De La Senne Stouterik

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Dark brown/black with fluffy lacing light brown foam head leaving drinking rings in glass. Little weak aroma, but a nice bitter coffee taste. Some chocolate in aftertaste coming up. (Brussels 201405)

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

It pours a very dark brown/almost black with a 1/4-inch thick light-tan head and a ring of surrounding lacing. An aroma of roasted malts, chocolate, ovaltine, light coffee, oranges and citrus, nuts, and light spiciness. The mouthfeel is smooth and thick. Flavors of roasted malts, hops, chocolate and cocoa, orange and citrus, coffee, nuts, bitterness, and spiciness. Excellent .. I love the dryness and bitterness ..

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

sampled on 10/23/09. 330ml bottle with mitch. pours a dark brown/black color, lots of ruby hilites, thin head. aroma is chocolate and coffee. taste is dry, chocolate, coffee, a touch of vanilla and an earthiness. body is medium/thin. finish is dry

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

300 ml bottle. Poured a dark, dark brown, closed to black, colored ale with a three fingers beige creamy foamy head with georgous bubbles and a very long retention. Active carbonation. Some lacing. The aroma is roasted malts, roasted coffee beans, yeast, dark chocolate and an earthy bitterness. The flavour is a dark bitter chocolate bomb combined to a nice asserted bitterness and a surprising hot spicy effect, : peppery. The hoppy presence appears at the end of the sip. The mouthfeel is creamy and dominated by the heavy roasted malts. This medium bodied ale has a lingering roasted and hoppy bitter finish. What a beautiful tasty ale! All this with only 4.5 % ABV. Great!

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

Sampled on 10/23/2009. This stout pours a medium black color from a 33cl bottle. Small sized white/beige foamy head, which quickly diminishes. The aroma is chocolate and coffee. A medium bodied stout. The malts are chocolate and coffee, touch of vanilla. Hops are earthy. Seems a touch thin tasting, but a decent drinking stout. Mouthfeel is a little thin. Finish is crisp and dry. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

As part of the "Christmas in Belgium" gift pack, this stout really was a new surprise. A huge latte colored cap of foam highlights the thick black fluid below before melting, but comes right back with every swirl of the full glass. Aromas of a chocolate malt/milkshake, butterscotch and toffee tantalize the nostrils. On the buds, this Belgian Stout was more dry than it was sweet. I thought the flavors were kind of weak compared to most stouts of it's ilk. Stouterik was a wee tad too watery for my buds and did have a bit of a hop tinge to the finish. It wasn't too bad, and it can most definitely be enjoyed with a nice desert or a good cigar, but if I am drinking a Belgian Stout, it will be Troubadour Obscura.

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

I risked serving this beer at around 60°F / 15.6°C and paid for it with a bit of a foam over. The beer settles into my 25cl tulip glass with a three finger (including a finger of head that resides above the rim of my glass), frothy, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is quite dark, but does have a touch of a burnt amber hue to it, when held up to the light it shows a brilliantly clear, deep, concentrated, ruby red hue. Up front the aroma smells of dark chocolate and roasted coffee beans, there is a sort of earthiness to the malt and an almost smoky quality to the beer. The aroma has quite a hearty malt focus to it, but there is an underlying character that peeks through at times; aromas of burnt prunes, light phenolics (which contribute to the smokiness found in the nose), as well as some woody black pepper notes and some striking orange zest aromatics that are quite noticeable once I separate them out. I like how malt focused this beer was initially and how it opens up to reveal another layer that adds to the overall complexity.

This beer is well carbonated as it foams up as it hits my mouth. The first sip is dry, with a black cocoa note and some burnt grain notes that really dry out the finish as well. The dark grain, along with likely other sources (e.g. yeast / fermentation), contributes a light tartness to this beer that also contributes to the drying effect. Releasing some of the excess, peppery carbonation smoothes out the beer quite a bit; this plays up the cocoa notes a bit, but this is still quite spicy. The spice notes make me think of pepper, perhaps a touch of clove and a definite earthy note, perhaps a touch of almost peat like smokiness too. This is definitely quite light bodied, though not watery, it is quite drinkable once you get rid of the excess carbonation.

This is quite a nice beer, the aroma is definitely a bit more interesting / complex than the flavor though. I like that it is dry, and it could almost pass for a ordinary dry stout if not for that hint of fermentation character that makes this a little something extra-ordinary.

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

Bottle: Poured a light dark color ale with a huge off-white foamy head with good retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of light bitter roasted malt is somewhat interesting. Taste is also dominated by some light roasted malt and some light hops presence. Good carbonation but body is a bit thin. As previous raters mentioned, this beer seems to be geared toward drinkability and might lack some character.

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

Black with a low light-brown foam. Licorice, coffee, salt, cookies and spices in the strong aroma. Salty flavour of licorice and tobacco with a light sweetness of dark coffee. Salty licorice in the long finish with toches of black sweet coffee and grass.