (a former employee of Struise) at De Meester, is a hefty imperial stout aged in rum barrels. Waferthin, pale yellowish beige, open ring of foam quickly dissolving under influence of the rum, black robe with hazy, thin, mahogany edges. Aroma of pronounced brown rum including that typical 'coconuttiness', oldskool liquorice candy, nougat, caramel, hazelnut coffee, bayleaf, something vaguely peppermint-ish, oak wood (vanillin), whipped cream, ground pecan nuts, cold mulled wine, clove, dried banana, black peppercorns, pipe tobacco, Oxo and Marmite notes but not too dominant. Dense, 'heavy' onset, sweet with impressions of dates, fig syrup and blackberry jam, subtly balanced by the Oxo note providing umami - enough to temper it without fully countering it. Mild carb yet palpable, fit for the intended style, helping to establish a very thick, heavy, multi-layered, oily middle, piling flavours of caramel, some dark chocolate (not overpowering here though), Marmite, pecan nuts and Pumpernickel on top of each other, all bundled into one bittersweet whole; roasted bitterness moves to the foreground in the end, where the rum presents itself very clearly - but less bluntly than I was fearing. As a matter of fact, the finishing phase proceeds in a 'calm', soothing, dense kind of way without that assault of wry, hot alcohol one gets in some other brews of this ABV. The oak wood provides a vanilla-ish effect (though not overly so) and soft tannins, hops support the roasty, coffeeish effect and the initial dark-sugary sweetness remains, all warmed by the rum with its typical coconutty flavour. I have only very rarely been impressed by these De Meester beers, but I must admit that they do excel in this kind of really big, intense and concentrated stouts - even on a level beyond the local reach of West Flanders; this one luckily belongs to that limited but excellent segment of De Meester's output and is a worthy goodbye to Filip, whom I remember as one of the Belgian beer world's most sociable people, even though I met him only twice or so. Nevertheless: cheers to you Filip, this place is probably not the right one for an elaborate tribute but I see the point in having two strong beers brewed for the occasion - even if the occasion is anything but ordinary. If heaven exists, then I am sure I will meet you again there, and we will definitely have a talk about this beer - and perhaps billions of others while we have eternal time anyway...