Struise Pannepøt

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

great belgain strong dark ale...super great dried fruit nose and great complex malty and fruity goodness....one of my favorite belgian dark ales

20081130 11.2oz bottle and I forget where I got it but it wasn’t local. Maybe Capone’s. Nearly opaque dark maple syrup color with medium, lasting, even head of uniformly sized medium foam. Aroma is rich, spicy (savory), and seasonal with notes of nuts, roasted squash, plump raisin, vanilla, and rum. With the chill and onset of winter, this beer is a fine choice on a dreary day. Flavor is an interesting amalgam of standard Belgie strong ale flavors but also some sweet American influence, with temp perhaps a touch too sweet, and a long savory finish again reminding of caramelized roasted foods. Medium-full palate is fully appropriate and strong alcohol is mostly unnoticed except for the nice buzz. Good beer.

2006 ‘vintage’. Another Struise gusher. Usual tactic of easing the cap off and standing it in a Hoey glass to catch the lava flow of suds. Pours mahogany with a blossoming yellow-beige head; unearthly foam sculptures collapsing to a slick in minutes, in a variety of glasses. Aroma up-the-nose liquorice stick, cinder toffee, yeast extract, sweet (straw)berryish fruits, plum. Mouth creamy, sticky, slightly burnt once it’s really been standing a while…brazen liquorice, candi sugar, faint cocoa. Not really getting any obvious spicing. Bit of vanilla, stone fruit, prune in the aftertaste. Roasted malt traces, maybe. Alcohol nicely buried by sugar and liquorice. Sweetish and unsubtle, touch of peaty malt. Pretty standard, liquorice-driven Dubbel-like flavours turned up a notch. Missing the bite of hops or yeast, but hugely drinkable. Nice beer. 747315 (Re-rate). 2006 again, to take the taste of a Leroy ’Stout’ away. Robustly malt-accented aroma evoking Germany more than Belgium with noseful of sticky raisin, demerara, licorice and malt loaf. Warm of booze humming softly with fruit loaf and muscovado; liquorice detectable but alcohol (flavours) not. Wholesome malty sipper mellowing with age into a murderously sessionable hybrid of dubbel and doppelbock. At 10%. The devils.

(EBF 2008) Amber color, small head. Yeasty, fruity, nutty aroma, some hops. Hoppy, yeasty flavor with some sweeter notes, some fruit.

Bottle from Hopduvel. Pours dark brown and thick as oil with a small brown head. Kandi sugar nose makes me anticipate a first sip eagerly. Aroma’s are woods, earthy, oily, dark fruits, sweet and roasted licorice. Very complex but very good. Alcohol warming lingers for a while. To be drunk slowly.

Bottle. Deep sweetness. Caramel and toffee with fig notes, pears, and light chocolate. Some alcohol presence. Cloudy mahogany with a patchy off-white head that leaves spotty lacing. Piercing sweetness with good balance. Nice caramel finish, a bit of alcohol and dark fruits. Thin but silky palate. Alcohol shows up more with warmth.

11.2oz bottle. Poured a very dark brown with a nice light tan head. Yeasty aroma, slightly sour smelling. Mmmm that is good. Alot of dark frutiness in there, a little alcohol in the finish. Very warm and very good, especially on an overcast gloomy day.

Bottle 33cl. Pours a clear brown/copper colour with a normal size head and low carbonation. Smell is spicy, fruity, fresh and also has some traces of malts there. Also vaguely some coffee and caramel. Taste is of burnt malts, chocolate, caramel and coffe. Perfectly balanced and a great strong ale.