F: huge, creamy, tanned, good retention. C: black, opaque. A: dark malts, bit citrus, pine, passion fruits, orange, chocolate. T: dark malts, orange, pine, prunes, plastic, chocolate, bit warming alcohol, cocoa, weak tropical fruits, medium body and carbonation, not very hoppy for the style yet beside this not bad, enjoyed, 75cl bottle (bottled 19/11/17, 8,5% on the bottle and in the list from festival) from 5de Winters Bier Festival in Waregem.

F: big, stable, beige. C: dark brown, hazy, opaque. A: dark malts, caramel, bit chocolate, dried fruits, herbal, hint of toffee, dark cherries, cocoa. T: dark malts, chocolate, caramel, herbal, decent bitterness, dry on the palate, bit warming alcohol, dried dark fruits, toffee, nice balanced, herbal bitter finish, full body and medium carbonation, nice one, enjoyed, 37,5cl paper wrapped bottle (bottled 15/10/18) from 5de Winters Bier Festival in Waregem.

Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020

Pours black, creamy, dense, stable mocha head. Smell is intense, 'gappekes'. Taste is very full, roasty, full bodied, heavy burnt, ashy. Gappekes. Not great to me, but that's I suppose a matter of personal taste. Full bodied, and for once, not extremely overcarbonated. Nice beer, but not for me.

28/10/2018 @home - 33cl bottle from a trade with jerre. GUSHER!!! pretty violent at first but slower afterwards. Although poured in the glass very gently, the head kept growing even a mnute afterwards. Sure has a lot of energy! (sorry could'nt resist). Of course huge soapy off-white head, colour dark brown. Nose is malts, pretty roasted, caramel, some coffee. Taste is malts, roasted, some chocolate, caramel, sour touch. Sweeter and more caramel on warming up. Difficult, not really bad but the gushing and sour touch?...

Special version of De Meester's Retrorik, thanks to the brewery for the sample. Pale yellowish beige, thinnish and open, lightly lacing head, misty dark chestnut brown, almost black with burgundy edge. Aroma of brambleberries and passionfruit, treacle, pear syrup, caramel, soggy brown bread. Essentially sugary onset, cloying, pear syrup- and candied date-like sweetness penetrated by a blackberry-like tartness; fizzy carbonation, supple, full mouthfeel, caramelly and somewhat chocolatey, nutty with an effect of sugared soy sauce, while that initial soft sourness continues. Ends sweet and sourish with lingering sugariness and a bready yeasty effect. Apparently the sourness was intentional, but it fails to balance out the overdone basic sweetness of the Retrorik and I honestly would not be surprised if this is just an infected batch of Retrorik they are trying to sell as 'experimental' in view of the popularity of sour beers these days; that said and if this would be the case, I'd say this is quite a happy accident, as the end result is enjoyable apart from the underlying sugary cloyingness. In any case a notably weird beer for sure, like some other De Meester's creations.

De Meester's take on imperial stout, winter beer from a bottle wrapped in paper, at Modeste. Thick and moussy, yellowish beige head, black robe with hazy burgundy edges. Aroma of Belgian chocolates, glue, fondant, brown rum, candied fig, teriyaki, beef broth, coffee liqueur, Rumtopf, walnuts. Sweet onset, condensed candied dates and dried prunes, beef broth-like umami edge, softish fizz, thick and 'greasy' mouthfeel, thick caramelly, toffeeish, nutty malts, chocolatey with a coffeeish roasty bitterish touch in the end before a long, warming and eventually astringent, rum-like booziness with strong solvent-like effect sets in. Way too boozy for its own good, but admittedly better than expected from this brewery. --- Beer merged from original tick of Dark Master - Aged in Bourbon Whisky Cask on 25 Nov 2020 at 11:08 - Score: Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7. Original review text: New bourbon barrel aged version of De Meester’s Dark Master stout, with regular label instead of the paper wrap this time. Mousy, pale greyish beige, thinnish and irregular head, some thin grey ‘veils’ in the middle of a very dark, de facto blackish beer with still translucent burgundy, hazy edges. Aroma of toffee, liquorice and even ‘drop’, whisky, crème au beurre, marmite, bayleaf, clove, dried prunes, salmiak, burnt toast, cigar ashes, thyme, solventy effect (shoe polish). Sweet onset, blackberry coulis and candied dates, ‘krenten’, light umami edges (beef stock-ish) and light sourish undertone, softish carbonation, full and smooth body; toffeeish and slightly chocolatey malt core with toasty edges, initially sweet but turning increasingly bitter towards the end, with a mild but confident coffeeish roastiness; liquorice aspect in the end, along with impressions of bayleaf, cigar ashes and black tea, before a boozy alcohol glow takes over – only vaguely reminiscent of bourbon actually, could have been another liquor as well for all I know. Bit crude and less bourbon-forward than hoped, but still quite an impressive beer for this brewery, I guess they learned a lot from what Brambrass has been doing there… Enjoyable if you are into robust stouts with a quadruple-ish side, but I would have preferred more influence from the wood ageing (especially the woodiness itself, which remains superficial and altogether on the weak side).

New cherry beer by De Meester, bottle at Modeste. Membrane-lacing, bright pale pink, creamy head, misty deep ruby-fuchsia red robe. Aroma of sweet cherry jam and red candy ('poepegatjes', cuberdons), lemonade, blackberry juice, white bread. Sweet onset, red candy sugariness, cherry extract, medium fizz, syrupy middle with ongoing sugary sweetness but a bit less cloying than feared with a bready maltiness with soft caramelly edges and a very thin lemony sourish edge providing some balance. Old school 'candy' kriek the Belgian way, apparently De Meester feels that there is still room for expansion in this particular segment; admittedly there was way worse on the market during the heydays of sweet and simple sugar-fruit beers and this was less repulsive than I was fearing but it still feels out of date and unnecessary in this day and age.

Sampled @ Modeste bierfestival, Antwerp. Dark brown color, average sized off-white to beige head. Aroma is weird: malts, dark malts, hints of paint, but also liquorice, glue. Taste malts, roast, glue, minerals, liquorice, soy sauce, lightly sweetish. Weird. 6-3-6-3-11.

Thanks to Benzai. Sampled draft @ Modeste 2018. Dark brown. Nose is cough syrup, herbal, thin. Taste is weird herbal, grainy cough syrup, bit sour, gravy, strange gravy, cough syrup, thin… Weird, not a big fan.