Baladin Elixir

Brewed by Le Baladin
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Piozzo, Italy

Bottle thanks to cgravieuk. A seriously complex beast. Honey, corriander, peppery, peachy, hints of peppermint. Really carbonated taste is similar, noteable alcohol and alround a nice triple.

At home in bottle ... Golden Orange ... Peppery hop nose ... lively ... lots of fizz ... High fruit ... mellow malt ... very sweet triple ... citrus fruit finish ... rich and complex ... with a touch of caramel ... Many thanks to myself for bringing this back from italy for me.

Bottle at Arancia Blu in Rome. Had this with some delicious fresh pasta. Aroma was very fruity and flowery - maybe a bit of honeysuckle, orange blossom. Flavor was lightly sweet, but also a bit bitter and acidic which made it go great with food. Also had flavors of black pepper, coriander, and other spices. Smooth, structured mouthfeel. Overall pretty decent beer!

Bottled. A hazy amber beer with a big head. Notes of fruits alcohol and coriander in the aroma. The flavour is sweet malty with a sour touch and a hint of hops in the end. Full body, but it doesn’t seem 10% ABV. Nice.

Bottle. Pours a hazy amber colour with a white head. Sweet malty spicy aroma with some hints of oranges. Sweet malty fruity flavor with some spicy hints. Dry malty warming finish with some hints of oranges.

Doughy citrus, orange-blossom, candy-like aroma with mild notes of acetone. Opaque orange copper coloured body is topped by a fizzy, off white, fully diminishing head. Initial beauty is sadly fleeting. Doughy, sweet marzipan flavour offers mild fruitiness and vanilla notes but never seems to assert itself and the aftertaste is marred by acetone-like fusels. Dry medium body with short-lived carbonation. Alcohol (other than fusels) is never apparent. Bottle sampled with MartinT, Olivier_MTL and Rastacouere.

Nice looking reddish/orange/copper hue suffers from its quickly fading head and then looks dead. Rather original nose comprising a fun mix of spices curacao, ginger, but it quickly showcases the almost absent maltiness, while we could have believed we were being led in a liquorous, juicy elixir. At 11%, it’s alcohol remains restrained enough, but its fizzy and thin body makes it seem frail and over-enthusiastic. Parallel sub-flavors of vanilla, strong dough, raw bread, honeymelon, raw sugar, but all in a too chaotic ensemble.

Any first impressions?
-A ring of big bubbles circles the cloudy orange-bronze.
-Doughy yeast and milky coriander shield the peachy fruitiness and flower petals.
-Curaçao zest and peach juice are meagerly dispersed onto the biscuity maltiness.
-Ambitious bubbling mostly showcases the lean maltiness.

What if you dig deeper?
-Alcohol is well-hidden for its size.
-Maltiness is sadly distant, especially for such a big brew.
-White sugar/cake icing develops in the aroma.
-A shrug of the shoulders is all that happened for me while having this drinkable Belgian-style strong ale.

Bottle; 072007.