Achilles Serafijn Donker

33cl, from De Hopduvel Gent, complex brew, yet easy to drink, hazy, rocky head, good brew

A dark amber to brown ale with a thick luscious light moka head. A nice caramel, dark fruit, and light fudge aroma, very pleasing. In mouth, tingly caramel malt with licorice, nuts, warming alcohol, and light coriander and other spices. Lingering spices in mouth. Medium bodied for the style. For some reasons, diminishes the funkiness of the Pere Joseph cheese sampled with the beer.

A hazy brown colored beer, with a nice beige head. A malty aroma, with tones of nutes and dark caramel. The taste is little bitter, more caramel sweet, with touches of fruits, like raisins. Also some spicey, a little coriander. A very nice beer.

In short: An unconventional ferrous aggressive crunchy-sweet but dry Belgian Ale of some kind. Surprisingly drinkable.
How: Bottle, 330ml, about 6 months old
The look: Partly cloudy dark amber body with a small tan head
In long: Malt profile reminding me of a dry crunchy sugar pie (pretty much the opposite of smooth round caramel). Something about this beer (spices? Other?) feels very ferrous/metallic. There are plenty of dry woody hops in there. The hopping is not particularly flavourful or bitter but it does dry out the beer a lot. Finish mixes dry tree bark, minerals and metal/rust. Very aggressive carbonation. Tasty beer, certainly not boring. The whole time I was drinking the bottle I was picking up the weird/wrong things of the beer, yet when I finished my glass I wanted another one. Weird, in principle I think it wasn’t a good beer yet I want more of it, I don’t know what to say… elephant pyjama, yeah, I really don’t know what to say.

330ml bottle sampled with Skinnyviking and Finn Arvid at Pegasus, Copenhagen. Off-white foam coming out of the bottle. A bit unclear, tan coloured body. Spicy aroma with sweet dark malts. More dark malts, heading towards caramel, in flavour. Slightly roasted added by brown sugar. Yeasty finish. Soft carbonated (28.05.2008).