De Dolle Stille Nacht

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

moderate lacing with a cloudy pale orange. Lots of head but that might have just been the tap. Slightly sour aroma with grainy traces. Taste like a barleywine with honey and just a slight twinge of alcohol. Smooth, little trace of its strength.

Bottle, 2005. Pours hazy and amber with a medium sized off-white head. Nose of malt, yeast and riped fruit. Sweet flavour with malt, spices and caramel. More dry at the end with warming alcohol. A pleasant brew to enjoy in the wintertime.

33 cl bottle from Plaza Liquors - Pours a well carbonated hazy amber color with a large off white head and a few good size floaties. No lacing left behind as the head settles. Aroma is quite fruity. Flavor is very sweet and estery with a good bit of spice. There is a nice bit of bitterness in the finish. The alcohol is nicely hidden. Palate is soft and smooth. A very nice beer.

Pours a murky orange with no head but some froth. Taste is sweet, hops and yeast, orange peel, other citrus fruits and a lot of alcohol. Perhaps a little too strong, but a beer with a lot of flavour.

Bottle. Hazy golden colour with huge creamy white mostly lasting head. Fruity and yeasty aroma. Sweet spicy flavor. Warm alcohol finish.

2008 bottle from Systembolaget. Brown-Orange in colour with a white head. Sweet aroma with currant and a lot of alcohol. Tastes a lot like a barley wine, perhaps because the presence of alcohol. The rest of the bottles i bought will be cellared for a few years. I had the oppurtunity to taste a 2004 (4yrs old) bottle. It tastes a lot of saffron and christmust spices, moast of the alcohol taste is gone. Id guess that 4 yeras is optimal but it will probably be good after 5 as well.

33cl bottle. Pours an extremely cloudy, opaque (kind of grody) caramel brown with chunky sediment drifting about (very hard to pour w/out getting sediment - lots and lots of it that is easily loosed from the bottom of the bottle). The aroma is intense at first: alcohol and spices (pepper, coriander). Dried fruit and hints of malt and sherry emerge. Flavor starts sweet and malty with toffee, caramel, and candied fruit. A very nice, toasty, bready, malt-sweet quality persists throughout. There are subtle spice notes on the front of the palate and a slight wine-like quality towards mid-palate - from acidity and alcohol. The finish is dry and quite spritzy with some malt sweetness, subtle spice and acidity, and De Dolle house yeast character (recognizable malt/ester profile from some of their other beers). The beer is warming as it goes down from the alcohol. The mouthfeel is very, very highly carbonated, but somehow it doesnt feel overcarbonated or inappropriate. It is spritzy and champagne-like but with a distinctly fuller body that begins to get chewy as the carbon dioxide is released. Overall - a tasty Belgian ale. The alcohol is very well-hidden. The chewy malts are delicious. I wish the beer were prettier though...

2006 bottle - orange color with a med-lg head. Aroma has some pleasant citrus, a nice & soft yeastiness. a bit of sugar, and mild hop remnants. Flavor is pleasantly sweet with some sugar and breadiness, abundant citrus presence, and a complex yeastiness thats hard to beat. Nice feel & finish. Always a classic.