Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva

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

2005 bottle. Pours brown with a tan head. Aroma of dates, raisins, honey, brown sugar and some vanilla wood tones. Flavor has some slight oxidation wtih some tartness. Raisins, vanilla, alchohol, wood, apples and a hint of chocolate covered coffee beans. Nice nice beer.

2005 BB4 Nov 30, 2013. Very dark amber looks dark brown until held up to the light. Lasting thin head. Sour edged scent, malty vinnegar, or sour soy and molasses. Melds into a wine dipped cigar kind of aroma. Flavour starts out as aroma implied. In addition to the sour oak, soy and light molasses is a layer of chocolate. Complex with lots of layers but dominated by the sour oak edge particularly in the finish.

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.

Bottled. Pours out in an almost opaque dark brown colour, topped with a low lasting creamy white foam. Rich vinous, yeasty and spicy aroma of dried cherries, baked red apples, wood, black pepper, alcohol and Seville oranges. Full and really chewy flavour of licorice, wood, brown sugar, mature Ingrid Marie apples and brown sugar. Full creamy body with a really gentle, almost shy carbonation. Long fruity, complex and warming finish of figs, spices, brown sugar, dried apples and apricots.

Pours a murky brown color with a medium tan head. Very pleasant aroma of wood, raisins and liquorice. The flavor is also pretty solid, the wood is present, but not too much, there’s also some raisins and liquorice. The body is medium with a liquorous texture and gentle carbonation. It’s a very successfull barrel aging experiment, but I still prefer the original Pannepot.

Bottled. Aroma has cognac, malts, dried fruits, some milk. Clear, dark red-brown coloured with a medium, beige head. Taste is sweet, malty with dried fruits, sugar, some subtle hints of oak. Really nice and well balanced.

<b>In short: </b>A fruity and vinous Belgian Strong dark ale
<b>How: </b>Bottle 330ml, vintage 2005. Compared side-by-side with regular Pannepot
<b>The look: </b>Cloudy burgundy topped by a small persistent tan head
<b>In long: </b>Nose is a lot less spicy than the regular Pannepot with a much stronger dark fruits presence. Not much barrels/oak on the nose, this beer smells like some classic ABTs. Taste has cake malts and a lot of dark grapes, fresh dark fruits and even gets rather vinous and somewhat sticky. The floral finish of the regular Pannepot is translates tobacco with the Grand Reserva. A light herbal spiciness but far from the level of the regular Pannepot. Very smooth and round. The vinous & fruit concentrate character of the beer makes it a bit heavy and detracts from the drinkability. The regular Pannepot is indubitably more drinkable. Like with the regular Pannepot there was no alcohol presence whatsoever. I slightly prefer the regular Pannepot but only slightly and the Reserva is the best of the three. However the Grand Reserva really has a personality of its own and is the best of the three to accompany a meal. With a basic beer as good as the Pannepot all aging experiments will yield good results. A Special Reserva aged in MartinT’s dirty socks with Rastacouere’s post-jogging sweat could even potentially be drinkable.

330ml bottle, vintage 2005, bought in May 08 at the one and only Ølbutikken, Copenhagen. Bubbly, light brown head resting on top of a murky, brown-orange body. Smell of dried fruits with the underlying vapour of alcohol. Tart grapes, plums and apples in a well-balanced flavour profile. Bitter ending with warming alcohol beneath. Quite smooth in the mouth. Medium to full bodied. Enjoyable, though a little bit too vinous (Tromsø, 06.04.2009).