Kasteelbier Donker

A full-bodied velvety bier with a high alcohol percentage. The Syrah of beers. This is a heavy beer, but if drunk properly the alcohol is not overwhelming, it does not dominate the taste.

This comes in at a honking 11% but manages the alcohol well with an overt malt sweetness and creamy body. Cookie and raisin, big, best by itself anytime, or paired with dessert.

Garrafa. Cerveja encorpada, complexa e bem harmonizada mesmo com seus respeitáveis 11%.

Bottle. Medium high creamy and lasting light brown head. Sweet roasted barley malt aroma with spicy notes. Flavor also pretty sweet, plums choccolate and caramel. Alcohol too dominant though. Low carbonation. Long aftertaste.

Bottled 33cl. It pours a dark ruby beer with a beige head. Toffee, apple and plum aroma, slightly sour. Some cane sugar shows up. Lots of vinous notes. Sweet taste with a strong alcohol presence. Some oranges and wood. Lots of plums, hints of dark chocolate. First, this beer seems somewhat slightly unenjoyable, the tastes don’t combine at all, it’s too sweet and a has a too high alcohol presence. After a while this beer gets better... It surely is complex. A very rich beer. Quite underhopped. I miss some good hop presence in this beer, it’s extremly malty. .....Then, some nice madeira-like notes emerge. Good salty notes give it some charm. Full-bodied. A beer with a nice lacing. This beer does get better and better... A nice surprise. The taste clearly reveals some surprises after a while. But I still think this beer isn’t well balanced to my taste. A warming alcoholic finish of plums with hints of dark chocolate. An interesting belgian strong ale.

Aroma is very sweet, almost like syrup or marzipan. Dark red-brown colour with average carbonation but almost no head, which makes the appearance fall below average overall. Taste is sweet but rather complex. There is no bitterness but lots of different sweet nuances. All in all a good beer, but unfortunately way to sweet for me.

Pours a dark brown colour with a medium off brown head. Aroma is of dark malts, brandy drenshed dried fruits and spicy yeast. Juicy plump rasins, thick sliced malt loaf with caramel syrup and prunes. Also lashings of mollasses, toffee apples and chocolate brownies. Has al the chracteristics of what i enjoy in belgian strong ale. Deep and flavoursome with a fantastic aroma and well rounded alcohol and malt mix.

0,33 bottle. Alcohol presence is strong. Minor head. Clear deep brown, cola-like. Abbaye des Rocs Brune or Rochefort Trappistes 8 much much better.