Alvinne Podge Belgian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Picobrouwerij Alvinne
Style: Imperial Stout
Heule, Belgium

On Tap at Max’s Belgian Festival in Baltimore. Nice ddep brown color with a tan head. Aroma was dark fruit, chocolate, raisins. Flavor was more dark fruit with a hint of roasted malt which gave the beer a really interesting twang kind of in the middle of your tongue. Very pleasant. This was a good beer.

33cl bottle of Max’s, at Max’s 36h of Belgium. Dark red-brown with a big tan head. Dried fig paste and tootsie roll aroma. Sweet vinous fruity flavor, with a healthy chocolate addition and light alcohol touch. Full bodied with healthy carbonation. A pretty fun, chocolatey and fruity beer. Unique for sure and a welcomed departure from American-style stouts.

Little stubby bottle that a friend brought back form Europe and shared. The first thing that struck me about this beer was the fact that it was brown and not black, confusing. The smell was nice and malty and the taste was as well but this did not fit the style at all from the experience I have had with RIS. It was still a tasty beer and an interesting experience. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 10-03-2008 14:59:33

Bottle. A very strong and creamy aroma, chocolate and coffee, very nice. The head is brown, rather small and creamy-foamy with a normal duration. The body is black and lively. The first taste is light sweet, then it gets more bitter and light fizzy. The duration is very long. The body is very creamy, heavy and with rather soft carbonation. Overall a very nice Imperial Stout.

Bottle from Cracked Kettle. Quite liked this one. Dark brown body, sweet nose. Taste of fruits, caramel, roasted malts and coffee. Quite sweet.

Bottle. Pours unfiltered with a dark brown body. Aroma is spicy, fruity, sweet and malty. Looks high in carbonation. The flavor is a strange mixture of dried fruit (prunes and cherries), roasted malt, sweetness and the alcohol is very noticeable. The overly fizziness helps keep the sweetness from being too cloying. Not bad... but would have never guessed that it was an imperial stout. More like a dark strong ale.

Bottle shared with Pyrozoid and French Tickler. Dark brown cherry red appearance with a nice creamy taned head. Aroma: pear, prunes, caramel, and chocolate. Flavor: alcohol, cherry, cocoa, wine malts and licorice. Palate: full body creamy with a chalky finish.

In short: An extra fruity (prune juice mainly) Strong Belgian Dark Ale calling itself an Imperial Stout. Quickly gets annoying.
How: Bottle 330ml, consumed when about 6 months old
The look: Dark burgundy body topped by a very little being ring of foam
In long: nose of date cookies and prune juice. Taste is more of the same with the prune juice being very much upfront. Too much prune juice for me. Figs, dates and molasses complete the flavour spectrum. Almost no roastiness, this is a fruity juicy dark beer. Herbal slightly spicy hops save the day and dry out the beer a bit although the finish is mainly prune juice. No alcohol presence but the body feels rather light for such a high gravity beer. This is more of a Strong Belgian Dark ale than an Imperial Stout, even by Belgian Imperial Stout standards. And to think that this excellent pico-brewery (one notch below a micro-brewery) is wasting valuable production capacity making this lame beer when they could make more of their excellent beers (Hik-Bier, Extra Restyled, etc.). When you have limited capacity you need to focus more. Like my girlfriend, she cannot talk while parallel parking.