Delirium Noël

Brewed by Brouwerij Huyghe
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Melle, Belgium

750 ml bottle from Wholefoods. Clear rich golden amber with almost no head. Apricot aroma with hints of sourness and spice. Nice fruity tart taste with a good breadiness and some mild spice to the finish.

Bottle, dark reddish color, lots of head. A bit less flavor than tremens, but with more alcohol. Great to try but not as good as tremens.

750ml bottle, aged about one year. Pours a dark, cloudy, nearly opaque chestnut body. A massive, spongy, cream colored head shows nice retention, settling to a thin film only after about 10 minutes. A minimal, spotty, sudsy lacing dots the glass. The aroma is nothing short of divine. It shows a complex blend of lightly toasted caramel, nougat, heavy cream, hazelnuts, oak, and heaps of vanilla. The nose resembles a well crafted English barleywine blended with a strong Belgian. The flavor is similar, and very solid, though a bit sweet. Caramel blends with faint hints of coffee and chocolate on the tongue. An oaky, woodsy earthiness is present throughout, with vanilla making a strong push for top billing. Hazelnuts also play a strong role. Medium-full bodied, smooth, and just a little sticky. This is a damn fine brew. Considerably better than the Nocturnum. I would bet that a year of aging has done this one well.

Nice white bottle. Honey aroma with touch of clove. Amber pour. This is a hoppy Belgique brew with touches of caramel and pine. Another fine ale from Delirium.

750mL bottle. Poured into Delirium Noel branded tulip glass, even! A pleasant opaque orange-amber appearance with noticable sediment, although very smooth once in the mouth. Three finger head with only slight lacing. The alcohol was definately noticable in the aroma and flavor, but the spices and fruity hints offset any harshness fairly well. Flavor spiced up noticably as the beer warmed.

Dark ruby red beer with pretty decent head. Full carbonation bubbles. Very sweet aroma, almost artificial cherry smell with yeasty notes. no lacing left. Very full bodied! It tastes like it smell with other fruit flavors plus peppery/spicy notes. I love it! Very nice Noel! The alcohol definitely keeps you warm in the winter!

Pours a rust red color with a smallish off white head. Fruity sweet nose with floral notes laced in. Taste is fruity/sweet with notes of pear apple and prunes. Alcohol is also clearly apparent in the taste. Syrupy mouth feel. As the finish approaches a hop bitterness begins to emerge and that finish consists of the hop bitterness mingled with the lingering fruit tastes. Good balance all the way through.

The beer pours a red amber with a thin but long lasting light brown head. The beer is very hazy and lightly filtered, there are very large chunks of stuff floating in the beer, which just adds to it’s drinkability. The beer is a complex mix of fruit, spice yeast and a hint of wood. The fruity note come out as a mix of dark fruit, cranberries, plums and oranges.