33cl bottle from De la Senne in Brussels. Nose is chocolate malt and yeasty dough with a background effect of peppery hops. Rich, soft, cake-like texture with frothy carbonation. Semi-sweet with moderate bitterness and mild acidity. Chocolate malt dominant. Overall kind of plain in the nose, but the texture makes up for that. Doesn’t fall in with what you expect of American Black IPA, which is a good thing. Ratebeer had this listed as an alias to Equinox Winter, which was marked as retired, which seems sloppy and incorrect.
Earlier Rating: 6/3/2007 Total Score: 4
750mL bottle. Pours dark brown with a mocha colored foamy head, almost resembling a nice nitro poured head. Soft nose of roasted malts, creame, toffee and vanilla, it has stout characteristics but also resembles a few Anchor Xmas ales I’ve had. When warmer more of the banana and clove yeast scents are noticed. Creamy and soft on the palate, fresh and smooth and creamy mocha, Belgian yeast, lightly dusty and tasting of dark bitter bakers chocolate. A great beer that blurs the division between stout, quad and spiced winter warmers.