Gouden Carolus Noël (Christmas)

Silver medal in Beer World Championship 2004 category Dark strong ale. Not my kind of beer usually. Some caramel and vanilla. Sweet spices too. Typical strong aroma. Complex.

Drak brown, hazy, but the fizzy head seemed to disappear quickly. Aromas of caramel, banana, and sweet spices. Sweet caramel flavour, a little banana, some sweet spice, and a definite orange rind note in the finish. Not as smooth or complex as the classic in my opinion, still delicious.

Dark cloudy brown with some white head. Great aroma of choclate and spice, vanilla, and citrus orange. Very smooth mouthfeel, and while all of the tastes do not materialize boldy, it is very tasty and refreshing.A great brewery. thanks for bringing in IPFreely.

Bottle: Poured a deep burgundy brown color ale with a huge foamy head with great retention and good lacing. Aroma of sweet candy and anis is dominating and quite enjoyable and almost reminiscent of Rochefort. Taste is a nice mix between strong Belgian malt, sweet candy and anis. There is some sweetness but it never goes overboard and provides great balance with some light typical Belgian yeast. It appears that this brewery just won’t stop to amaze me with all those great beers.

Hello my name is Ryan and this beer kicks ass....Now, on to the more detailed aspects: A typical color and aroma, though more pungent, for this style. Heavy aroma of malts, spice and dark fruit. Flavor was (SURPRISE!) more of the same, though extremely smooth with light carbonation (this bottle was a cellared 2005 vintage via BigSilky). The aftertaste was light but lingering and yada yada....just all around, fantastic.

A long after Christmas treat for me. Sampled a 750ml cellared bottle, 2005 vintage. Plum, spiced and sweet malt flavors and aromas in the full bodied Belgian Strong. With all the ratings listed here and the fact that I never heard of it before tells me that I’m out of the loop. I’ll have to try more Gouden Carolus offerings in the future.

BB 03-10. Pours a dark brown-red color with clarity and a fairly full, frothy, creamy, beige head; head is mostly lasing and leaves nice, tight lace. Nose is fairly fruity and almost rum-soaked; anise is dominant with lighter notes of toffee, raisin, plum, light yeast, and some spicing (ginger/clove). Flavor is complex and quite potent; still lots of anise with toffee, brown sugar, raisin, light cherry, clove, nutmeg, light yeast with some acidity and mild bitterness. Palate was fair and detracted some from the unique flavors; lively, medium, but round with some noticable warmth from the alcohol. Finishes still mostly sweet with anise, raisin, and brown sugar but also with a tobacco note (interesting but not unpleasant). Palate and the overpowering anise notes do not allow this to be something special with so many wonderful flavors and complexities. Very interesting and showing lots of potential; unexpected and surprisingly likable. I tried this one aover a year ago and had something completly different: much more carbonation and less anise notes. Both were interesing in their own right but both would be great with a bit of tweaking.

At the 2007 Big Beer, Belgians, & Barleywines Festival in Vail. Pours a copper color with a thick white head of spider-web lacing. A concoction of raisins, brown sugar, coriander and cough syrup. This has some serious heat. An outstanding holiday beer in the old school manner.