Sweet and hoppy... The way I like my barley wines. I like the Clynelish BA a bit more. Keep up the good work!

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

1 February 2020. At Brugs Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke, Kevin, Niels & Cynthia! Hazy dark brown, lasting, small, frothy, tan head. Aroma of toffee, raisin, cake, fruit liqueur, dried apricot, orange peel. Taste has sweet toffee, apricot & raisin on solid cake-like maltiness, balanced by herbal & woody bitter notes. Lingering dried fruitiness & toffee in the herbal hoppy finish, with warming (but still subtle) woody whisky-like alcohol. Medium to full body, syrupy texture, soft carbonation. Thick, sweet Barley Wine in which the whisky has a supportive role. Looking forward to taste the others.

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

J'ai eu un doute sur le classement de cette Douze en la dégustant. On est en effet beaucoup plus sur un barley wine que sur une quad, avec un réel côté liquoreux et un alcool, bien qu'à 11,5% ne se ressentant absolument pas avec un sucre très et trop présent. Ce sucre donne d'ailleurs une trop grosse lourdeur que l'amertume n'arrive que par touche à casser. L'ensemble manque donc de punch alors même que les arômes sont plaisants. Relativement classiques mais plaisants. En verre, rien de particulier avec une robe bronze, légèrement voilée et sans mousse. Le nez est celui d'un barley wine classique mais agréable : caramel, candy, citron, raisin et avec un alcool aux accents de vodka qui se fait ressentir. Ce dernier s'efface ensuite. L'attaque est relativement fraîche, la fraîcheur étant amenée par une amertume salvatrice cassant la sucrosité. La texture, douce, est également appréciable. Les arômes diffèrent du nez et se portent sur le caramel, candy, le poivre, la coriandre, la poire, la figue, le raisin avec des notes de porto. L'amertume marque le pas en seconde bouche, l'ensemble devenant trop sucrée avec une lourdeur certaine et des papilles saturées en sucre. L’arrière-bouche qui reprend l'attaque donne également une note de fraîcheur mais le final, moyennement long revient sur la lourdeur, sans finesse. On s'ennuie tout de même rapidement.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Brugge Bier Festival, 2nd Feb 2020. Light haze to the golden body, white head. Mild malt content allows the bittering hops a place to play and play they do, this is a dry and fairly bitter IPA. Glad to say that it doesn't have a citrusy leaning!

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

2nd Feb 2020, Brugge Bier Festival. Needed a calming beer inbetween some 'heavy hitters' this seemed a good idea (and it was). Clean and clear golden body, white head gone before I had returned to my table. Crisp, refreshing and neither sweet nor dry, lightly hopped, lightly malted, bog standard Pils in every way.

Bottle from FinestBelgianBeers. Pours a very very dark brown colour with a thin soapy looking beige head. Aromas of dry dark fruits, caramel, alcohol, vinous notes with hints of chocolate and brown bread. Taste has the same notes as the aroma, lots of dark fruits, a touch of molasses, spice and some warming alcohol. Medium to full bodied with a slick slightly oily mouthfeel and a tangy fruity finish. Well balanced. Nice Quad.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

One of the newer Meester brews, apparently intended as a ‘brown’ (not black) IPA… Thick and foamy, yellowish-ecru, membrane-lacing, dense head on a cloudy brown beer with ruddy-bronze hue. Aroma of overripe pear, banana, soggy brown bread, cloves, tea, orange peel, hint of manure, something iron-like, old biscuit, cooked apple, bitter green herbs. Sweet onset, pear, banana, red apple, fizzy and minerally carbonation, a bit stinging; soft bready and caramelly malt base with a toasty bitterish edge and something vaguely metallic somewhere, in the end firmly bittered by a prominent, bitter dry citrus peel- and bitter plant leaf-like hoppiness, a tad wry even, accompanied by lingering spicy phenols, yeasty breadiness and earthy, even somewhat ‘muddy’ aspects. Weird combination of flavour elements: a dirty yeasty earthiness, fruity and malty sweetness, something faintly metallic and then this rooty, uncompromising hop bitterness… All these elements seem to clash a bit with one another, making for an incoherent, rather strange whole, which is better typified as an attempt at some or other hop-forward Belgian dubbel than as any kind of IPA, the general concept of which is clearly not understood here (though admittedly this is getting harder and harder with all those different variants on the general IPA theme that you get these days, perhaps). Drinkable, but not delivering what it promises and clearly feeling rather ‘uneasy’.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

11/I/20 - 33cl bottle @ home, BB: 25/X/21 (2020-26) Thanks to Alengrin for sharing the bottle!

Pretty cloudy red brown beer, big irregular creamy beige head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: bit dirty, malty, caramel, dried fruits, gains, bit spicy, raisins, metallic. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very malty, some ganana, grains, pretty bitter, dry, bit resinous, sugary, caramel notes. Aftertaste: unpleasant, bit chemical, rubbery, sweet and sugary, caramel, unpleasant, bitter finish, pretty wry.