33cl bottle from Struise Beershop Woesten e-shop.
F: medium, tanned, average retention.
C: dark, opaque.
A: rich dark malts, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, dark fruits, plums, caramel.
T: full malty base, rich chocolate, caramel, vanilla, dark dried fruits, cocoa, bit boozy, decent bitterness, low carbonation, good for the style, enjoyed for sure.

Bottle at home shared with Laura. Opaque black color, no head. Aroma is malts, sweetness, light chocolate. Flavor is lightly malts, again more sweet chocolate, lightly though, decently boozy, bourbon, light boozy bitterness in the finish. Not too bad tbh. I don't like the aroma but the flavor isn't actually that bad.

American style barleywine from Antwerp, brewed with six New World hop varieties and clocking in at 14% ABV, unusually potent even for a barleywine. Can shared with Goedele. Off-white, medium thick, tiny-bubbled, moussey head, lacing in dots and opening to dissolving over a clear, warm and deep orange blonde robe with amberish tinge. Aroma of dried orange peel and triple sec (Cointreau), Blue Curaçao, biscuit, marmalade, anise or caraway seed (oddly), rosewater, white pepper, vanilla, ‘diesel’, persimmon, brown rum, violet-based perfume. Clean, ‘candied’ sweet onset, candied orange, golden raisins and marmalade, very light touch of green olive, soft carb with very slick biscuity malt core, surrounded by almondy and slightly toasted bread crust-bitter edges but essentially sweet, softly carbonated; herbal and citric hoppiness, the latter combining with the high alcohol content in this triple sec-like effect (Cointreau). The hops provide a very long, rooty, orange pith-like bitterness too, reinforced by this liqueurish and rum-like booziness. Recognisably U.S. style as a barleywine but with this odd orange peel liqueur-like effect to it as well as even more perfumey (caraway) accents which will probably not be anyone’s cup of tea; along with the boastful alcohol content, which does nevertheless behave relatively decently, this is an interesting and notably daring brew, but whether the flavours and booziness are to your liking or not, there is no denying that it is a technically very well made, original and confident brew. One is enough, though…

Bottle at home. Cloudy orange color, medium sized rough white head. Aroma and flavor are malts, softly yeasty, lightly sweet in the background, decently bitter, lightly herbal but not in a bad way. Quite alright this one.