Struise Pannepot

Dark brown with a large dark tan head. Aroma of sweet caramel, candy sugar, and licorice. Flavor is sweet but balanced. Perfect palate, oh so creamy. Beautiful.

A delicious highlight to a fantastic evening. The Aroma is very strong with hints of dark roasted malt, licorice, and spice. The Beer is a beautiful deep brown with a good fluffy white head. Flavor is of roasted malt, spices, and lots of dried fruits of plums & raisins. The palate is smooth but not without a very pleasant carbonation.

(2006 vintage, 0.33 l bottle at Cambrinus, Brugge, on 2008-05-17) Deep dark brown. Small tan head. Malts and salty liquorice in nose. Full and bit dry palate. Caramell, salty liquorice and black currant in taste. I’m a bit disappointed with this one, don’t know why. Needs re-rating obviously.

(bottle, from Gunhaver) 06 bottle. Pours dark brown with a lasting tan head that lingers and leaves nice lacing. Aroma is very complex with dark fruits, red wine, sweet bread, candi sugar, and dark chocolate that each alternate in intensity everytime I take a sniff. Upon warming, some roasted malt notes even make an appearance. This is just great smelling. Taste is also the similar to the aroma, and starts out with dark fruits like plum and raisin. In mid-palate, the flavor takes a turn to more dark chocolate, and yet makes another change into more of a red wine flavor. The finish then yields a spicy and equally yeasty flavor. The complexity of this taste is amazing. When exhaling you can get a nice taste of the dark chocolate as well. The faintest hint of alcohol is present in the flavor, but it never intrudes. Mouthfeel is medium with lively carbonation. Yes, this is now one of my favorites.

[Bottle, thanks Guerde!] Pours dark brown with a good tan head. Aroma is amazingly complex--banana and other fresh fruits, vinous notes, caramel, what I believe to be a touch of smoke--just outstanding. Taste is fairly sweet up front with plum, peppery spices, chocolate, a little raisin and some alcohol also present. Medium-thick mouthfeel and smooth with a long finish of subdued roasted malt and chocolate. I was completely blown away by this beer the first time I had it, and have been craving it ever since. This bottle is a little more spicy than I remember the first one being (that one was more sweet and fruity), but still absolutely world class. I love this beer on so many levels, and whenever I think of it I am transported back to that perfect summer night in Göteborg when I sat down next Marsiblursi and had my beer life forever changed with their incredible generosity.

33cl bottle (2006) from Beer World (Largo). Pours a dark brown to black with a thick tan head that settles quickly but heavily laces the glass. Huge nose of sweet, ripe fruit, candy, complex spices. Flavor is sweet with heavy notes of fruit, coffee, caramel, and heavily sugared candy. Sweet and bitter finish.

Bottled. Finally got around to sampling this. In essence, this is what craft beer is meant to be. The hardy, earthy flavours of years side-by-side with faintly sticky, sugary candy notes, as well as slight notes of gingerbread and espresso. A lingering sourness that only shows up after you swallow. Amazingly thick, luxurious body. Not how I’d want all my beers to taste, but it’s an impressive accomplishment. Completely hides the alcohol as well.

Bottle(s), at ’t Brugge Beerje and Dickie’s Grillhouse in Brugge, and a bottle from the brewery, enjoyed at home. Deep brown, lots of dark tan head that settles down into a dense tan scum, like the sticky layer that forms on ponds in the summer. Intense chocolate liqueur nose, brown sugar, bitter almonds, sugar snap peas, corriander. Warm chocolate flavor, brownies fresh from the oven, calvados, dried figs. Very sweet up front, and even a fair dose of leathery sweetness in the finish, but without being sticky. If this is the beer of fisherman, bring on the fishing.