Struise Black Damnation V - Double Black

Brewed by De Struise Brouwers
Style: Imperial Stout
Oostvleteren, Belgium

Serve in Snifter

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bottle split with 77 ships and 2 australian guys @ my place ( some months ago) draft @ struise shop bruges ( on 14/12/2012 ) when i drank other stuff than craft beers, i already saw this and wanted this. when i discovered craft beer, this was my first big want. got it pretty soon but waited a long time to open this .. magical, epic, perfect bottle. i was NOT dissapointed ! pours PITCH black . even black paint isnt near to this dark ! smell is pounding! roasted malts, some bourbon hints in very small parts, pure epicness taste... WAAW. i feel a layer on my tongue after the first small sip ! damn ! pure pure pure version of the best in imperial stouts. i did not like cuvee delphine that much, but this is just.. waaw ! even after i have drank it, and got bottles of this myself, its still holy to me. can you ever make a better label than this? a stronger beer than this ( that still taste this good? ) pure epicness, thank you so much struise, for this !

UPDATED: NOV 4, 2012 Bottle @ Bandlys Blålys, Odense 2012. Pours black with a small creamy beige head. Soy, roast, ashes, coffee, liquorice and mild wood. Sticky and oily.

Bottle. Thanks Ryan for opening! Pours a very deep black/brown color with a slight dark tan mocha head that collars the glass. Swirling this around causes the beer to literally coat the glass! The aroma is an interesting blend of dark roast coffee, molasses, chocolate, and licorice. Heavy mouthfeel. Surprisingly the 26% doesn’t show as much as I thought it would. Flavors include molasses upfront, chocolate, and some roast coffee. Some dark fruits as well. Overall, it’s pretty tasty for what it is. An interesting beer.

Sampled at SBWF11 Pitch black. No head. Very vinous with dark chocolate. Sweet, thick an oily; soy-like and slightly sourish.

Richesse extrême des malts rôtis, torréfiés macérés dans le bourbon. Des notes subtiles de vinaigre balsamique et de poivre s’ajoutent également et finissent en sécheresse d’alcool. Conception admirable.

Sample @ SBWF 12. Black colour with a lasting dark head. Strong aroma of alcohol, chocolate. Thick palate. Heavy. Flavour is chocolate, liquorice. A bit sweet. The strong alcohol content gets drown in the other flavours.

Stockholm Beer & Whiskey 2012: Fantastisk fin och mörk färg, tjock svart smak med fylliga toner, mycket kaffe och chocklad. Gott gott

Sample at SBWF 2012. Black with a tan head. An impressive thing this one. Heavy with a lot of flavours. Roasted malt, dark chocolate, toffee, oak and dark fruit. Also notes of earth. Very big body and long aftertaste.

200 ml bottle - pours pitch deep brown with caramel brwon sides and brown hue - still a decent head on thos one - just like another imperial stout. This beer is literally sticking to the side of the glass! If one refers to DL as being "thick as motor oil", he hasn’t clearly seen this one yet. The nose is as complex and wonderful as it can get for a bourbon barrel aged impy of this size... bourbon notes: yes but not overwhelming as some others can be (e.g. BT, CR, GI Rare)... alcohol: yes, bit not moe than an enabler for the other gentle aromas of liquorice, roasted chocolate nibs, vanilla, caramel, plum jam,... Body as full as can be, putting a huge film over the palate. Alcohol warmth is only coming half way, still carbonation and woow, what a finish - roasty and bitter. Taste are all about roasty and burnt flavours, some smokiness too. Pfew... Lovely.

Thx. To the two Australian gentlemen who shared this and whose name unfortunately escapes my drunken mind. This is a beer I have been wanting for a while. 75 cl. serious looking bottle served room temperature into Struise glasses and split by 4. The “wax” is murder getting of with a knife, it more melted plastic than wax – frankly I do not think that it is possible that this is actually wax – it is pure overkill much like the beer itself. If you keep hitting against the way, it will fracture which appears to work much, much better. On top of the plastic it has a synthetic cork as well – is this intended to withstand the apocalypse or what? The beer itself produces surprisingly enough some brief very dark mocha if you pour it vigorously enough. The head is very short lived, remains only around the side, swirling results in crazy big legs, yes this is indeed quite boozy. It is pitch, pitch black, even held up to the light, no light penetrates it and it remains black as the darkest night. This is highly Impressive as far the pure opaqueness of the blackness goes but an imperial stout without a head is still not particularly appealing to the eyes, especially with some remnants of the head remaining stuck to the side. The smell is pure booze, maybe the coldness could have eased it a bit if we had fridged it but as it stands now this smells like vodka, pure alcohol vapours dominate everything, it is frankly not enjoyable. Beer should never smell like vodka as far as I am concerned but that might be just me, it is hard to get passed the alcohol, I am not picking up much else here but there is also some raw espresso and burned coffee grounds to be found here. Above all this smells like vodka. The beer itself is in some ways more about structure than about flavour – this reminds me how DB XI was back when it was first released – the body on this is thick. Pancake syrup, engine oil, thick viscous, it coats the whole mouth, flows viscous, coat the inside of the glass, seriously crazy viscous for any beer. Flavour starts out with lightly vinous coffee, lots of burned coffee and espresso, thick coffee, syrup goo, there is a touch of alcohol but the thickness appears to be hiding it, it is surprisingly light, unlike the smell, black liquorice, molasses, black 95 % chocolate, thick dark sugar, getting into a huge burned and roasted finish, this is the beer that should be called ruination, we did a small vodka tasting before this one and this one obliterated even the feeling of vodka in your mount instantly, kills any other flavours, more interesting than per se good. It is a bit of a paradoxal beer because the booze is not very noticeable, the alcohol doesn’t take full hold of you, it is objectionably not that hard to drink but this is really hard to drink maybe the taste is too much or it’s the body but you almost have to force yourself to drink and my glass didn’t come easily to me – it is very hard to imagine drinking a full bottle of this & that was the general opinion as well. This is not a real a beer anymore for me in that respect – it is hard to drink even in tiny quantities. It is not like this a scotch that I can open this and drink it over a prolonged period – I have to drink at once in one sitting. It is a modern day tickers beer – great in small portions amongst many other beer but sitting down like this and drinking a glass of this like we did more or less… I would have probably been more exited if it was my first time trying something like this. It was more of an experience than a beer and as an experience I would rate it much higher than the beer. I am glad to have tried it – wouldn’t pay the money that people are asking for this one.