Struise Black Damnation VI - Messy

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

Serve in Snifter

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Tap @ Borefts Beer Festival. This beer is sick. I have literally never had anythins like this. Pours thick black, and not just "black", but I mean black as the conscience of Jack The Ripper with the darkest head I’ve ever seen on a beer. Aroma has lots of smoke, intense liquorice, islay whisky, but also smooth chocolate, fudge, burnt sugar, intense dark chocolate and strong liquorice. Taste is MASSIVE with liquorice and smoke, lots of chocolate, intense coffee and liquorice. The palate exceeds anything I’ve ever tried before, both in massiveness and thickness. It literally drank like a smoothie, but with carbonation. It was insane. I feel sick liking this, but this was easily one of the festival’s best beers for me. (Not one place in my notes have I written alcohol. Either I was too drunk which I wasn’t, or this is a fucken milestone in high ABV beers which it is)

Tap @ BBF 2011. Almost black. Lovely aroma of pipe tobacco and peat. Thick and syrupy. Viscous. Sweet flavor, very malty indeed with pipe tobacco, peat and dark chocolate sauce.

Tap @ Borefts Beer Festival. Last beer of the first day on the festival. This s.o.b pours black with the darkest head I have ever seen. Aroma is smoked, espresso, strong tobacco, huge liquorice, dark bitter chocolate, woody big and sick! Taste is crushed liquorice sweets, salmiak, coffee, smoke, creamy chocolate, vanilla, ashy, liquorice roots and motor oil. Alcohol is dangerously hidden. Mouthfeel on this one is the sickest thing ever. It’s like a beersmoothie, I mean literally chewy. You could enjoy this beer with a spoon. Amazing experience.

Tap to jug to very full glass freebie, courtesy of Lucky Pierre, the most generous incarnation of Magic Dave yet - a million thanks. And congrats to Mes and Sim for the wedding without which this may not have been brought over to England!
Well, it looks lovely. Beautifully black and even topped with a rich tight chocolate-coloured head. Woof - it really hits the nose! OK, you can tell this is a bit of a gimick immediately, but even gimicks can be fun sometimes, so it’s worth persevering. It’s a massively rich burnt dark roast, that’s for sure, sticky and heavy. In the mouth, at first there’s an acidic tingle which is quite harsh, that’s backed up by a pretty serious alcohol burn. Strangely, taking smaller sips made that worse, you’d just get a mouth full of vapours and no "beer" that way. However, I’ve had boozier 18% beers, so at 39% this is quite impressive. Certainly very full in the mouth and finish, but that’s kinda obvious when you consider how far this has been cranked up. In fact the palate is aggressively slick at times. So, a weird one, and hard to score. Plenty of positives, but perhaps as many negatives too. Gimmick? Certainly. Well executed? Even more certainly. Brilliantly if anything. Bottom line - hedonism: did I, with Anna’s assistance, drink every last drop, and miss it when it was over? Yes.

UPDATED: OCT 1, 2011 Very, very dark, like pitch black in the glass, with a small head. Liquorish, leather, to much alcohol, yes it’s hidden for 39%, but for a beer it just feels as to much... both at smell and taste. The alcohol really is in overdrive, and where I loved the Double Black, cause it still tastes as beer, this one really is overkill for me. An experiment that has gone to far in my opinion. Don’t misunderstand... Can’t say it’s bad, not at all! But for a beer, I chose the 26% above this one in all aspects.

Draught @ BBF 2011. Black pour, thick dark tan to copper head. Aroma is intense spicy and roasty. Flavor is strong bitter roasted, warming but not at all boozy. The alcohol is amazingly well hidden, but the double black was a tiny bit better.

Black color from the tap. Huge dark tan head. Way more carbonated than I had imagined. Guess you would have to force carbonate this one though. No lacing. Roasted tire aroma. Weird. Band-aid taste. Kind of smooth, but a big bitter aftertaste mixed with the band-aid. Not even close to beer. Not good at all. Not much hope for the bottles of BD V I have stashed away.

On tap @ Borefts 2011. Pours black with a decent golden brown head. Aroma is oak, chocolate, vanilla and smoke. Taste is smoke, chocolate, burnt sugar. Mouthfeel is slick, a little boozy but surprisingly well balanced, it is quite an interesting beer but you certainly notice the alcohol after a glass of it!

Draft at BBF 2011. Thick black pour with a brown head. Strong peat aroma with coffee and some smoke. Sweet, peaty flavour. An amazing achievement that it actually still tastes like beer.

On tap at BBF ’11. Black colour, brown head. Aroma of peat, smoke, salty, roasted malts, chocolate. Flavour is sweet, alcohol, peat, earth, roasted malts, liquorice root, chocolate and roasted bitter finish. Thick, sticky, fullbodied, glorious!