Let's Wear Balaclavas
Refined Fool Brewing Co.

650 mL bottle purchased at the brewery in early January, and stored in a fridge ever since. Served slightly chilled.

Pours muddy brownish-amber in colour, with one centimeter of soapy, yellowed-beige coloured froth situated atop. It fizzles off within 90 seconds or so; only a thin collar remains, with no lace and an otherwise bare surface. Mostly dark fruits and yeasty esters on the nose - I'm getting some plum, raisin and fig, as well as banana bread, candi sugar sweetness and some clove spice. Fruity and spicy, with some earthy, herbal licorice qualities.

A flavourful, relatively sweet Belgian dark ale. Banana bread is prominent right off the bat, with brown/candi sugar sweetness also remaining a fairly constant presence throughout the sip. There's also some raisin and figgy fruit, followed up with a yeasty finish that includes clove spice, earthiness, herbal anise and bandage adhesive phenols. Noticeable boozy-sweet burn, which lingers into the aftertaste; about what I would've expected for 10%. Good weight in the mouth; medium-full body, with lively carbonation that feels crisp and prickly on the surface of the palate.

Final Grade: 3.68, a B grade. Belgian-style ales are pretty hard to reproduce - and I'll admit that strong, dark ales are a category which I have always held to a fairly high standard. I'd say that Let's Wear Balaclavas is Refined Fool's best stab at this sort of style to date... but I still feel it lacks the rich complexity (and well-masked alcohol content) of the golden standards of this style. I'm talking beers like Unibroue's Maudite or Trois Pistoles, or the premium Belgian imports along the lines of Rochefort 8, Chimay Blue, Gulden Draak, et al. This is an acceptable approximation of those - and it's definitely better than their old Strike Four quad - but I think there's still room for further improvement.