The Oracle
White Pony Microbrewery

Poured from a bottle at fridge temp. Pours a dark brown/orange with off-white head. Nose is caramel apples, Werther's, maple donuts, malts, and bread. Wow - fantastic nose.

The taste is malty and sweet. Toffee, chocolate, figs, prunes, bread, maple glazed donuts, vanilla, and tons of malts. Just fantastic.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and the ABV is completely hidden. An extraordinary barleywine - one that is clearly of the English style.

 

This Italian brewery is all a discovery. It is not normal to find an Italian brewery that makes quality beers. It's not an exellent beer but a very good beer. Thanks to the people of Lambicus

 

 

 

Poured from 0.33 l bottle into goblet.
L: Brown/red with a no foam head.
S: Weak wine smell.
T: Sweety, plums.
F: Tight body and very weak carbonation.
O: Like belgian quadrupel but no carbonation.

 

330ml bottle, made at Brouwerij Het Nest in Belgium. A barleywine, fermented with Trappist yeast - well, la di dah!

This beer pours a murky, dark orange-brick brown colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly beige head, which leaves a bit of low-profile island view lace around the glass as it quickly recedes.

It smells of very sugary caramel malt, gooey toffee squares, sauced-up dark fruity notes (plums, bruised red apples, and raisins), Mars Bar nougat, a subtle earthy yeastiness, weak musty esters, and very tame leafy, weedy, and certainly perfumed floral hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, brown sugar syrup, muddled dried stone fruit, a meek yeasty character, some still ephemeral mustiness, and more well understated leafy, herbal, and floral hops.

The carbonation is very hard to pick up on, in its soporific frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and mostly smooth, with a wee airy creaminess arising as things warm up a tad. It finishes off-dry, with a pleasant lessening of the overwrought initial sweetness.

Overall, this is very much like an English barleywine, but more refined-seeming, perhaps due to the sexy old-school yeast employed. Easy to put back, especially considering the more or less fully integrated (i.e. masked) wowee sauce quotient. Worth checking out, and not too dire on the ol' wallet, either.

 

 

hazy amber color with beige head. Aroma has caramel and booze soaked raisins. Also some overripe red apples. Taste starts with caramel, butterscotch but not really sweet. The taste is balanced at first and gets quite bitter towards the finish. Body is very smooth with light carbonation. The label says "belgian barleywine" and indeed, it has some belgian yeast characteristics but also a lot of hop bitterness, like an american barleywine. Overall it's a really interesting take on the style.

 

 

 

 

I've started to discover a lot of great craftbeer from Italian microbreweries lately. I had the opportunity to try a few at my visit to Rome last november. A great city by the way!

This time I've got my hands on a beer from a microbrewery located in northeast Italy. Haven't tried anything from them yet.

The beer is brewed at ’t Gaverhopke in Belgium.

The beer pours hazy, mahogny colored with a two finger beige head that leaves lacing on the glass.

Nose: Sweet caramel malt, dried fruit, hjoney, plum, chocolate and alcohol.
Taste: Orange, sweet plums, fudge, milk chocolate, vanilla, molasses, dark fruit, chestnut, sugar and almond paste.
Body: Medium to full body with soft carbonation. A light bitterness. Sweet, oily, creamy texture.

I'm a succer for sweet beers with high ABV and this is no exception. Really good sipper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

33cl Bottle picked up at De Bierboom (Brugge) about a year ago: opened at home on 3rd March 2014. Poured into a Westmalle challice.

The bottle had been in my fridge for over a month but it still gushed out when opened, with some hitting the table cloth before I got it over the glass.

Once settled I had a good looking chalice of deep ruby red/brown with a tanned foaming head on top.

The nose a lovely brown sugared infused maltiness with a dark hedgerow fruit hint, sweet, yet earthy.

Rich, heavy and alcoholic: this is one great beer. Certainly malty and dark fruit sweet in nature, it has a smooth and almost creamy body feel, velvet is a good word to use: this is a velvet brew. The earthiness mentioned in the smell also appears in the taste and this helps to balance the malty molasses that try to take over the taste completely.

I love these sort of brews: too sweet for their own good at times, but whether it's a Barley Wine or a Quad, or whatever, it's a damn good beer.

 

 

a new discovery, a belgian brown beer, but incredibly tasty. It has conquered my eyes with its label and then I have discovered a new sensation build on caramelized sweet malts, chocolate, dark fruits, spices and belgian yeast. Full mouth and long aftertaste.

75cl bottle

330 ml bottle poured in Westmalle glass.

Appearance: bsda like with dark body and big head.

Smell: malts, spices, liquorice, dried fruits.

Taste: warm, malts and spices, lot of dark fruits. Complex.

Mouthfeel: round body, soft carbonation.

A well made strong belgian dark ale