Fruit punch aroma, strawberry and cherry, maybe pineapple. Clear pink, thick pink head. Tart cherry, raspberry. Biscuit finish. Light body, easy carbonation.

Like The Bruery has done for many years in their fabulous Melange series, other craft brewers sometimes throw 'leftovers' of matching beers together - so I stumbled upon this fancy bottle with tinfoil around the neck, arty front label and informative back label with all the details, a bottle of an unusual 600 ml volume (more or less) from a brewery in Maine I hadn't heard of before, even if it has apparently been active for five years now. This blend consists half of imperial stout with cocoa nibs and half of barleywine with peanuts (the latter itself is a rare concept for as far as I know). Some gushing upon opening, but manageable and being prepared for it, I managed to pour the first glass without a drop getting lost. Deep (almost reddish) mocha-beige, mousy, small-bubbled, lightly lacing ring for a head with a few patches in the middle, over a generally black beer with misty reddish-brown mahogany edge. Quite intense and distinct aroma of bitter black chocolate, shoe polish, soy sauce or even Indonesian fish sauce, peanut butter, toffee, bayleaf, wodka, dry clay, wet leather, fresh paint, moist nutmeg, brownie batter, very old candied dates, rubbed limestone, overripe figs, very vague manure somewhere in the background, glue. Sweet, candied onset, old candied dates and old raisins, surrounded by a very pronounced umami effect of reduced gravy, teriyaki and soy sauce 'tout court', quite fizzily carbonated for this kind of beer; hot alcohol stings are noticeable early on so we're in for a ride here, I'm afraid. Very thick and full, oily-edged maltiness in the middle, multi-layered with layers of toffee, bitter black chocolate, toasted brown bread and coffee cake, with the peanut element from the participating barleywine indeed still noticeable, quite obviously so even. A kind of olive oil-like effect accompanies this maltiness, and so does the background bitterness of the cocoa nibs; towards the end, this mass of malts becomes ever more ponderous, impairing drinkability considerably, especially when it gets heated by a pronounced, stinging and somewhat wry, bourbon-like alcohol effect, which dominates the finishing stage. Peppery hop bitterness appears but in a slightly 'muted' kind of way, while strong solvents return retronasally and the heavy umami factor lingers alongside a quite cumbersome malt bittersweetness; bayleaf-, leather- and black pepper-like impressions are there too, but eventually the booze basically takes over all other flavours and horns in on the whole flavour profile, a bit too much so for my personal liking. Complex it is, this He Got Barleywine In My Stout (try to order this in a loud and crowded pub - see what you get), but it is also very 'American' in trying to be as big and overwhelming as possible - and that is where things take a wrong direction: this is way too 'loud' and showy, lacking in refinement, with the alcohol taking over sooner than it should. I have no idea what both basic beers taste like, maybe two rights make one wrong in this case, but for me, this is quite a crude, blunt and over-intensive blend - I will probably not buy another of their beers here in Europe, this bottle was just too expensive for what it contains. It is about time young brewers focus more on depth and quality than on easy scoring with the geeks, as several prominent brewers in the Low Countries have formally and publicly stated lately. But that is another story, and I will rate this in its own American context. Bottom line: enjoyable if you're after an intense beer and do not care too much about refinement, but crude and harsh, not even remotely close to Bruery's Melanges and the like. I'm not sure I want to find out what either of the two constituent beers tastes like...

Pounder: Tart cherry nose. Crystal clear amber, thick head. Lemon, bread crust. Light body, easy carbonation.

Tap at the Beer Temple, Amsterdam. Poured a clear dark brown colour with a thin broken tan head. The aroma is roasty malt, light liqourice, charcoal, oaky, boozy alcohol. The flavour is liqourice bitter, with a big boozy alcohol bitter palate. Full bodied with flat carbonation. There are hazelnuts in here? Really? Big, boozy and very one dimensional. Quite disappointing.

On tap at BeerTemple - Amsterdam, pours black with a medium brown head. Aroma brings out heavy coffee, oats, plenty of bourbon, and a little booze. Flavour is quite heavy on the coffee upfront, with initial sweetness that is cut down immediately by the oats; the bourbon then kicks in and rounds it off. Its body is not all that complex, but the flavours complement each other. Solid stuff.

On tap at Beer Temple - Amsterdam, pours black with a small brown head. Aroma is crazily intense on essence of hazelnuts, with shitloads of bourbon, perfume, and booze. Flavour is pretty hot, with intensely boozy bourbon, hazelnuts, perfume, and more booze. Very messy and lacking integration. Needs reworking.