De Dolle Stille Nacht

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

Original review date 3/15/2009... 11.6 oz. with a bottle date 2008. Visible floaties in the bottle. Out of the fridge and warming for about 15 minutes, then opened - not a gush with the cap off but it’s mildly happy to see me. I pour it off a bit into the Ommegang chalice, let it breathe and pour an additional amount. Well, it has a classic eggshell-colored head...pouring carefully I get a full finger and then some. It’s so thick it’s almost doughy and can see it jiggle like my beer gut when I type. There are a fair amount of floaties in the honey-copper body - as I was rather careful with this one it’s slightly aesthetically unpleasant. This is viscous. Looks like spent peanut oil in a deep fryer, it’s so thick. The yeast is this is nice and electric with a slight...actually a moderate, sour tinge of citrus and mildly peppery spice. The grain profile is bright - not stewy or husky at all. No sense of burn - a little bit of saltiness, carbonation and mild coriander. LOTS of zest - both orange and lemon. There’s a little bit of metallic barnyard taste here - maybe not hay and horseblanket but maybe a rusty nail that the horse brushed up against - hopefully he or she didn’t get hurt. That light grain huskiness shows up here though and adds to the orange zest quotient and the huge yeastiness. Maybe not the most pristine Belgian I’ve come across but it’s fairly complex. So thick the residual sweetness is from a light dose of maybe candi sugar and a bit of booziness. Carbonation lightens it up a little to keep it clean. Gets more velvety with warmth. All this needs is a few minutes and it mellows out a bit to be fairly clean, quite husky and even a little on the heavy side. It blankets the palate and the back of the throat to be rather soothing - the booze burns but it’s wrapped in thick viscous liquid and slight residual sugar to keep it tolerable. Hey, it ends up being a little on the heavy side but the complexity acquits itself nicely. Maybe something I won’t reach for every day but a well-done effort nonetheless. Good change-up.

Aroma had some spiced cherry, biscuit and toffee. Yeasty flecks and well carbonated head for the appearance. Flavor contained molasses, chocolate, toffee and some spiced cherry. Palate was lively and fizzy. A little sweet, but delicious!

Aroma: sweet sugar, some nuttuness and spiritous. Appearance: orange/brown hazy with no head. Flavour: insanely sweet, apricot and spiritous. Recognisable hop bitterness. Palate: thick and lightly carbonated. Lasting fruit and bitterness.

Pours a nice amber with a respectable but small off-white head. Super sweet sour cherry aroma, tart and flora dark fruit flavor. I’m sure this improves with age.

Here we go again! Long time no review. bottel 08, trapist glass. Very Nice elegant amber-colored appearance. Very citric and fresh nose with heavy ginger and coriander, dense alcohol and effervescent tablet intensity. Taste is intense hazy orange, honey, ginger, lemon, Seville orange, heavy bubbled, fruity, very intense belgian duvelish yeast , spices, hints of almond and vanilla. This is good and strong! 12% actually.. i would recommand to store it several years. Maybe not something you want several bottles of in one session but still , very interesting, cheers!

bottle. pours a hazy orange with a nice big bubbled white head. A little fruity with some pleasant booze undertones. notes of bread, belgian yeast, honey, and spices. pretty good.

Latge head on an amber-colored beer. Some visible particles present. The taste has a medicinal sweetness with banana and yeast flavors.

Bottle from 06. This was an extremely interesting beer. This poured a cloudy bright yllow color with a big fluffy white head. Aroma was very sweet malts, candi sugar, vanilla and honey?, with also a residual tartness in the backround. Flavor was just as impressive. Sweet candi sugar, some vanilla and honey, jsut all around sweetness, but with a nice sour tinge in the afterthought. Wow, this is an experience.