Barbar Winter Bok

Brewed by Brasserie Lefebvre
Style: Dunkler Bock
Rebecq-Quenast, Belgium

33cl, from De Hopduvel Gent, complex honey ale, hazy, rocky head, good Winter brew

Bottle on sale from Sam’s ($3.99/4 pack). Dark, pretty much black pour with off-white head. Lots of spice on this one. Candied orange peel in full effect, nutmeg, clove, some cola tastes. Okay, but not really my bag; glad I got it on sale.

Bottle at Århus Ølfestival 2008. Pours amber with a beige head. Aroma and flavour are both sweet, malty, fruity and vinious.

It looks like a great root beer coming out of the bottle, until you have to wait for the 75% glass of foam to dissipate to try it. The color settles do a dark brown, only see through when held to light. HEad retention is fair. Aroma is medium malt, brown sugar, orange, and cilantro. The flavor is a powerful, sugary malt, with a sultry citrus character. There is a bit of sweetness to the flavor too, like honey or raw sugar. It’s medium-light on the palate with a fizzy after-feel. The finish tastes like wheat malt and is smooth, and only lasts a second. In other words, it’s clean. I’d rate this higher, but it’s a bit on the sweet side to be in the top rank of beers.

I thought Barbar original was quite good for a honey beer but felt a little let down by this. A little like a cadburys fruit and nut without the chocolate. Not a bad beer but had better too much for this to be high on my list.

Bottle. Pours deep ruby with a fizzy beige head. Aroma is apple, cinnimon, caramel, and light citrus. Medium body. Spicy flavor, with a touch of fruity sweetness. Pretty good.

Courtesy of CigarCityBrew. Pours clear brown-ish amber with big bubbled tan head. The aroma is musty dark fruitiness of plums, raisins and hard candy cherries as well as sugar sweetness. The taste is much the same creating a mirror image of the nose (huh?) with prunes, dates, figs, sweet ripe plums, raisins and some rip cherries to go along with faint dark roasted malts.

(June 2008 Beer Club Meeting - Sacrifice) Super cloudy brown amber color with an off-white head. Smell is grainy/light hoppy. Taste is... what the heck is this? Light malt. Spicy... definitely Belgian! Well done.