Gouden Carolus Classic

Brewed by Brouwerij Het Anker
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Mechelen, Belgium

Smells like brown sugar, deep burgandy colour.Toffey, caramel taste, gets richer as you finish. Complex and delicious.

750ml bottle picked up at Alko in Tampere and sampled at a drinking party in Tromsø. Inviting dark brown red-tinged body with great clarity and a fading off-white foam. Port-like profile. Spicy to the nose. Taste of sweet, dark berries with a yeasty touch towards the end. Almost full bodied. Decent brew, but too much candy sweetness to get a higher score (18.11.2006).

Medium dark color, very little head despite being adequately carbonated, you can smell the alcohol (8%) in the aroma, otherwise pretty drinkable, better than many other Belgians that don’t hide their alcohol as well. Hard to find, sadly, so I won’t be rerating it any time soon.

Bottle.Dark brown with a offwhite froth. Licorice, spices, caramel aroma. Delicious and balanced licorice caramel flavours, semidry throughout. Good mouthfeel, full body. A Belgian classic that never disappoints.

330. Pours an opaque dark brown with a thick, moussy, dark tan head. Ultra-buttery, butterscotchy nose, tons of caramel. Super-candy-bar-like. Booze and dark fruit there as well without a doubt. Nice medium body, a little creamy, very soothing and almost quenching. Liquer-like. Complex fruit, candy, and booze mid-palate, same as the nose. Airy butterscotch finish. All the butter/butterscotch business does not seem like diacetyl, though it might well be--whatever it is, it feels appropriate enough to the drink.

We had a little begian beer taste test, with this beer going up against St. Bernardus triple and Gouden Christmas Ale. This one was the most popular. Hazy nut brown with a creamy tan head that stuck around until the finish. Rich nutty caramel aroma, faintly fruity. Silky smooth, very rich and malty with sponge toffee and caramel flavours, a little fruitiness, a little breadiness and a spicy finish with a suggestion of licorice. Truly excellent and a pleasure to drink.

Clear amber color with tan head and excellent lacing. Sugary aroma with a hint of beat sugar. Also a nice molasses and toffee smell. Flavor is cherries, dates, cinnamon, sweet toffee malts, maybe coriander and a hint of candi sugar. I also sense a little of the alcohol. Nice melded flavor brew. Enjoyable.

Nothing like expected. Nose is juicily estery, with overripe banana, plum, maybe strawberry, and a clove/cinnamon spiciness (salivating). Heading towards my top 100 and I’ve not even tasted it yet. Aromatically heady and fruity, but not overpowering. Raisins, white pepper, caramel, more banana. Bubblegum and dandelion and Burdock rootiness in the snout and beyond. Swill and inhale. How can the mouth match that?? It can’t, but it tries with more cinnamon, heady fruit and Dunkelish plums. A banana, brown sugar and cinnamon snadwich of a beer. Slips down wickedly with a delicate dusting of spice. Clear red with a billowing beige head.