De Dolle Boskeun

Brewed by De Dolle Brouwers
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Diksmuide, Belgium

Bottle. Hazy golden body with a medium bubbly head. Malty and somewhat hoppy aroma with yeasty notes. Creamy soft body. Very malty flavour with lots of spices and a slight pleasant sourness.

bottle from Premier, poured murky gold with lots of floaties, nice foam on top nose is hoppy, some spices i cant get exactly and sweet malts also some booze as well flavor is similar. Great belgian strong!!

Bottle from Bier Koning. Copper body, tall head. Hoppy nose. Nice fruit and hops in the taste. Quite crisp and enjoyable.

Bottle, from John’s Grocery in Iowa City. Copper with a little greenish cast, a bit of yeast sediment even with a gentle pour. Some rough white bubbles. Honey, resin, leafy spicy nose. Vast amount of carbonation, mouthfilling and noisy. Noble hops and iron fillings, a raisiny aged sort of fruit like a good aged Christmas pud. Alcohol apparent but compliments the flavor experience. (Again with the Christmas pud.) Full of unique character in a very De Dolle sort of way.

By now I know that De Dolle requires a gentle pour, but the head is still tough to manage. Fluffy white atop an opaque, shimmering gold, sediment abounds. Nose is fantastic: yeast and hops 1-2 olfactory senses, then sweet citrus and resin come in, and all is topped off by a woody earth note that reminds me of dry autumn leaves. The flavor isn’t as nice, but it’s still solid: yeast and hop atop strong coriander, slight alcohol in the finish. Palate is fresh and alive, long and dusty in hop and alcohol. My favorite from De Dolle.

<b>In short: </b>A very tasty belgian blonde ale. Very hoppy, crisp and sharp spicy hops. Very good.
<b>How: </b>Bottle 330cl, almost 1 year old.
<b>The look: </b>Cloudy dark golden body with a lot of particles topped by a long-lasting large white head
<b>In long: </b>Nose has a lot of noble hops, so much so that it’s all I got in the aroma. Blind testing from the smell I would have called an extra-hoppy bohemian pilsner. Taste is extra crisp. This is crisp honey, crisp biscuits, crisp grassy hops, crisp everything. The carbonation, attack and bitterness are very sharp, the beer is actually quite intense in its own way. The hops have a strong spicy nature, so much so that it almost turn this otherwise highly drinkable beer into a sipper. Somewhat similar to a Taras Boulba but this Boskeun has a sweeter sugary body and the extreme spicy nature of the hops (white pepper) is a bit too much. Still, this is truly a kick-ass beer. Another masterpiece from De Dolle, the brewery that makes fantastic -9% beers and atrocious +10% beers, a concept that is now considered as anti-american as Al-Qaeda.

i didn’t wait to see if it gushed. i’ve learned my lesson. immediately poured it into my glass, and it came out a rather pleasant gold color, which, if it weren’t for the many chunks of yeast floating in the glass, would be pretty clear, and with a giant, fluffy, just off-white head that lingers and laces nicely. gets hazier as the bottle goes down, unsurprisingly. smells like what would happen if you piled bananas in honey and baked them, and garnished the whole thing with pears and grass and maybe some nuts. there’s a lot going on there! even little notes of berries at the end. it smells very sweet, if that’s a thing. oh, and it is sweet. it tastes like candied fruit, honeyed malt, pears, sugar, and grassy hops. pretty sweet finish, almost like a barleywine, but without the alcohol bitterness to mitigate it. not bad, but more cloying that i prefer. a surprisingly hoppy aftertaste lingers on the palate, though there is not much in the way of corresponding hoppy bitterness. pretty thick, good but unremarkable mouthfeel, and a ton of tiny carbonation. i like it, but a bottle is just the right amount. don’t think i could do a six-pack of it. interesting and different, though i don’t imagine i’ll seek it out (except maybe as an annual easter beer).

11.2 oz bottle **Summary** - I was looking forward to this after picking it up on a road trip. After the bottle finally finished gushing I was left with about a third of the bottle. That is the primary reason I scored it so low. If I had gotten the full experience it might rate better. ** Aroma / Appearance** - Surging from the second it opened I had to wait for it to die down before I could pour the dregs into my glass. When it settled I as left with a chunky hazy copper beer. Malty, bubble gum, and apple cider blended into a festive time. It was much like a abbey ale with a bit of a punch. **Flavor / Palate** - Fluid, light, and a little boozy the dregs are a reflection of the quality of the rest of the product. Better than the St Bernardus Christmas ale its main weakness is the fact that I only got about four sips before it was gone. If I could find it on sale I might pick up another bottle and give it another chance.