Karthuizer Ipso Facto

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 6

"The thing that is" should be "thing that isn't." I was really disappointed with this one, but from looking at the other reviews it's rather highly regarded here so maybe I got a bad bottle... I'm of Dutch decent and a law student so this *really* appealed to me. Very nice looking label. It poured with *no* head at all, even after I tried being more vigorous. Perhaps because of the pour there was sediment all over so I didn't pour all of the 11.5 ounces into the glass leaving me with about a half of a glass of beer. Smells nice, raisiny malt scents. Tastes...okay. Nothing special but then again I was already upset with the beer which may have tarnished my opinion a bit. Yeah, malty raisins with a touch of hops. Mouthfeel took a dive with hardly any carbonation. It was nice and thick, though. Drinkability was decent. Bottom line: Decent beer but nothing special at all. I think I'm going to have to revisit this one again soon to see if my opinion changes; I hope it does.

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

330ml bottle. Dark brown color. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is raisins, caramel, plums and sweet. A medium bodied Belgian Ale. Malts are fruity and sweet, lots of raisin, plum and fig flavors. A touch of alcohol oiliness is apparent at 10.5 alcohol. A touch sweet and fairly smooth tasting beer. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is sweet

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

First impressions: murky and boring. Not much head, anonymous-looking in all aspects. Despite my practiced-hand careful pouring, some rather ugly looking black blobs of yeast ended up in my glass.

Both the smell- and the flavor-profiles seemed to have something of a personality conflict -- much like this entire beer, to be honest. "Is this a Belgian-ish Barleywine..., or a Dutch Dubbel, or..., what?"

Which is where my main complaint comes in. This beer's character didn't fit in well enough with either style, and kinda falls into the "Jack of all trades = master of none". Not massive enough for any sort of barleywine, and not complex enough to be what I would consider to be "Belgian-ish" (or, rather, a well-made big beer from "The Low Countries").

This 33cL bottle of beer came and went without much of a strong impression, to be honest. Neither a Dubbel nor a Barleywine, it's neither here nor there. Tasty? Not bad, not bad at all, I suppose. But I need more personality and character from something like this....
//TB

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

really good.Nice orange color. Musty aroma, fruit, and hints of alcohol. Pretty good. enjoyable.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Now this was a funky brew. Cloudy brown with very little head. Fruity, malty and bubblegum aromas. I got banana, yeast and ripe fruits in the taste. 10.5% masked really nicely but it could have used some maltiness to balance it out. Very strange.

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

This brew pours with a dark brown body with lots of floaters, topped by a thin head with decent lacing. The aroma is slightly sweet and malty with notes of raisons and plums as well as a slight candy sugar note. The flavor is sweet and malty with a slight spiciness, a touch of candy sugar and a little chocolate the finish is slightly roasty and chocolatey. Meidum to full bodied, smooth and slightly warming.