Corsendonk Christmas Ale

Brewed by Du Bocq
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Purnode-Yvoir, Belgium

25 cl bottle from an eight pack with a glass included from Coop supermarket. 50% off after the new year. Great holiday beer with a huge tan head and a complex aroma that is fruity, spicey(cinnamon, nutmeg maybe?) with some yeast and malt sweetmess. Fruity taste with belgium candysugar,alcohol warmth, spice, and strong malt. Not extremely complex, but very smooth and recommended. Probably better with age.

On tap @ Kafe Belgie, Utrecht. dark brown pour with a hug brown head.Sweet malty aroma. Flavor is fruity sweet, mostly plum and grape, with a bit os psicyiness brought out by the alcohol. Finishes slightly sour, making me want to take another sip right away. A great brew.

(bottle - 12 oz) Clear copper pour with a tan head that seems to stay forever. Sweet and spicy aroma of cloves, citrus, coriander and some yeast. Flavor begins with a spicy and yeasty flavor mixed with some cloves and then goes to a smooth and roasty spice middle with a finish of citrus and alcohol. Very smooth and creamy.

Sweet, fancy Moses what a head! I think I got less than half the bottle poured into the glass before the threat of an overflow put me out of business. Much later, the massive tan foam extended about an inch over the glass’s rim. Color is a reddish brown that is translucent. Aroma is probably this beer’s greatest asset. Complex intermingling of spice (cinnamon and nutmeg), pine and sweet orange. Flavor is very subtle and a little weaker than I expected, especially considering all the scents coming off. Much of the aspects there in the aroma are there, but they seem to get burried under a sticky sweetness (almost prune-like)that is pleasant, but remarkably straight-forward. Mouthfeel is nice and silky. A little disappointed in how this turned out after the excitement generated by all the foam and scents.

Dark brown body with some garnett highlights. The huge head is a light khaki color. The aroma has cinnamon, toffee and some pears. There is also a hint of chocolate. The taste has some light pears with vanilla and cola. There is also chocolate in the finish. A nice and light body for the large abv. A solid Christmas beer.

Had thi at BJ’s Winter Ale Fest. The ber poured a clear dark reddish-brown color with a small, fizzy, light brown mostly diminishing head and a tiny fringe of lacing. The aroma was balanced: moderate notes of sweet caramel and molasses, a moderatley strong hop note of resin / pine; light with a yeast note of cellar; miscellanous notes of ginger, plum and candy sugar, too. The flavor was moderately sweet and lightly bitter with a short, lightly bitter finish full of funky retros. The body was light, the texture was watery and the carbonation was fizzy. Not a bad beer, but I wasn’t looking around for more after my sample was gone, either.

This fine beer would benefit from more complexity. The pleasant aroma is simply malt. The beer is black, and retains a very thin head until the last sip. Flavor is simpler than I expect a 96th percentile beer to be; with sweet malt and light smoke. Very light dried fruit, and not really any citrus at all. Fairly sweet due to the dominance of the malt, and thick and heavy as well. This beer is a winner but needs more complexity; which might be brought on by ageing. It is overall very quad-like, or in this case, quad-light.

Bottle. Pours deep red/brown with a big beige/brown head. Aroma is sweetish, fruity and yeasty. Flavour is sweet and yeasty with notes of wood and plums. Nice, but it gets a bit cloying. Sweet finish with notes of licorice. 13-01-06.