Clash of the Titans Grand Reserva
De Struise Brouwers

 

 

Sønderborg, 6/4 2023. 33 cl bottle from Kvickly, Østergade, Middelfart. Black label sporting the name of the beer in yellow and red and the logos from the two involved breweries.

Pours unclear murky maroon with a small white head. Settles as a thin rim of foam running along the sides of the glass. No lacing.

Aroma is intense with a sweet, sugary, vinous quality. Dark sweet fruit marinated in liqueur, sweet Sherry, brown sugar, toffee. Oaky alcohol.

Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily, greasy, soft, almost flat texture.

Flavor is intense with a strong sweetness followed by a sourish bitterness. Aftertaste is tart with a searing, boozy and sweet undertone. Lingering. Finish is semi-dry and sweet alcohol.

Vinous, oaky sweetness meeting tart bitterness. With a healthy dose of liquor.

Bottle " brewed 2018, bottled 2022"

Pours dark amber with a quickly dissipating head of off-white. Minimal head or retention for the duration. Dark fruit, sherry, dusty malt, faint wet paper and booze in the nose. Medium bodied with a sticky, syrupy mouthfeel. Vineous and boozy on the palate. Sherry-soaked red apples and oxidized wine. Finishes a bit sweet and stale.

 

11.2 ounce bottle, bottled 24/02/2022, best before date of +5 years after bottling. Served in a snifter, the beer pours a somewhat hazy amber/copper color with not quite an inch light tan head that didn't stick around for too long. Not much lacing at all. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like dark fruit, sherry, red grapes/wine, caramel, bready malt, cherry and oak. Taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also some tart fruit and fig flavors noticeable too. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's slick with a moderate amount of carbonation. Thought this was a good overall brew, worth trying if you get the chance!

Brewed 10/2/18, bottled 2/24/22. Man that’s a long time in the barrels

My local store got a De Struise drop out of nowhere last year and I picked up one bottle each of the four they had. They were all fun but a bit odd in the best way. A few weeks ago my store got more De Struise, this unfortunately being the only one new to me. Let’s crack it open and see what their take on a Barleywine is like

Pours a cloudy medium brown with just a few off white bubbles that quickly fade to nothing and leaves no lacing

There’s so much depth to the nose here, it feels like their Quads but turned up to 11. I’m picking up on aromas of burnt caramel, fig, toasted walnut, port wine, smooth oak, maple candy, oxidized sherry, brown bread, orange marmalade, cocoa powder, cherry pit, poached pear, and light tobacco

De Struise always finds some way to surprise me. In this case, the extremely rich nose was replaced by a much sharper but still very interesting taste. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting tannic red wine, molasses, black cherry, black tea, cocoa powder, burnt caramel, tobacco, and sharp oak. The swallow brings notes of tart cherry, burnt caramel, apple skin, smooth oak, tobacco, tannic red wine, molasses, and light leather

A medium body pairs with gentle tingling carbonation, resulting in a slick beer. Finishes neutral and a bit watery

This is one hell of a perplexing beer. Looks pretty bad, smells amazing, tastes pretty good but funky, and it’s watery. Never let them know your next move

Pours a clear dark amber and some audible fizz with a thin tan cap that quickly settles into a soupy crown.

Caramel, vanilla, sherry and red wine in the aroma.

Similar elements carry to the taste, but with a little less umph. It comes across as a sherry-red wine cuvée cut with water. The tart vinegar element from the sherry stands out most, with red wine and caramel-vanilla candy chews behind that. Just a hint of earthy hops that are showing a little cardboard. Lightly puckering finish.

Lightly oily mouthfeel with some understated fizz in the carbonation.

Maybe a little more heft to the feel would help this stand up to its amazing aroma better. Still a treat. Vintage 2/10/2018.

 

 

 

From a 330 ml. bottle with a bottling date of 02/24/2022. Sampled June 11, 2023. Served around 45 degrees.

It is an attractive looking reddish-amber pour with a quick lasting tan head that fades to nothing in short order. I might have liked more retention.

Loads of sensations on the nose including oats, chocolate, dark roasted malts, cranberry, red grape, dark fruit, wood, and Graham cracker.

