Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva

Brewed by De Struise Brouwers
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Oostvleteren, Belgium

aroma: dark fruits.. cheese???. nice overall, but the cheese got me off guard. pitch dark, small but very beautiful head. flavor dark fruits, lots of faint notes of different stuff, also cheese in there, no hint of the alcohol. Nice brew. gets even better as it warms up. With no competition whatsoever the very best aged beer i ever tasted. NO hints of aged beer in the taste. just interesting stuff.

Botella. Vintage 2005. Hazy deep dark brown colour with a small steady creamy beige head. Aroma of dark fruits, alcohol, good bitterness and toasty malt. The flavour is bitter-sweet with caramel, toasty malt, yeast, alcohol a pleasant tartness and spices.

Bottle opened at the Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield, on RateBeer Valley of Beer Crawl ’08. Many thanks to cgarvieuk for sharing this wondrous substance. Dark brown with a small off white head. Sweet malty toffee and candi sugar aroma. Here are some comments on that 10 out of 10 rating from those around me: haddonsman said poetically, ’It’s fighting to get out of the glass, tripping over itself.’ Then he added, with some bathos, ’Very acceptable.’ Madame SilkTork perceptively came up with ’Shortbread’. The taste was sweet, sugary and smooth with an edge of sourness. Some bitterness to follow. ’Wonderful,’ I wrote in my notes. Then, in different handwriting, I see I have written, ’Wonderful’ again, which was puzzling.

(33 cl bottle shared with deft, purchased from Systembolaget special release)
On July 25, 2008
BB 12-12
Slight shady deep dark red to brown color, medium tan to light brown head. Sweet, spicy and lactic, but mainly alcohol, scent. Also smells butter (almost rancid) and fudge. Vinous, sweet and metallic taste. Lingering metallic aftertaste. A bit acidic. Smooth mouthfeel, low bitterness.
After finished rating I had some nuts with the beer as a snack and quickly realized this beer didn’t go well with it, brought out the metallic notes even more.

(Bottled) Very hazy, very dark ruby with a smallish and lacy, beige head. Sourish-malty aroma with some alcohol, and lots of oaky tannins. Lots of dried, dark fruit in the flavor, with some oakiness, and sweet, appleish calvados. No alcohol present in the flavor. Medium to full body with soft carbonation. Maybe an inch thin. I think the Reserva was the peak with this one. Now with the additional Calvados aging, the apple sweetness has taken over, masking most of the finesses. Still good, but no more than that. Nevertheless, I’m happy they did try...

Bottle: Poured a deep brown/burgundy color ale with a super large foamy head with some exceptional retention and great lacing. Aroma of apple is easily distinguishable with some oak notes and light candi sugar notes. Taste is also dominated by the calvados notes with some oak notes and a nice lightly sweet malt base. Great carbonation with a full body and no discernable alcohol notes. Very well done overall but I still think I prefer the original Pannepot and maybe the oak-aged/calvados-aged has replace some of the complexity of the original beer.

A huge thanks to guerde & oslo for this gem. The aroma was of the usual pitted fruits and spice I get from any Pannepot, but with the wonderful addition of oak and all it’s associated aromas plus the calvados. In the body, much the same character as the aroma, but the calvados really cuts through. A murky brown pour with faint head.

(bottle, thanks Marsiblursi!!) Pours muddy brown with an off-white head. Just a really great aroma of chocolate, vinousness, plum, raisin, oak all over, with some unidentifiable spice, and a fair amount of yeast. The taste is very heavy on oak, with a lot of vinousness, tart berry skin, plum, which yields to a salt and oak finish. Mouthfeel is definitely full and chewy. This was good, but it still isn’t as good as the masterpiece that is the original Pannepot.