7/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 6
The new (2017) batch of Broeder Jacob's Lazarus, differing from the previous one in that this time, wood chips soaked in armagnac were used to mature in the beer, whereas the first batch used wood chips soaked in calvados. Otherwise the same beer: a classically Belgian (tripel-based) honey beer, recently released in equally limited quantities as the calvados version. At Just Beer in Kortrijk. Medium thick, creamy, irregularly lacing, dense, egg-white head, lightly hazy, deep peach blonde colour with somewhat khaki-like hue. Aroma of a lot of honey (even honey liqueur or mead), canned peaches, banana, chewing gum, white bread, ginger, candied apple, raspberry jam, pineapple candy, cream, some subtle vanilla-ish oak and indeed even an even more subtle whiff of brandy; some vague background DMS as well. Fruity onset, sweet with a lot of residual sugariness and honey flavour, hints of peach, banana and apricot jam, sourish undercurrent, sharp and numbing, very minerally carbonation; the honey factor, very outspoken in this young sample, weighs heavily on a bready, bit caramelly, soft and very 'round' malt body; leafy hop bitterish touch in the end, vague woody tannins (subtle but noticeable enough and quite elegantly matching with the honey character of the basic beer); the honey, again, strongly lingers retronasally but will probably fade with some proper cellaring. A warming booziness finishes things off - from the beer itself, but indeed accentuated by a subtle brandy-like note, though not necessarily recognizable as armagnac. I guess the differences with the calvados version would only be identifiable in a side by side tasting, but the brewer told me that all the calvados Lazarus has been sold out meanwhile so I'll probably never get that chance. In all, a sweet, accessible Belgian honey tripel with a slight, elegant wood-brandy twist to it, nice enough if you are into sweet, boozy Belgians.
Tried
from Can
on 14 Nov 2017
at 04:41