Abbaye des Rocs Speciale Noel

Pours a massive, fizzy head with good retention. Big powerful bouquet charged with ripe, porty notes, a touch of scotch, shows good complexity. Replays faithfully in the mouth. Dark malty notes and some alcohol heat drive the palate. More scotch notes add to the interest levels. Actually shows some surprising restraint on the finish, and never gets cloys or gets overwhelmed with the alcohol. (3.8pts) 2000 Bottling (e3.0 @ Kulminator) - Chocolate brown in colour with a thin creamy head. Sweet malts and chocolate on the nose; shows good intensity. Roast and more chocolate to taste. A reasonably high level of fizz but the chocolate and malt flavours stay in tact. Very vibrant for a 6yr old and must have at least 5 years ahead of it.

Dark coppery color, big yellow head. Spicy, sweet, licorice and yeasty, rich aroma. Medium to full bodied. Flavor is rich too: starts with fruity tones, ends with spicy and slightly licorice notes, spices and citrus last in aftertaste. Mild alcohol comes up in the end.

Malty spiritus aroma. Dark brown colour with excellent head. Spiritus malt flavour. Smooth palate.

Great beer.Dark brown colour.Very sweet like a gum.Great after taste.Stays in your mouth longer.Great beer,Great taste.

Very spicy nose for this copper special from Des Rocs, with a hint of acidity pointing away. Contaminated??? Oh no... Full body, nutty and very malty, with a slight acidity that made me fear the worst, but finally came into balance here. Kind of a belgian barley wine with spices! Enjoyable, altough I prefer their regular Abbaye des Rocs.

bottled. thanks ecz. that a des rocs aroma is always a delight, lots of earthy spices - cummin and coriander with some brandy cream. paler than regular a des rocs, very smooth, ginger and cloves and marzipan

yummy yummy yes yes yes what an aroma - marzipan, cointreau, pain d’épices, gingerbread, or that sweet dark dutch rye bread.... rich malty/bready palate gradually drying up in a lonngggg finish with grains of paradise, lemonpeel, and coating the sides of your mouth with cointreau and fairyfloss and panettone....this beer is my friend.

Keg @ Akkurat, Stockholm Backlog 16 Dec 2004
A refreshing winter beer. Very complex. Raisins and hard toffe initially. Develops into red currant and raspberries. A very nice mix.