Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Friday. Clear reddish colour, small white lacing. Aroma and Taste of tart red berries, apples, brett.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Friday. Clear golden yellow beer with a white head. Aroma and Taste of dry grassy and citrusy hops, spices, herbs. Long bitter finish.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Friday. Black beer with a tan head. Aroma and Taste of sweet strong dark malt, blueberries, vanilla.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Saturday. Slightly hazy golden beer with a white lacing. Aroma and Taste of sour apples, brett, tropical fruits, lime.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Saturday. Clear orange golden beer. Aroma and Taste of red fruits, cactus, cucumber, refreshing.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Saturday. Black colour, no head. Aroma and Taste of sweet strong dark chocolate malt, cacao powder, cocoa nibs.

Mexican dark barleywine made from a huge number of different malts, cooked for an extraordinary long time and resulting in an over-averagely strong ale. Pale yellow-beige, moussy head, slowly diminishing over a near black beer with dark chestnut brown shades. Aroma of caramel, almond paste, cognac, candied cherries, rum, moist toast, walnut liqueur, barbecue sauce, dried up tomato concentrate, fudge. Sweet, syrupy onset, light umami piercing through a dried fig- and medlar-like fruitiness, hints of strawberry and ripe pear here and there; soft carb, evidently very thick mouthfeel, syrupy and oily; malty layers of hazelnut, toast, caramel, brown bread and toffee fill the mouth, carrying considerable residual sweetness until a toasty malt and peppery hop bitter combo reacts, unable to counter the overall stickiness of this concoction. Obviously very boozy, rum-tinged finish, but oddly not as harshly alcoholic as I was fearing. A technical ‘tour de force’ – what a way to make yourself stand out on a craft beer festival like Billie’s, surrounded by more familiar names (and craft beer countries)… Muscle-flexing for sure, but they pulled it off, more or less, even if one small tasting glass is enough.

Pours clear, peachy orange. Scent is full, pear, pleasant wild fermentation profile. Very lambic like, even. Complex and unique. Taste is sharp, cactus fruits up front medium tartness. Pleasant funk, quite nice, but the aroma is the main greatness here.