La Bière du Boucanier Dark Ale

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

decent brew nice red colour none of the Boucanier beers are the best but still nice to try malty and sugary little to much catrbonation for my liking.

Nice white bottle. Brown rubin reddisch coloured beer with a hughe off-white head. Fruity smouth roasted malty aroma. Full palate, some sprankling. Finish is strong, roasted malts with a somewhat bitter alcoholical touch and a dryer sweeter ending. Perfect degustation beer. Nice.

Poured on tap in tulip glass at Brouwer’s. Aroma of spices, malty sweetness, with some slight phenolic notes. Appearance is reddish brown; head is large, tan, and lacy. Flavor is malty, candi sugar sweet, w/ some spicy notes. Mouthfeel is rich, velvety, medium –full body with med-high carb. Also has alcohol warming. Overall a rich, warming Belgian dark ale.

Pour was a very dark brown with a brown head. Aroma is very much brown sugar and dark fruits. The flavor is again dark fruits, some yeastyness and tons of sugar. Finish is of course very sweet. Alcohol is well hidden. Very tasty and each sip leaves something different on the tounge.

Bottle in the Boucanier Christmas 6-pack from the <a href=http://www.lcbo.com target=blank>LCBO in Peterborough. Deep copper in colour, thin dissipating beige head, some lace, visible carbonation. The aroma was yeasty, caramel, light candy sweetness, dark fruits. The flavour had some plums, caramel, yeast, light alcohol, light sweetness. Lightly bitter mouthfeel, medium body, medium carbonation. Finishes with some alcohol warmth, dry, lingering.

Draft. Lively head -- tons of action in the glass, swirling sediment, good bubble retention, etc. Aromas of cantaloupe and barnyard composing the hop and yeast. Great malts on tasting with plenty of finishing caramel and chocolate. Lots of sweetness throughout. Kind of two brews in one. The first is fruit-sweet and has a decent hop presence. the second, on the finish, is malty and drying. The constant, besides the sugar, is the prescient alcohol, which navigates the tongue consistently. This is a beer that will please some, revolt others. Too sweet for me.

Dark red colour with a frothy off-white head. Toffee and caramel sweetness dominate the aroma and flavour. Overly sweetish for my tastes. Full bodied, sticky and syrupy mouthfeel.

The tastier, more together brother of the buccaneers. I actually enjoyed this one also, having just polished off a few bottles of the ’gold’, with this one showing a lot more character than the last, or is it just my natural penchant for darker beers. Looked good in the chalice with a rocky beige head erupting off the pour to sit a good inch thick, atop a murky, deep brown body (with a bad case of the floaties). Head retained for the length to leave a nice frost of bubbles in its wake as I sipped. Doughy, deep, complex malt nose that also showed soft notes of raisins, sultanas, and figs, and a little savoury spice. Like fresh-cooked pudding! Quite sweet in the mouth, strong but not cloying, and generously flavoured. Smooth, lightly carbonated and medium-big bodied from the start; flavours of dark, chocolaty malts, powdery cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon, and a lot of toffee mix with light, savoury fruits in the back end before a long, sweet and smooth swallow that showed more of the malts. Alcohol seems well controlled for a 9%’er only showing itself like a gas in the back of the mouth between swallows and ofcourse in the warmth it provides. Compliments the big-malts well, like the Gulden Draak. So rich this beer is that I reckon a few years might calm it. Enjoyable, slow sipper, after dinner perhaps!!! (33cL, batch No. 13HC, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)