Gouden Carolus Noël (Christmas)

Brewed by Brouwerij Het Anker
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Mechelen, Belgium

Live, amber-woody tone, thick creamy head. Mellow malt base, woody with richness of flavours typical of Belgian ales. Unusual a bit like Baltic porter that was mixed with strong Belgian. Spicy, strong but short bitterness. Medium is somehow softer and creamier with touch of honey.

This Belgian strong Ale pours a muddy brown amber color from a corked finished 750ml bottle. Large sized beige foamy head. Aroma is brown sugar, caramel, candi sugar, fruit and a touch floral. A medium to full bodied BSA. The malts are fruity and sweet, with lots of brown sugar and caramel. A touch of chocolate and dark fruits and well. Earthy and round. A great sipping beer for a cool winter evening. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is sweet.

Bottle. Hazy dark brown body with a small creamy khaki head. Huge fruity aroma with moderate spices - nutmeg? cinnamon? Reminds me of egg nog for some reason. Fairly complex aroma. Sweet malt and some sugars in the flavour, with a subtle malt complexity and more spice similar to those in the aroma. Creamy medium palate. Very nice, and a perfect Christmasy end to the evening. Almost worth waiting an hour for the bus for!<P> "...there’s going to be like vikings and sh*t in there!" - Blankboy

Bottle. Pours a mahogany body with a 2 finger tan head. Aromatic character of sweet dark fruit, minerals, malt, candi sugar, alcohol. Plum and cinnamon. A very creamy body. The final note is a light metallic flavor which keeps this beer from being an all time favorite, honestly great stuff! 4.2 Had this on draft and so much of what i enjoyed about the bottled version was lost and overpowered by licorice. Draft rating is 3.6.

Bottle. Fantastic reddish dark colour with a nice off-white head. Aroma was raisin, prunes, caramel, liquorish, roast, cinnamon and some characteristic Gouden Carolus yeast in there as well. This almost makes you think of a good Port wine. Full bodied with a creamy texture and a lively carbonation. Medium sweet flavour, but some hoppy bitterness to balance it with. Finish is sweet and average lasting. Wow this beer is just so smooth and defiantly the best Christmas beer we had at the evenings Christmas party. Great for sipping while unwrapping the presents.

This corked and caged bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a very large sized head of foamy fine to large sized bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a transparent typically carbonated brown colored body and a good lacing. The aroma was malty and spicy. The mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and strongly tingly at the finish. The flavor contained notes of malt hops spices and a mild alcohol backing. A decent one that I would consider buying again.

Draught at "Den Tatoverede Enke" Clear dark red/brown - white head. A lot of licorice, high hopped, red berries, sharp hoppy, very nice.

(Bottled, 0.75l, 6 months old, sampled 2/2005) Deep, dark red-amber color with a largeish, light beige, lacy head. Sweetish-caramely, slightly alcoholic aroma with lots of anise and licorice. Very smooth, sweet, very anise-licorice-malty, spicy and herby, cough-syrup-like flavor. Long, sweetish and sticky anise finish. Medium to full-bodied, quite soft-carbonated, slightly liqueur-like palate. Alcohol is quite well hidden. A nicely spiced and herby, sweet herb-liqueur-like brew. Maturing even for a few months makes the brew clearly more balanced and enjoyable. A quite original brew, no matter what. (15 months old, sampled 11/2005, BBE 10/2006: no real change, maybe some smoothing in the flavor and flowery hops, too. Alcohol is now perfectly hidden. Still not quite ready yet - or maybe it just is what it is. Stored too cold (in +6 C), though. Quite sweet - like anise liquour.) (18 months old, sampled 2/2006, stored in room temp) Clearly dried flavor with immense fruitiness and huge amounts of salty licorice. Quite yummy, but not close to its peak, I guess.