Struise Pannepot

Brewed by De Struise Brouwers
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Oostvleteren, Belgium

Small bottle, gift from a friend. Pours a deep mocha brown with a massive beige/ tan head that left some spotty lacing. Belgian candy sugar, cherry, toasted malts and maybe a bit of cocoa powder on the nose. Very sweet flavor.....I get candied dark fruits, slight cocoa, brown sugar and a bit of booze on the back end. Finishes medium-full in body, quite coating on the palette.

Bottle from the Hopduvel. Pours a nice dark beer. Very rich flavour but overspiced for my palate. I Would prefer a ’cleaner’ version of this beer.

2006 label with a very cool painting of a pannepot, which is defined as a fishing boat in the descriptive text of the label. The color is black and the head is short white-tan bubbles. The smell is a little sweet and syrupy with a little black licorice but not cloying in the least. First taste was gum, who knows what type, and spices and a little sweetness, pretty good. I wonder what spices they used because while the beer tastes spiced, I sure can’t pick them out individually. This one is a monster because it seems to foam up in my mouth and is going to take a while but the flavors are good, which is all that matters to me. Good stuff. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 09-07-2007 17:50:41

2007 Bottle. A slightly sour fruity front with a rich nutty malty character. Slightly purple hued with a thin creamy tan head that clings in a wide swath to the edge of the glass. Flavor is very rich, quite tart with a backbone of chocolate nutty malt. Very foamy higly carbonated feel. Dry lingering tartness. Quite good, interesting.

Bottle @ Ebenezers. Pours deep brown into a snifter. Tan head with excellent retention leaves slow sheets. Pit fruit and malt aromas. Full and sweet with dark dried fruits upfront, turning slightly sour and peppery in the lasting finish.

Pours a beautiful deep red/brown but already I’m slightly perturbed by the head, nice tan colour but looks a bit fizzy. The nose is good, smells just like fresh bread dough interlaced with spices. Now for the bad bit, unfortunately my bottle was very overcarbonated. I know that’s the risk you take with bottle conditioning (& one well worth taking too) & everyone else seems to really rate it so I guess I was just unlucky, but the fizziness completely wiped out any flavour & body in the mid palate. I can see underneath some fantastic deep fruit with eastern spices & a terrific sweet/sour balance. The finish is very long as well, with those spices subtley lingering, but I’ll just have to crack open another bottle, worse things happen at sea.

Bottle. Dark brown colour with a huge tan head. The aroma of malt, liquorice and dark fruits. The flavour is very sweet, malt, spices, berries and liquorice. Aftertaste is sweet and vinous. Full-bodied and very smooth. Very good, aging would probably make this even better.

The spices in this beer were off the hook. I loved this beer. I could drink it all the time. well, as a night cap really.