Struise Black Albert

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

Bottle thanks to Tronraner. Pours quite dark, opaque with ruby tints in the light. A large frothy head floats on top. The aroma is sweet with licorice and molasses with subtle spiced nuances. A ricey soy sauce quality reminds me of a foreign-styled Carribean stout. The palate is fairly robust and along with the hints of dark chocolate, wood, honey, vanilla, and leather, it hides the alcohol shockingly well. Black Albert is interesting in that it is a mix of a typical English export stout with a Belgian ale twist, yet it is all blown up to American strength. Unique and very enjoyable.

Pours a very dark brown almost pitch black with a huge 1.5 inch caramel colored head. Smells of coffee, chocolate, and roasted malts, with some alcohol notes bleeding through. Intense thick lacing lovingly clings to the glass. First sip is surprisingly smooth with a beautiful bitterness that is coffee and chocolate with a mellow yeast note very present. The body is fairly light and the 13% ABV is very well hidden. Damn this is good. Very sweet and then quickly bitter. Wow. This beer lives up to its hype.

Bottle. Huge brown head with excellent duration. Color is black. Aroma and taste arerich with roast malt, chocolate, coffee and fruits. Good long lasting bitter finish.

First of all, feel the heft of that dainty little 330ml bottle in your hand. This beer is an offensive weapon. Abyssal pitch pour against a variety of halogen spotlights. Not a photon may pass. It’s a little bit black. Thick tan collar collapsing slowly to a halo. Fat luscious nose swaying unsteadily between burnt plastic, bitter bitter high cocoa choc, yeast extract, bramble, permanent marker (black, naturally), cappuccino, choc raisins, cinder toffee, prune and massive sweet red apple fruitiness. Bit too heavy on the solvent, but as with Brewdog Tokyo and Bass P2, snorting this beast is a bit like being clobbered around the head with a kilo of Gala. And loving it. Mouthfeel espresso custard Friij (does not exist)- soft, slick and milkshake-thick. Just the right background tickle of carbonation. Alcohol not discernible other than as faint heat, and instant facial flushing. Opens toffee sweet, but then just rolls around the mouth with singed cocoa bitterness, sweetness, bitterness, burnt toast, black coffee and molten Lindt oaken tun apple-bobbing until you don’t know where you are. Afters are apple, smoke, cocoa. It’s not hugely complex, and great stouts aren’t. What is beautiful about this is beer is that despite the ABV and hugeness of flavours, it retains the approachability of a stout a half (or a third) as strong. I hung onto every last sip. MASSIVE and lovely.

Bottled(330ml). -Courtesy of Papsoe, shared with Doggythedog (thanks both of them for giving and sharing).
Deep black coloured, medium sized brown head, pleasant strong chocolate nose. Roasted malt, sweet chocolate and bitter coffee with notes of licorice, raisins and vanilla. Silky and smooth, alcohol is well hidden. Excellant IS.

Bottle (Thanks oh6gdx!) Pours opaque with an initially huge head that fades. Big aroma- tarry, licorice, alcohol, and some off notes of rubber-like hints. Slick body, slightly hot. Salty flavor. Licorice, tobacco, some light molasses sweetness, along with off flavors of band aid (as EyeDrinkAle mentioned) Diacetyl, and burnt raisins are in there as well. The finish has some resiny coffee bean bitterness and residual odd phenols. Very overrated. Just a big, salty, hot stout. No complexities.

11.2 oz bottle (BA No. 14… I am assuming this means Batch 14) into wine glass for lack of a snifter. I paid 25 dollars for this bottle, so lets hope it is good. Off the bat, a perfect pour – pitch black with GIANT creamy (so creamy that the surface looks like it came off of a nitro tap) espresso head. Surprisingly enough though, the head didn’t leave much lace. Pungent aroma that started filling the room upon opening. Not the typical imperial stout aroma – big dark fruit notes, some candi sugar, some molasses, and really vinous in general. I didn’t think I would like the Belgian sweetness, but so far it works very well with the aroma. The flavor is very solid and very subtly complex. It was a bit amorphous upfront and I was a bit disappointed, until, from nowhere, came all types of dark fruit qualities, vanilla, roasted chocolate, hops, licorice, molasses, and more. This bad boy has some serious layers to it. The alcohol is hidden well so far, but after only 3 sips has made is presence known in my stomach (nice and warming). This is not nearly the thickest imperial stout I have ever had (and usually, for me, the thicker the better), yet its body is so perfectly matched to its texture and flavor that it is perfect as it is. Soft carbonation silky mouth feel. The more I drink, the nuttier this thing gets, and it works well. Overall: this thing has a big alcohol presence that is at no point overwhelming, in either the aroma or flavor. It is complex as hell, yet easy drinking and not overdone in the slightest (like many other mega imperial stouts). Everything is nicely balanced too. This is by no means your typical imperial stout (more like an imperial porter IMO) but still remarkably well done. This also has one of the coolest labels out there; props Struise!

Bottle, courtesy of ygtbsm94. Pours red black with very nice tan head. The aroma is molasses, brown sugar, chocolate, and a spicy yeast character. The flavor is sticky bitter chocolate, and seems quite resinous. Some soy sauce comes out from time to time. There’s a bit of smoky ash and woody bitterness, too. There’s a pleasant roasty sourness in the finish with a slight nutty aftertaste. Amazingly, all that alcohol is hardly noticeable at all. Very well done.