N'Ice Chouffe
Brasserie d'Achouffe

A dark brown beer, with a small beige head leaving lace in the glass.

The smell is mostly acid notes, sour milk, some sweetness from the malt. But also pungent dusty leathery aromas.

A sweet taste of caramel and dried fruits balanced with a fresh sourness.

The beer has a good carbonation and nice mouthfeel.

Worked very well with sweet saffron bread.

Best by 5/2023

After trying the La Chouffe earlier in the year, I’ve been picking up any Chouffes that I find, as they’re classics that I’ve mostly missed out on so far. This one is their take on a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, let’s see what it’s all about

Pours a murky medium brown with a finger of creamy tan head that slowly fades to a thin cap leaves minimal lacing. Quite a bit of particulate in suspension

This is quite sweet and fruity in the nose, but not in an overdone way. I’m picking up on aromas of golden raisin, fig, brown sugar, dark bread, toffee, herbal hops, and light orange zest

In taste, it’s not quite as cohesive and defined up front, but the swallow makes up for it and it’s still good for what it is. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting raisin, brown bread, burnt sugar, and light caramel. The swallow brings notes of plum, brown sugar, toffee, orange zest, light port wine, caramel, and brown bread

A medium full body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a chewy and slightly boozy beer. Finishes neutral but drinks below its abv

This one is very good. Nicely complex but not overly so and drinks surprisingly easy

330ml bottle enjoyed before a winter dip into the hot tub

Look is a very dark red-brown, some wonderful snowglobe-like sediment in the 2nd half. Smells like spruce and raisin(!). Taste is sweet baked bread, toffee, pine hops, dark fruit, clove. Big blast of medicinal bitterness. Easy to drink and the 10% is barely there, just a little heat

Pretty solid beer but I wish I was more into the taste

 

Puffy tan head over deep chestnut; maraschino, smoke + cloves on the nose; brown sugar, fruitcake, more cloves, Red Hots, bits of herb stuffing + citrus rind, prune comeback; light, fizzy, hot.

4.25 4 3.75 4 3.75

I’m not lining up with a lot of the other reviews here.
There are some dark fruits + rich malts, but it’s more glace cherry + heavy phenols than anything else. It’s “digestible”, as the Belgians say, for 10% but it’s definitely hot. The adjuncts are mostly buried.
And the whole thing is closer to a jumped up dubbel than a Quad.
Christmassy? Sure, OK. Nice? Enough. The best Chouffe? Far from.

Fresh bottle, maybe it needs a year. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did.

Pours an almost clear dark red color with an ample long lived tan head and lots of lacing.

Smells of yeasty bread, orange and spice.

Tastes of the same three above plus a bit of brown sugar and banana. The sweet orange comes forward as the glass warms. The alcohol contributes to a warm peppery finish.

Medium body with very light carbonation. Slightly lush and clean mouthfeel.

This is a very enjoyable warmer and sipper.

 

Love this brewery. Belgian beers at a great price vs. Chimay, Delirium and the others. Aroma is sweet fruit and spice. Pours dark, cloudy garnet with light tan head and plenty of lace. A very nice Belgian strong ale with complex taste blend of candied sugar, caramel, toffee, dried fruits, molasses, and spices. More boozy (10% ABV) as it warms with smooth, creamy finish. This is an excellent winter/holiday brew....N'ice!

I had picked a four-pack of this up at Thanksgiving for the Christmas holiday at my PA home. I was going to drink them right before, during, and after Christmas. I guess I got the after-part correct.

Anyway, it’s deliciously boozy without tasting so. That is definitely something special in my book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like a meal- silty, purplish brown body and nice head. The smell is sweet and slightly boozy, with yeast and banana, raisins, caramel, absolutely delicious. Very sweet in the mouth, with that Belgian yeast upfront, banana bread, esters, orange, rich caramel in the body, very sweet all the way through, molasses and plum, hints of spice, coriander, balanced by pine bitterness on the finish. It’s all there. The alcohol is masked. A superb winter beer- what Christmas tastes like to me.

 

 

 

 

At home from a bottle with an adorable label. Pours a rich dark brown with a quarter inch root beer float head. Smells sweet and spicy, and taste surprisingly not as sweet as the smell. Which is a good thing. Dark bread and Christmas spices and yes I taste the thyme.

 

Dark brown in color with a murky complexion and little light penetration. There’s a quarter inch of of densely packed beige on top. Light lacing is present. The aroma is of dark malt, spruce, and cinnamon. I’m tasting dark malt, cinnamon, spruce, and nutmeg. The mouth is moderately carbonated and dry.

Best buy date is 03/21 and it’s 08/21 so take this review with a grain of salt (or whatever you use to spice up your life).

Damn thing pours beautifully (all dark and foamy and stuff). What I can’t really decipher is if it’s supposed to taste like this or not because it’s a bit old. Not that it’s bad, but it’s like that one time I took out this twin for a spin - she had some garlic pasta thing for dinner, so she was exactly tasting grade A when we swapped saliva outside her place in my Subaru.

Ayyyyyyyyyyy!

 

De color marrón con un dedo de espuma de buena retención. Cuerpo ligero y carbonatación media. Aroma afrutado, a malta y caramelo. Sabor tostado con notas de clavo que hacen una excelente combinación.

 

 

look: one finger bubbly off white head with decent retention, dissipates to a thin layer of bubbles eventually, beer is a dark hazy mahogany colour, little light passing through.

smell: smells real good, dark, fruity, and boozy, some brown and black bread, caramel, toffee, Belgian yeast aroma, spice, banana, dark fruit, fig, prune, hint of milk chocolate, enticing.

taste: a nice strong ale, very dark rich malt flavour, black bread, not as sweet as the nose would lead to you to think, still lots of fig, prune, raisin, belgian yeast flavours, spicy, liquorice, pretty bitter on the finish, boozy, sweet fruit flavours linger on the finish, good stuff.

feel: full bodied, medium to high carbonation, lot of warming alcohol and some lingering bitterness on the back of the tongue, sipper

overall: not my favourite bsda, but certainly a nice one, and a very nice beer in general, nice one to sip at the end of the week

 

 

Color is a nice shade of caramel. Love the taste of this: fruit, spice, and lightly sweet. The feel was a little thin, but probably because it was too chilled in my garage.
Such a great beer

 

Poured from bottle into Achouffe tulip, good 2 finger light tan head, good retention and lacing. Reddish/dark amber in the glass, very little light gets thru. Belgian esters on the nose mixed with dark fruit, raisins, figs & prunes. Taste is fruity esters buried in brown sugar, plum, raisin, prune, currant and a nice spicy finish. Residual herb on the palate. Smooth drinking

Aroma contains dark (ripe) fruit, licorice, and spice.

Look has a dark ruby-brown body, clear with active carbonation feeding the thick, off-white to tan head. The head recedes quite slowly, dropping by pock-marks and valleys in the surface.

Taste starts with the malty dark fruits, fig, raisins, plum - especially plum, a bit sweet, with licorice, brown sugar, and spice. There is a mild bittering starting in the middle and carrying though to the finish. The interplay among the fruits, sugar, and spice is quite nice. The finish is somewhat sweet, but well short of turning this into a sipping beer (although the delightful flavors will encourage you to savor rather than gulp). There is no alcohol apparent in the flavor or the feel.

The feel is smooth, albeit a tingly smooth, with a bit of a coating on the tongue.

Overall, excellent, and as is true for many Belgian strong ales / quads, far too much of an easy drinker for the ABV (this is not a criticism; just a warning!)