De Dolle Extra Export Stout

Brewed by De Dolle Brouwers
Style: Foreign Stout
Diksmuide, Belgium

Pours a deep, barely transparent sable that is chocolaty brown near the bottom of my glass mug. Head is quite thick, light tan and rather persistent. (The head was HUGE with my first pour!) Aroma is smoky with strong coffee and unsweetened chocolate tones as well as hints of malt, hops and even a touch of fruit. Mouth-filling flavor is like fine roast coffee with citrus and nutty hints and touches of unsweetened chocolate and caramel, simply lip-smacking. Texture is thick, smooth and fizzy. A winner!

Chunky dark brown with a creamy tan head. My first impression was it was a bit odd to jot down yeast as the first noticed aroma in a stout. Complex and interesting, this was a nice experiment. Aromas of yeast, chocolate, licorice, molasses and dark fruit. Taste of chocolate, alcohol, roasted malt, dark fruits, raisons, alcohol and some candy sugar. Full creamy mouth feel with a mild dry finish and a alcohol bite. Perhaps a bit too boozy, but overall an interesting mix. My 1400th RB rating.

Bottle, poured into snifter. Dark black, brown edge, bubbles and foams up like it thinks it’s a coca-cola and wants to overflow. Nose is soft coffee, toffee, chocolate and biscuity. Flavor is most suprising! A sharp fizzy bitter malt bite hits the tongue as if to say, "I dare you to keep drinking me". Definitely espresso and a rough hint of licorice. Almost a fizzy ’cola’ backing to the palate. A very odd taste, and interesting to say the least. It would have to grow on me, and I don’t know if it will get the chance to. (as if I were predicting the future, shortly after I finished this rating the second half of my glass found itself leaping from my glass towards the unsuspecting carpet below, I have no idea how this even happened, and now I guess this beer will indeed never get the chance to grow on me, in fact I am quite pissed at the carpet stain it has left behind)

THOUGHTS: Incredible. It was somewhere between a Baltic porter and a foreign stout with some sour ale thrown in for fun. One of the longest lasting heads I’ve ever seen on a beer. I was very surprised by how sour it was. A very nice beer, but it would be even better if it were slightly less sour. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brown that was opaque black in the glass with a large to huge, thick foamy, tan head that very slowly diminished, keeping almost the whole thing and leaving fair lacing. The aroma was a little weak but very nice. There was moderate milk chocolate and cocoa, and lighter roasted and coffee malts, light to moderate yeast, a little sour fruit, a little tobacco and slight licorice. The initial flavor was sweet, sour, and slightly bitter; while the finish was fairly sweet, rather sour and a little bitter with and average to long duration. There was roasted malt, cocoa, milk chocolate, sour coffee, sour fruit, yeast, a little chocolate syrup, and a little licorice. The sourness decreased a little near the end. The medium to full body was creamy then very dry with rather fizzy carbonation and a heavy to harsh astringent and light alcoholic finish.

Very dark brown black with a lovely caramel coloured head. Aroma is malts, alcohol and a little spice. Flavour coffee and chocolate which really grew the longer it was around, abv is noticeable but not always a bad thing. Quite tasty indeed for a belgian stout. Good work.

Bouteille de 330 ml, acheté à Bauer Wine and Spirits à Boston le 8 juillet 2009. Noire pure, bon collet. Arome de café noire malté très torrifié, des notes subtile de cacao. Le goût et pas mal la même chose, mais un peu plus sucré, finission de café amère. Ça raproche pas mal à l’impérial, mais c’est une bière très vivace dans la bouche avec un côté de douceur!

Ottima, stout ruvida e aggressiva che regala momenti di stordimento sensoriale nell’assalto di caffè amaro che coglie ad ogni sorso impreparati.

330 ml bottle. Black. Beige head that clings to the glass. Clear. Roasted aroma with hints of raisin. Intense sourish roasted malt flavours. Feels very thin. Sharp and unbalanced. A lot of sharp alcohol notes. Not good at all. Feels oxidized as well and there is a lot of acetaldehyde. Terrible. Tasted at 9C. I’m sure it was a lot better when I tried it 10 years ago.