Bush Prestige (Scaldis Prestige)

Brewed by Dubuisson
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Pipaix, Belgium

Sample at the Belgian tasting at Blacklick Wine & Spirits on 1/28/10. Pours a cloudy amber/brown with a thick beige head. Malty nose with dark fruits (raisin), syrup and a hint of oak. Malty and sugary flavor with hints of dark fruit, oak and funk before a sweet finish. Okay, but I’m not in love with it and so glad I didn’t need to drop $45 to try it.

Glad I finally got to try this ridiculously priced beer after seeing it on the Rose & Crown chalkboard for about a year, marked up to roughly the price of a small house. Pours a cloudy amber-brown color with a medium-sized yellowish head, and chunks. Sorry, but chunks just don’t do it for me. This isn’t a bowl of Chunky Monkey, it’s a beer. Aroma is fairly vinous and sweet, with notes of port and cognac, oak, vanilla, and Belgian yeast. Flavor is very fruity and sweet. Red wine, port, cognac, sweet cherries, apples, raisins, oak, and vanilla. Yeast also has a noticeable presence. It is fairly complex, but not quite as awesome as all these flavors might make it sound. Medium body with medium-high carbonation, fairly smooth from the -bal aging. Overall though, not quite as good as the price would lead me to want it to be. If I were a magician, the "prestige" of my magic trick would be throwing this beer in the "bush." Just kidding, but it did underwhelm me a bit. Glad I didn’t pay for it myself.

0.75 l bottle from Systembolaget, cellared 16 months. Slightly hazy amber color. Sweet vinous aroma with oak, vanilla and tart alcohol. Sweet oaky and dessert wine like flavor with toffee, berries and white wine. This tastes foremost of oak, overoaked for sure.

Shared from a bottle purchased like a G at Papago by dakine -- thanks, man! Pours golden in color with a trim off-white head. Smells of almonds, honey, oak, and tart grape skins. Has a dry champagne quality on the palate. Tastes of dates, brown sugar, yeast, muscat grapes, and further almond. Very nice.

Slight hazy cognac coloured beer with small white- yellowish foam. Aroma is warming, smooth and complex. Taste is barley wine like, malty with hints if honey, pepper and cognac. a wonderful and very tasty beer.

Bottle. Murky brown colour with an off-white head. Aroma is apple, alcohol, fruit. Flavour is sweet, malt, apple, alcohol, fruit. Full body. Powerful beer.

Bottle, 75cl corked, from trade with jbrus. It looks quite nice in the glass, with it’s unclear, orange-golden body and small, creamy off-white head. Some micro-floaties too. Estery, fruity nose with calvados and sweetish malts. Apple juice and calvados in the flavor, alcohol and some higher alcohols, but not in a bad way. Really complex, with some sourish, astringent elements. Full-bodied and warming. A quite lovely beer, but maybe a bit too much. There’s also some strange apple-like flavors, but overall it’s a pretty nice one. 090828

Very mouthwarming due to alcohol. Nothing much in flavors other than dried apple, vanilla and tannines. Nice to have tasted but not to repeat. Expensive aswell.