Van Vollenhoven's Stout
Bierbrouwerij De Schans

Bottle from 2010 found in the back of my cellar. Pours an almost (but not quite) black colour. Mocha coloured head with quite good retention. Aroma gives an indication of the age, there's clearly some oxidization, with raisins, dried fruit and roast and chocolate are very subdued. Retonasal there's much more of the stout , with cocoa powder, roasted malts, and the dired fruits are more subdued. Flavour is light sweet, chocolatey, but also light moderate bitter and roasted, with light fruity sourness. Body is a bit thin, perhaps from the age. Alcohol is still warming though. Finishes with roast and ash, moderate bitter. Still pretty good, but I remember it being much better fresh (but we can get that now from Poesiat & Kater, in my own neighbourhood).

Purchased at the BSF bar, GBBF 2008; coming in a slim brown 330ml bottle, bottle-conditioned; brewed in 2007 and BB 01/11/2008, served mildly chilled in Gulden Draak's tulip-shaped sniffer.

A: the beer storms out of the bottle as soon as the cap was 10% opened... but still I've managed to get most of the beer in the glass, in its nearly black hue and topped with a tan frothy head settling slowly to a thin cap to last. Needless to say, the carbonation is lively.
S: dusty, roast- & chocolate-malty with plenty of black-sugary notes; the rather restrained yet hard-to-miss estery aroma comes in the form of black prunes and fat black dates - not quite pronounced as many other Belgian take on the style. A swirl brings out a little alc. and (surprisingly) hints of flowery hops, while sweet bitter chocolates, more roast grains and sour-ish notes of roast malts stay firmly in the background to be appreciated. Very pleasant overall.
T: sour-ish black coffee, semi-smoky aroma and toasted malts dominate the foretaste, then quietly the herbal touch of hops, residual aromatic chocolaty malts and faintly sour black fruits ensue, before all's wrapped up in a lightly chewy finish consisting of bitter-sweet malts, attenuated hop bitterness, and mild aroma as of Chinese smoked prunes. What's consistent throughout the drink is the key touch of sourness, quite vital to help retain a light palate, I think.
M&D: all's well in this beer - it's well made, it has all the usual elements of a strong stout, it's mellow on the alc. side, it has a decent support from the hops and the medium body makes it more than drinkable. However, it fails to strike the chord with my expectation of a potent, complex English stout and also fails to stand out as an interestingly yeasty Belgian/Dutch take on the style. Not on top of my to-drink list, yet with all honesty this ale is very easy-drinking indeed.

This beer is brewed at De Schans under licence of Heineken, who used to brew this in the past.

A deep black beer with a fine bubbly head that is off-white.

Smell is roasted and has a distinct caramalt smell, which I think personally is a little out of place. There is a liquorice smell and a light fruity smell. Also a mild tartness that adds a really great twist.

Taste is roasted with a mild dark malt taste. A good bitterness that lingers through. Liquorice and chocolate dominate the beer, but all in a mild and muted way. Aftertaste is maltbitter and roasted.