De La Senne Equinox Winter Beer

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A coffee-colored beer with a creamy (like coffee) that is rapidly disappearing, there's repository can swim. it smells of gingerbread. in the mouth it is not consistent and Agresion level taste not found the aroma of gingerbread, just a light smoke with a nice bitter aftertaste.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

330 ml capped bottle. Poured a hazy slight gushing dark brown-red coloured ale with a two fingers beige-brown creamy foamy head that had a very long retention and tons of micro bubbles. Active carbonation. Good lacing. Many sediments. The aroma is strong roasted coffee beans, roasted malts, fruity, dark ripe raisins, spicy and floral hops. The flavour is roasted malts, dark burned coffee beans, moccha, spices and floral hops. The mouthfeel is crispy and full. This medium to full bodied ale has a dry malty finish. A perfect powerful and tasting ale for the long winter nights. Good job, Ivan !

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

A solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet glass produces a four-finger thick, lightly browned, dark tan colored head. The beer is a dark amber brown, nearing black, color that shows a brilliantly clear, rich ruby hue when held up to the light. The aroma has quite a bit of fruit to it with notes of bright dark plums, rich raisin and some prune notes. Malt aromatics produce notes of toasty browned malt and a nice, rustic bread like quality. Other notes of clove, anise, a Concord grape like spiciness, woody malt, a hint of ginger are noticeable; the Concord grape note is quite distinct, while still being somewhat subtle and really adds an interesting note to the nose. The aroma is quite hearty, though it is dark fruit oriented.

The beer is sweet and spicy upon my first sip; it has a carbonic bite to it that contributes some fizz to the texture. The beer finishes with a bitter, black malt note that lingers on the palate with a roasted character. The roast notes are softened by dark fruit flavors and a touch of sweet malt. The sweetness is almost more of a perceived thing than from actual sugars as this finishes pretty dry; the fruit flavors and esters seem to be what accentuates the perceived sweetness in this beer. The fruit flavors remind me of concentrated plums, Concord grapes and burnt raisin notes. As the beer warms up it picks up a background spiciness of white pepper, all spice and an astringent spicy woodiness. This has a nice, light body that enables this to be quite quaffable; it is not watery though, but certainly achieves the lightness that I like to see in a good Belgian beer, though it does still have some texture to it that allows it to just stick to the palate. There is also a bready malt character here, a toasty grain note and a browed biscuit note that comes out more than the roast character the more the beer warms up. The texture also tends to get more velvety as the beer warms and flavors of chocolate become noticeable as they mix in with the dark fruit flavors.

This is a beer that grows on me the more I work my way through the 750ml bottle; it started out good, but it is finishing great. This is complex, drinkable, interesting and a great mix of leading fruit notes supported by an ever-present malt and spice character. In the end this is a fantastic beer that I am quite enjoying.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle: Poured a clear deep brown color ale with a large off-white foamy head with good retention and great lacing. Aroma of dry malt with a light European hops finish. Taste is definitely drier then I would have expected with a nice enough dry hops finish. The label ‘’winter beer’’ lead me to expect a Belgian malt bomb with some balance sweetness but instead it seems I got a dry winter beer. Good carbonation with no discernable alcohol. While this is not bad or flawed, I thought it was too dry for my taste buds and not something I would revisit anytime soon.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

The theme for our last tasting was "find out how many mediocre beers we can squeeze into one night of tasting". OK, so that wasn't the official theme but that's how it went. And this beer went right along with it. The beer pours out a mahogany brown color, cloudy with a good-sized 2-finger head. First whiffs I get lots of chocolate in the aroma. Fruit, spices, roasted malts fill in the remaining notes. Flavor profile is pretty much on par with the aroma. It didn't stray to far from what the aroma established and that was okay. Decent beer, but nothing special really.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Tasted at the May Northern California Beer Tasting. This Belgian Strong ale pours a murky amber brown color from a 750ml bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is sweet malt, chocolate, fruit, and spice. A medium bodied BSA. The malts are fruity and sweet, caramel, chocolate and brown sugar. Spices are milder than most X-Mas beers, some anise, nutmeg and pepper. Nice balance, good carbonation. A little cloying, but not to bad, you just need to sip it a little slower. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is sweet.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Very dark copper colour, even close to black. Big beige head. Chocolate, roasted malts and coffee in the aroma. Also some caramel, raisins and spices can be found. Flavour goes on accordingly with the aroma, and is well balanced. Roasted malts and some nuts are in the finish. Good warming beer for the wintertime.