Baladin Super Cheese

Brewed by Le Baladin
Style: Barley Wine
Piozzo, Italy

Serve in Snifter

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Medium offwhite head. Hazy orange body with suspended yeast particles and carbonation. Sweet firm malty vaguely smoky fruity aroma. Dry smoky fruity malty soapy taste with herbal notes. Vaguely acidic. Malty wooden aftertaste. Not bad, but not great, either. (0.75l bottle at Isola della Birra.)

In short: Original Belgian-ish yeasty strong ale.
How: Mtl-crew beer-and-spagatt tasting. Fresh bottle from Cathschlag brought back from her italy trip
The look: Very cloudy dark-gold body topped by a long-lasting medium off-white head.
In long: Weird beast. Shy aroma. Lots of yeast on a bed a of soft malts. Well malted and very yeasty inded. Creamy soft body. A bit sweet, a bit juicy. I struggled to put known flavour names on it and all I came up with was “yeast muffin” if that means anything. Not intense by any means, not even complex, just hard to describe. Currently listed as a Barley Wine here?!?! By our North-American standards this as closely related to the Barley Wine family as Muhammad al-Jamil Nasab is to the Smith family.

My Bottom Line:
Citrusy wooden notes and fitting alcohol heat garnish this diplomatic sipper’s cereal sweetness. This is not a memorable strong ale to me, but it remains classy and pleasant throughout.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam sinks into the cloudy beige amber.
-The aroma is rather understated, which surprised me.
-This is not your typical Barley Wine at all, so do not expect lots of caramel maltiness or bold hoppiness.
-I’m not sure, but I seem to detect a Belgian yeast character. Might just be a very estery strain.
-The alcohol tends to dry up the back end.
-The body is svelte for this beer’s gravity.

Bottle from Riserva 2002, best before November ’09.

Yellowish head, medium, over pale-amber beer. Alcohol, fusels, old brandy, and cheesy hops (with the accent on hops, not cheese). Bit of syrup (maple?). Toasted alcoholic grain cookies (indeed perfect for drinking with cheese). Alcohol push in terribly, fusels à gogo. Rich liqueur. Fiery alcoholic MF, warming. A very impressive brew. Had I to rate it for cheese-side drink, it would probably head for 5/5.