A brown or dark red beer with an OK but fast disappearing head. The aroma is sweet and slightly fruity. The flavor is fanstastic; very sweet, fruity, and complex. It ends on an earthy note - but with a good sweetness and notes of oranges. It has no bitterness at all. A really good beer with a good palate, but a little too sweet, and not bitter enough for my liking.

Bottled. Comes in a real classy shallow tulip glass. Pours dark ruby with rich head. Toffee aroma, and once it is warmed up also roasted malt and burnt sugar. Sweet vinous and very malty. In a way quite remimiscent of a full bodied red wine. The mouthfeel is soft and it is arousingly flavourful. The balanced finish contains a slight trace of hop bitterness to balance the port wine.

(Bottle 33 cl) Very dark and extremely full-bodied. A pruny sweetness with loads of malt. A bit flat actually. A very complex strong ale. Try it from the beautiful Kasteel-glass at the castle grounds in Ingelmunster. 100993

Looks black, but is actually very dark mahogany. Has a perfect 1 inch head when poured into a snifter (probably better than the regular Kasteel glass); Aroma features alcohol, dark malts, plums, a little bit of smoke (kind of like this smoked plum tea I bought in Chinatown once). The body is thick, but silky smooth, with a sweet palate of demerara sugar, vietnamese coffee, chocolate cake, and only a hint of alcohol or fruit. The finish is of sweet malts. This is big, but sure hides the alcohol well. You know its winter when you’re drinking Bush Noel and Kasteel on consecutive nights.

33 cL bottle. Pours dark brown with a redish tone, head is light brown and crispy leaving some lacing. Aroma is sweet, dark malt notes and bitter/citric rounded off by a yeasty spicy note. Flavour is extremely sweet, malt notes drowning in the sugar. Warming alcohol finish with distinct yeast notes. Fullbodied. At first does the classical fruit notes that come from the yeast completely blend out by the rather brutal sweetness, but for every sip they provide a more sofisticated palate to the sweetness showing some raisin and other dried fruit notes. This is clearly a beer for slow sipping. I won’t have this as my favourite beer for that though.