Struise Pannepot Reserva Oak Aged

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Clear dark ruby, no foam remaining. Nice warm aroma, smell port. Perfect taste, warm alcohol but smooth in mouth, palate explosion. Just a great beer. (Velp 201504)

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

Bottle pour into a chalice presents dark brown with effervescent carbonation and a thin white head. No noticeable aromas, earthiness and oak are faintly present. Flavor is nice with standard raisins, dates, caramel, and alcohol. This is nice and smooth but I believe I like regular pannepot a touch more. The oak doesn't lend enough to the flavor and just serves to smooth out the base beer.

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

A nice spicy bread, yeasty aroma to a deep dark brown beer with a thick head. Mouthfeel is full but fizzy, and sort of explodes the flavor into your mouth, I love the experience. Flavor isn't over the top but very deep and complex and perfectly balanced. Not overly sweet, nice nice Belgian.

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

more similarities than differences in the Pannepot, Reserva, and Grand Reserva, and that after having all 3 side by side...and different years of each. This was a 2009...all 3 are among my favorite belgoan beers. I'll take any of these over a Westy or Bernardus any day. Mellower on the carbonation and yeast, rich and smooth. Dark fruit abounds. Excellent!

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

I had this beer at Mikkeller Bar in Denmark on 17 January 2011. This beer rivals the acclaimed Westy 12 - absolutely phenomenal! A rich Belgian Quad with huge body. This beer is enhanced by oak cask aging - a delicious treat!

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

2006 vintage drank in 2009 - Bottle: Poured dark brown color ale with a small foamy head with OK retention and some lacing. Aroma of oak and light warming alcohol with some dry figs and a light chocolate note also perceptible. Taste is quite a complex mix between some oak notes with dry figs and raisins malt, light chocolate and a bit too much residual sugar at the end. Body is full with limited filtration and some low carbonation and no alcohol discernable thought it can be felt. Not bad but I have too admit that the regular version is definitely better then this.

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

A careful pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three finger thick, lightly amber tinged, tan colored head that forms a fluffy, textured surface and leaves lots of lace on the sides of the glass as it slowly subsides. The aroma smells of tart raisins, prunes and figs that lie on top of a dense, toasted grain, molasses spice cake note. Hints of spicy and toasted oak character lightly scent the beer, but play a subdued role in the nose. There are also red wine like notes (rich, tannic berry notes) and a concentrated tamarind note. Once you dig around and explore enough here you notice a funky, musty mushroom note that becomes noticeable in the finish; it reminds me a bit of a musky blankey that has is scented with dried sweat. Other aromatic notes of light chocolate, earthy coriander, cherry pits, and quite a fully malty note are noticeable here as well; this last contributes a dark toasted, though not roasted, deeply caramelized, and brown malt character. The concentrated fruit and malt in the nose take on a sort of smoky quality at times. The nose on this beer is incredibly complex, it is very intriguing and worth exploring in detail.

The beer is full bodied as it first hits my tongue, but has a prickly effervescent carbonation that struggles free of the viscous heft. The beer tastes lightly sweet, but is still significantly savory. The beer has a sort of has a dark honey flavor to it, but without that cloying sweetness that honey has. Notes of molasses, tart-concentrated fruit (prune and fig as well as a touch of raisin that seems to get a bit bigger as the beer warms) and some dark cocoa notes in the finish start to come out after a couple sips. This is quite rich and satiating, but not overly sweet; in fact the tart and sweet notes are in such a good balance that neither is overtly noticeable. The malt character is concentrated and brooding with lots of Maillard browning flavors, a molasses character, some notes of dark caramel, savory complex sugars, plus some toasted / caramelized dark bread crust flavors. There is a nice spiciness here that, again, is not a note that is overtly noticeable; it provides a touch of clove flavor, earthy coriander notes, an oaky spiciness (this is the most noticeable spice note, but still is fairly subtle), a touch of ginger, a peppery piquancy in the finish, a richly integrated anise note (though more like one that has been cooked for a long time), a definite note of mahleb (if you consider this a spice), mellow vanilla, hints of mace and a wisp of cardamom.

This is possibly the most balanced strong beer I have ever had; this shows a finesse that is rarely achieved, it has a melding of sweet & tart, malt / fruit & spice, oak & base beer as well as earthy & bright notes. Definitely a tour de force, it takes what can be a phenomenal base beer and adds a couple more layers, as well as a melding process that integrates everything together as a whole. I like that this has lost the sweetness of the base beer (though even the 2006 Pannepot I had last night was not aggressively sweet).

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

Bottle from SL. Splendid brew, quite like the original but (did a held back bottle side by side) with some excellent oaky sawdusty notes. The pour was dark orangey-chocolate brown. The head was not as large as the original, but still quite nice and pretty. The aroma was complex, grapes, coriander, cinammon, other spices, light floral elements, apples, some dark fruits, caramel, chocolate, and sawdusty oak. The flavor was full of rich dark fruits, chocolate, grapes, apples, spicing, floral character, full sawdusty oak. The 10+% alcohol was quite smooth. The mouthfeel erred on the malty still side, yet was decent. Thanks, Robert, for making sure I got a bottle!

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

colour witha big and firm tan-coloured foam. Black cherries, licorice, brown sugar, wood, alcohol, vanilla, nuts and sourish red berries in the deep aroma. Full flavour of wood, alcohol, sweet licorice, nuts, coconut and cherries. Full-bodied. Long warming finish wood, vanilla, nuts, alcohol, dates and figs. Really tasty and classy but I prefer the regular version, though.

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

Bottle, RBESG 2007 in Glasgow, Grand Tasting. Pannepot Reserva 2006. Dark brown colour, nearly black, large tan head. Malts and farmhouse aroma. Malty sweet flavour (drank it too warm though), cloying.