De Graal Speciale

Brewed by De Graal
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Brakel, Belgium

Appearance: dark amber to mahogany color. Medium and beige head and lasting. Aroma: caramel malts and fresh yeasty smells. These give cookie’s, vanilla’s, butterscotch’s, toffee and cacao’s aromatic reminiscences. Also, fruity smells like fig, raisins and cherries in liquor. Flavor: semi-toast and caramel malty start. Intensive reminiscences of semi-dry chocolate, milk with coffee, truffles, toffee and fruits like figs and black-raisins. Very persistent chocolate hint. Slight notes like wood and tobacco. Light warming final; toasty, yeasty and chocolaty aftertaste. Palate: medium body, silky texture and medium to high carbonation. Nice aroma and flavor, sweet but not sickly. Good chocolaty, fruity and yeasty notes. Advisable beer.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy/fizzy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, caramel, cookie), with notes of bubble gum, orange peel, clove, alcohol. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively/fizzy carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. Not much to entice, pretty boring.

750 ml brown bottle from Liquid Solutions. BBE 06/2009. Slow gusher tried to escape the bottle when the cap came off. Interesting almost cola notes along with dark fruit and roasted malt. Hazy rubyish color with a tan head that rapidly flattened. More than full bodied with creamy carbonation. Flavor is a little brown fruit, darkish malt, lightly spicy, still some persisting cola, very light touch of funk. Seems a bit thinner than I first thought. The cola begins to seem perhaps chocolate. The finish is smooth, with a touch of brown roasted malt, and a wee bit of bitter. There’s a lot going on in this one, but it’s not at the highest end of complexity. Just a very good ale.

750 ml. brown champagne bottle. No freshness date seen. Poured out a deep amber color, with a sticky tan head. Aromas are cocoa powder, roasted espresso beans, some sulfurous yeast. Flavors are of cocoa powder, roasted coffee, not much else. Fairly one dimensional.

750 ml bottle from State Line. Pours deep coppery ruby with 2-fingers of tan head. Aroma is malt, spicy yeast, brown sugar, figs, earthy notes. The taste is very malty, with earthy and peaty notes, brown sugar, walnuts, figs, and a hint of nutmeg. Complex palate. This one is nice.

Bottle. Clody brown with a nice medium beige head. Aroma of toasted malt, yeast, caramel and some dark fruits. Good mouthfeel. The flavour has is sweet with toasted malt, caramel, yeast, dark fruits, spice and alcohol.

Hazy brown with short lasting head. Aroma is sweet with malt, toffee and yeast notes. Sweet aroma with roasted malt, overripe fruits, spices and toffee. Good balance with warming alcohol in the end. Nice.

Tap, at ZBF 2006. Bronze, thin off white head and moderate condition. Gentle aromas of toffee, caramel and a slight roasted barley note, delicate dry roastiness and sweet caramel in the mouth, with some toffee notes lingering briefly into the finish before a dry chalky yeast note develops.