2016 Black Albert from De Struise in Belgium. A Belgian Royal Stout. 13% ABV. Pours thick and black with an inch of light brown head. The nose is tobacco, molasses, dark malts, burnt toffee, black licorice, and some dark fruit. The taste is fantastic. Smooth, molasses, brown sugar, black licorice, coffee, maple, and some dark roasted malts. Lovely beer.
More Cellar deep dive. 12/02/2019 Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown. I remember having the maple barrel one at the brewery in 2012. It's holding up amazingly well. Nose is wonderful with toffee and hazelnut coffee. Flavors don't punch as hard on coffee as I remember, but still a nice amount of nuttiness and malt complexity. A bit thin feeling for 9%, minimal warming ABV. Super smooth and great malt/coffee balance and complexity. I hope they make it again. One of my favorites, the BA version is one of the best beers I've ever had. Cheers
Forgot about this one, stuck in behind a porter. This one is from 2018. Still very good, if a little thinner than normal. Cheers!
2020 Fremont Bbomb. Still enjoyable, but this is really showing its age. Lot's of molasses now, with a drying, somewhat roasty finish. Bourbon is still noticeable, which helps. This definitely needs to be drunk up before there's any further deterioration.
2016 Vigneronne from Cantillon. I bought this one when it was released. I wasn't an enormous fan of it when it was fresh, so I thought I would age a few bottles to see how it evolves. Poured at fridge temp, but I let this one sit for a while to warm up. Opaque orange/yellow for color, with strong carbonation. The nose is white grapes, melon, dry, grass, honey, and a touch of pineapple. The taste is a balance of sour and funk. The sourness fades after the fourth or fifth taste, revealing slightly bitter and funky notes. Oak, grass, orange, white grapes, pineapple, pepper spice, and some barnyard funk. Leather. Dry.
2012 Old Ruffian from Great Divide. I've been holding onto this one for way too long. Pours a nice murky orange. The nose is full of pine, citrus, caramel, and malts. The taste is incredible. Loads of caramel, with a hoppy bitterness that appears on the back end. Some citrus peel, honey, plums, and a dry woody note. It's super interesting. It's malty and mild when it hits the palate, but then becomes hoppy and bitter in a second or two. Excellent beer!
Could the beer have been bottled unfiltered? If so, it might have survived. My mediocre homebrew from 40 years ago still tastes much the same.
I appreciate the replies. I’m fascinated by this find. The liquid in the bottle doesn’t look particularly dark. That certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t a barley wine, I just thought it interesting.
That was pretty much my wife’s favorite brown ale ever (mine was their Underground Mountain). Wish with you they’d brew ‘em again!
2016 Saint Lamvinus from Cantillon. Purchased when it was released. Pours a nice dark red/orange with minimal head. The taste is fantastic. A bit subdued relative to fresh - some funk and a bit of sourness. Merlot, lemon, and a nice layer of malts. Great stuff.
How did you store this over the past decade? Basement (50 F), Refrigerator (35-40 F) or room temps? Upright I presume, even though my last cellar review from a different brewery suggested wine like sideways with the cork, which I have or will never do..
Not much chance of that. I found an analysis of it from 1959. OG 1055, 5.06% ABV, 20 SRM. So my guess was pretty much totally wrong.
Cellar temp (around 55F). I only store these on their side (as Cantillon does with their cellared bottles). I have a couple of dozen bottles that are older than this one - going back as far as 2007. I'll open some of those throughout the year. Cheers!
2021 Expedition Stout. Fantastic stuff. Black licorice, roasted malts, dark chocolate, and coffee. This ages so nicely.
Fremont's 12th anniversary beer from 2021. It's a bba imperial stout with cherries. In its youth I thought the sweet cherry flavor was a bit too prominent, but today the cherry flavor blends in seamlessly with the base beer and bourbon flavor. This beer has aged remarkably well and is just delicious. The additional aging has improved it imho.
Did the name of this thread get changed? Anyways, been a minute but back with a vengeance. 2024 BCB Rare. Review below but TL/DR is that this one is . Probably would land amongst the top few % of beers I’ve ever had. Not sure how it was fresh but at just around 2 years this is a home run in my book. A: Appearance is jet black, completely opaque, dark mocha colored head. Typical BCB appearance except head is a bit fizzier and dissipates quicker. Almost no lacing but some alcohol legs. 4.5 S: Huge whiskey aromas, tons of barrel. Nutty, earthy, rye. Quite toasty. No real sweet characters on the nose, but a hint of unsweetened bakers chocolate. Boozy ethanol to balance. Some characteristics I don’t usually get in BCB stouts like leather and tobacco. Aroma just gets better and better throughout the drink. 4.75 T: Taste packs quit the punch. Really phenomenal. Just an explosion of various flavors. It’s roasted malt and whiskey oak barrels up front, some earthy and raw wood characters in the middle, and settles with a long lingering dark chocolate and smooth charred bourbon barrel notes. There’s a mix of other sweet and astringent notes as well, that balance each other nicely. A touch of brown sugar, boozy ethanol, some overripe dark fruits. Wildly complex and nothing short of voluptuous. 5 M/D: Smooth with an appropriate carbonation. ABV is remarkably well restrained at 18.0%. Drinkability is dangerous, interestingly if limited in drinkability it’s due to a cloying factor of sweetness and roastiness as you get towards the end and not to a boozy harshness at all, which is really quite impressive. 4.5 O: This beer is it. Not my all time favorite BCBS variant but it’s at least worthy of entering the discussion which makes it an all timer in my book. 5
What happened to cavedave? I know he had what I think were serious medical problems for a number of years, so I am inclined to think the worst, but hope I am wrong.
