Gaverhopke Den Twaalf

Brewed by ’t Gaverhopke
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Stasegem-Harelbeke, Belgium

Sampled at Darkness Day 2009. Pours a copper brown with a nice tan head. Aroma is tart, dark fruits: raisins, dates, plum...caramel malts, wonderfully complex. Flavor is sweet and sour. Palate is smooth but has the sour tang, very nice. Overall, excellent beer.

Pours a murky amber brown with a moussey two finger sandstone head. Nose is sweet, shows some candy, earthy, mild yeast ester, prune, rusty. Flavor is a bit metallic, mild alcohol, sweet, some fruit. Palate is mildly carbonated. Meh.

Warm brown coloured beer with small light beige coloured head. Aroma is warm with a smooth roundness off malts, some bread, fruits, spices and hops. taste is rich with some caramel, malts, fruits and hops.

Poured aggresively for a medium fine foam off white head and a little lace. Color is a very slightly hazy brownish amber. Aroma is spicy, malty, fruity, and a bit tart. Flavor’s about exactly the same. Body is good, on the soft side, and with good carbonation. Don’t pick up much on the alcohol. After reading a bit about it, think I may have a bottle that’s slightly turned. Even so, good beer. If not fot its strength, could almost be a session.

Pours chestnut brown with a very small tan head and just a slight amount of lacing. Aroma is caramel candy, toffee and malt. Tastes of candy apples, and very sweet dates, with sugar-coated raisins. Not much hops leaves the malt abit unbalanced, so that sweetness dominates all aspects of this one. Alcohol is not well hidden.

33cl bottle. Smallish beige head atop murky chestnut body. Aroma is moderately sweet, fig, Brandied prune, apricot, molasses, light Belgian yeast, earthiness. Taste is sweet and boozy, prune/raisin, some caramel/molasses, berry, light yeast. Sticky full body. No depth to this one, really just big sweet and fruity booziness.

Pours a coca cola brown with very little head. Nice malty nose with figs, honey, and a tad of chocolate. Taste is very straightforward Belgian malts with little to no complexity. I will say, it does hide its 12% alcohol content very well, but I was left sort of unsatisfied for such a "big beer". Lots of carbonation which is a nice touch.

Bottle. Pours a dark mahogany with a small off-white head. Aroma of dark fruit, caramel, yeast and has a touch of spice. Flavor was sweet with caramel, brown sugar, yeast and raisins with a medium body and has a nice dry warming finish.