St. Bernardus Prior 8

Bottle poured into tulip. Cloudy brown pour with big rocky tan head. Sweet malty nose; Belgian sugar, caramel, apple. Similar taste with tastes of apple juice and german chocolate cake as well as dried fruits and toffee. Very good, but didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Complex. Nose of dark fruits even a bit veggie. Flavors of thick roasted malts. Palate is thick lasting finish of a various sweet character. Very good.

Tasted at Kaunis Kampela. Pale beige head. Clear copper brown colour. Some apple in the nose. Some hints of syrup and malts in the nose. Strong malty taste with some hints of roasted sugar. Proper sourness. Also some hints of cacao in the nose. Some marzipan in the aftertaste-

Bottled. Cloudy and dark brown in colour with a rather large head. Malty and sweet with notes of dark dried fruit, spices and yeast.

A deep cloudy brown body with a short tan head, this strong ale greets you with a nose of yeastiness, but also dark fruit, like plums or prunes. The flavor is smooth and on the [too] sweet side, with a clean malt finish. Not my favorite Belgian strong.

A huge foamer, decided to pour before losing too much beer. Dirty ruddy brown with a thin tan head recedes to a bumpy cover. Tinge of alcohol bite and deep dark candi sugar and plummy aroma. Sweet prune taste with more dark candi sugar.

Bottle, from Noel Cuvelier in Abele. Plum brown, nice layer of old lace colored head. Old fashioned candy aroma, spearment and black pepper. Pleasantly warming plumy alcohol, leafy, peppery bite. Clean minty finish. Well-contructed and full of character.

Pours out a very cloudy reddish brown with a loose, light brown head and a lot of sediment. Though the bottle was highly carbonated, the head dissipated very quickly. Lots of spice esters in the aroma followed by light notes of both dark fruits and ripe banana. A bit of earthy malt/grain and alcohol on the tail end. Big, though loosely-packed flavor profile; one sip is nutty malt and cocoa, the next is spice and red plums, the next is alcohol. Though that may sound good, the overall result comes across as confusion, and is somewhat out of balance. The alcohol is prominient in the mouthfeel which feels a little watery (given everything thats going on in the flavor) and finishes quite warm. Certainly an interesting, well made beer that has most likely succombed to the rigor of overseas travel and storage. It doesnt taste old, I just get the feeling (like so many other imports like it) that it doesnt travel all that well.