Struise Black Albert

Brewed by De Struise Brouwers
Style: Imperial Stout
Oostvleteren, Belgium

2009 Bottle - Thanks ogglethorp! - Pours a viscous dk dk brown with a small, creamy tan head...aroma is cocoa and scotch, roast and a bit of vanilla...flavour is really nicely integrated, I was expecting it to be a bit more salty, so I’m happy...coffee black, cream, more roasted malt...it grabs all the surfaces of your mouth...some sour fruit and burnt wood on the finish and some heat that I didn’t really taste, but felt the effects of immediately...great experience...

favourite beer ot the night. Pours black with a decent tan head that dissipates nicely. Very nice nose of chocolate and almost a fruitiness to it that gives it an almost wine-like characteristic. Nice complexity in the flavour with chocolate, coffee and a certain sweetness that isn’t often found in many imperial stouts due to the large amount of hops. In spite of the sweetness I still bfound it to be nicely balanced. Very nice

11.2 oz bottle. Black pour with a tan head. Super sweet treacle nose, licorice and roasty malt. Flavor is more of the same. Near syrupy body. A "WOW" beer that, in final analysis, is not complex but pretty tasty.

Bottle. Dark pour. This beer hits all over the place with flavor and aroma with a solid aftertaste. Great beer.

Tasted at delirium. Very dark and Black colour. Such a malty and a chocalate flavours. More like a dark chocalate like %85 percent aroma of coca. Such an amazing beer experience. Very very good beer. and also very hard to drink it...

Pours dark black/brown with a creamy mocha colored head. Delicious aroma of dark fruit, sugar, and chocolate. A lot of dark fruit on the flavor as well, with a hint of bread, mocha, and candy . A little bit weak on the body. It’s very good but not completely blowing me away.

THOUGHTS: This was incredible. It put everything I love about stouts and Belgian ales together with a touch of Flemish red to knock it out of the park. It actually hid the alcohol fairly well too. For all the IBUs it really wasn’t all that bitter either. Near perfect balance of malt and hops. Not much hops noticeable, but still very much an imperial stout and also very Belgian. Sort of tasted more like a Belgian foreign stout with spontaneous fermentation. The least noticeable alcohol to ABV ratio I think I ever had in a beer. The next day I could still taste it. And yes I brushed my teeth. The flavor just kept coming to mind all day long. If I win the lottery I am buy a case of this and putting it in a hiding place that I won’t even find it in. At least not for a few years, or it will be gone much to fast. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brown that was an opaque black in the glass with an average to large light brown to medium brown that slowly diminished, keeping a decent sheet for over an hour and leaving good to fair lacing. The aroma was heavy milk chocolate, cocoa, chocolate syrup and slightly lighter roasted malts, light to moderate sour yeast, licorice, cola, slight alcohol, and dark fruit that may have been plum or blue berry. The initial flavor was a little sweet, sour and bitter; while the finish was sweet, sour and rather bitter with a long duration. There was cocoa, sour fruit, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, dark sour fruit, roasted malt, plums, slight coffee, and maybe some acai berries too. The medium to full body was creamy with soft carbonation and a light to moderate astringent finish.

Thanks to Craig for the generous bottle! One of the more "belgian" stouts I’ve ever had ... rich, robust, full bodied. Rich malts blend nicely w/ beligan yeasts leading to a transitioning dry finish. Some dark fruits/licorice. Quite complex and really good