Kasteelbier Donker

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ingelmunster, Belgium

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.

33 cL bottle. Pours dark brown with a redish tone, head is light brown and crispy leaving some lacing. Aroma is sweet, dark malt notes and bitter/citric rounded off by a yeasty spicy note. Flavour is extremely sweet, malt notes drowning in the sugar. Warming alcohol finish with distinct yeast notes. Fullbodied. At first does the classical fruit notes that come from the yeast completely blend out by the rather brutal sweetness, but for every sip they provide a more sofisticated palate to the sweetness showing some raisin and other dried fruit notes. This is clearly a beer for slow sipping. I won’t have this as my favourite beer for that though.

330 ml bottle. Thin, tanned head fading to a ring of foam. Slight unclear mahogny colored body. The aroma is dominated by alcohol, yeast and malts. Notes of dark fruits and cellar. Sweet-flavored. Prominent malt taste along with candysugar, yeast, caramel and raisins. Medium body. Sweet and oily mouthfeel. Alcohol in the finish.

Very sweet and strong beer. You taste lots of alcohol and also roasted malt. Drunk it on bottle as wel from tap. I prefer this beer as closing dinner above a brandy.

thanks bwp116. smells nutty and salty to me. hahaha. super alcoholic, super sweet, like added sugar sweet, lots of darkish fruit, so saccharine. OH God this is alcoholic. this reminds me of some beer i had at the delirium cafe. it’s improving with my adapting palate but it’s just moving the alcohol to the back end.