The mouthfeel is medium or better. Somewhat smooth.

The taste is more about the dark fruits and especially red grapes than the roasted malts. And it evolves into ma slightly tart finale. The booze character is more noted here.

 

 

Received a bottle from Dan @DIM 10-19-22.

Beer poured a reddish brown with a little head that dissipated immediately.

Nose is very good, very dark fruit forward.

Taste is a large malt base that takes on and becomes dominated by the barrels. Notes of sherry, figs, and cherries dominate and the barrel provides a tart finish.

Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied and kind of smooth.

Overall a fun beer to try, an unusual way to barrel age a barleywine. Very enjoyable!

 

Looks exactly like Special Reserva, murky brown with a thin, short lived head. I did not give the sediment time to settle. The aroma is very different and more intriguing. Strong, fortified wine leaps out of the glass. Under that is a symphony. Green apple, caramel, wet oak, praline, overripe grapes, pipe tobacco, and on and on...

The taste doesn't quite live up to the smell, but it continues to grow on me as it warms. The wine dominates to a greater extent so it's not quite as balanced. The tart, vinous oak note doesn't quite let as much shine through but it's still extremely satisfying. Big points for uniqueness as well.

I'm so glad I came across these, I love the effect of extended barrel aging.

Very still beer, pouring only a briefly lived 1 finger of beige foam even with a strong pour. Body appears clear, but is rather dark brown with red and purple highlights, settling almost opaquely in the glass.

Intense aroma, with notes of the barrels, hops, and barley all coming together at once in the most pleasant assault imaginable (much the way I imagine Canadians would invade: strong but polite). Notes of caramel, chocolate, oak, toffee, grass, bark, leather, red grape, brown sugar, pecan, pear, and more that I can't quite put a finger on; it simply never ends. Strong but not aggressive; sweet but not cloying; rich but not flaunting it (OK, flaunting it a little bit).

Noticeably sour up front on the palate, no doubt at least partly because of the time spent in wine and sherry barrels. Vinegar, grape skin, tannins, and lemon are accompanied by caramel and toffee. As the sourness fades, the richness of the barrel comes through, in particular sherry notes, along with just a bit of brown sugar, and a strong but not overly sweet malt base of caramel, toffee, and bark. Sweetness grows on the back half, but modestly; it's not as sweet as the nose presents. Bitterness on the back end.

Plenty of sting but a fairly light body overall. Moderate boozy heat, particularly mid sip, but it easily fades. Short finish, with a lasting impression of grape skin, raisin, and nuts.

A truly unique beer, unlike perhaps anything I've had before. Fortunately, it's also very enjoyable.

When the flavors of barleywine, barrel aging and handled like sherry wines, then a clash of these titans is simply waiting to happen. And when it does, Struise brewers has the event happening directly on the tastebuds.

Tawny dark and mysteriously captive in a garnet and crimson fog, Clash of the Titans may be short on froth but is highly expressive on the nose. A rich and rife aroma of sherry, dark fruit, maple and molasses, dried fruit, fortified wine, and booze soaked oak wake up the senses with its very first scent. Sweeter in initial taste, the maple, molasses, toffee and caramel all seem steely and toasty in the most savory kind of way.

As the fruit flavors unfold on the middle palate, the sweetness starts to dissolve and the ale turns winey with plum, blackberry and cherry before trending denser and deeper with prune, raisin, date and fig. All wrapped in a boozy flavor of brandy, sherry and port, a highly savory tone transpires. Trending malty-dry and woodsy in a moderate bitterness, a leathery, tobacco-like earthiness is opened by the tannic oak presence.

Full bodied, powerfully flavored and seemingly tart, the late taste trends more and more winey as the session endures. A long savory finish of smoke, leather and toasted caramel ensures that this gift just keeps on giving.

Poured at fridge temp. Pours a murky brown with almost no head. Nose is incredible. Figs, prunes, toffee, apples, maple, chocolate, slight tobacco, and big malts. wonderful. The taste is interesting. Red wine, toffee, prunes, figs, bread, and sweet candy. The red wine is really dominant on the taste. The mouthfeel is medium bodied. Very low carbonation. The alcohol is not really detectable. Overall, a nice barleywine.