Abbaye des Rocs Speciale Noel

Brewed by Brasserie de l’Abbaye des Rocs
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Montignies-sur-Roc, Belgium

Bottle shared with Hogtown Harry, Blankboy, GregClow, and Garthicus, courtesy of Harry. Dark brown, small white head. Caramel aroma, some alcohol, light spices - nice. Good taste - more caramel and malt, alcohol, rather sweet and spicy. Very good yet surprisingly very drinkable as well at this alcohol percentage.

Bottle. Pours a hazy deep amber with a large creamy off-white head that lasted. Heavy complex toasted caremel and allspice aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Moderate sweet spice flavor with a long finish. Good winter brew.

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.

Beer with a huge uncontroled head. Beer is clear and reddish brown but had an enormous amount of undissolved yeast floating around my glass. The aroma is initially very mild and sweet, has vinous notes with toffee and oak appearences. Flavour is oaky and spicy, with a well balanced alcoholic warmth.

Bottle at home on Christmas Eve. A deep murky brown pour with a healthy white Belgian head on top. Aroma of festive spices, dark fruit and malts. Tastes of dark fruit, raisins, Christmas cake, really sweet, caramel, hint of coffee. A really delicious Belgian Christmas beer, I could relax in a corner by a real log fire and drink this all evening.

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.

Deep red/brown color with some haze. Head is a thick and columinous light tan but diminishes relatively quickly. Aroma is slightly astringent and spicy. Taste is sweetened malts, with alcohol, rich spiciness, dark fruits, cocoa, and vanilla. Body is velvety smooth with a slight alcohol burn. Finishes spicy with rich sweetness comprised of chocolate, caramel, sweetened malts, and followed up with slight alcohol. Really nice one.

[Tasted at Carlsens.] Sweet aroma and flavor. Notes of banana, butterscotch and bubblegum. Very much a sweet beer.