Kasteelbier Donker

Bottled. Pours a dark brown colour with a reddish tone. Almost no head. Aroma is dominated by maltiness, molasses and sweetness. At first, the maltiness in the taste has a caramalty note. It´s also pretty sweet. Cloyingly sweet, I thought, maybe a bit prematurely. Later the sweetness turns to an acceptable level. It´s also quite caramelly. It´s a nice sipping beer, but hardly one of my favoruites, though still okay.

This is an amazing looking beer. It probably looks and smells better than it actually is, but it’s still an excellent beer. It is very dark and malty, with a fantastic sweet nose. If anything, it’s perhaps a bit too sweet and treacly, but it still has an excellent array of fruits, caramel, and sugar. Yummy.

Superb looking dark chestnut brown with a creamy off-white head. Spicey, malty, caramel aroma. Great taste; complex, dark fruits, raisins, sweet malt, brown sugar. Near if not perfect mouthfeel, exceptionally smooth. The alcohol is detectable but well masked by the great taste. An immediate favourite.

Poured a clear brown color ale with a below average head that had some pretty good retention. Aroma is exclusively comprised of roasted malt with some faint alcohol in the back.. Taste is quite simple, which was a bit surprising for this type of beer and consisted of mildly roasted malt with some warm alcohol at the end. Overall, this is not a bad beer but it is lacking complexity.

Bottle from a small store near my hotel in Brussels. Pours dark but also clear (not bottle conditioned?? I guess I’ll find out a little later) and a medium head. Aroma is alcoholic and malty. Flavour is sweet, very sweet, huge alcohol character and malt/caramel/fruit. Its brash but not too complex, delicious but heavy on the alcohol. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth or really love high gravity beers all that much - but I think it’s great.

Dark brown beer with beige creamy foam. Sweet nose, touch of caramel and candy sugar. aroma’s of cookies and cocoa. Heavy sweet taste with alcohol burn.

Bottle. Dark brown colour, small tan head. Little to no aroma - what is there is slightly sweet. A very full taste!!: lots of sweet molasses malt like flavours - which actually kind of hides the fact that this is rather thin bodied. Borders on too sweet, but I didn’t think it crossed the line - remained balanced. Boozy as it warmed. Pretty good.

Would have rated this one a 14 overall, but one small bottle has got me plastered. That’s not what beer’s all about for us connosieurs, but man is this a wallop of a beer. Smells nice - malty and even a hint of popcorn in the aroma. Looks like flat coke with a drop of red dye, taste is too sweet, but it is warming. The sweetness lingers a bit too long, but man what a punch this beer has. If your wife says you can only have one beer... make it this one. Wow!