Struise Pannepot Reserva

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

An almost black colored beer, with a beautiful dark thick foamy beige head. It leaves a beautiful lace on the glass. The aroma of dark malts with dried fruits. Some sweet with spices. Complex. The taste has a thick dark malty flavor with fruits like prune and raisins. There are notes of oak. Also some spices in the back. The aftertaste is smooth, with some nice bittersweet with warming alcohol.

Bottle from the Otown throwdown. 2005 from Cheeseman, another great and rare bottle! Brown pour with a medium tan head. Chocolate, butterscoctch, fruit and yeast. Flavor is chewy, tart and yeasty with some stone fruits and spices. Damn good.

The Pannepot Reserva 2005 is a Belgian Ale brewed with spices and aged in oak barrels. In that description alone, there were at least 4 buzz words that make me weak in the knees and set my heart aflutter. Enough blathering, time to get down to business. Or is it pleasure? Or both?

She came to me one lonely afternoon in a translucent brown dress with fringes of hay and a soft collar made of cottony whites. As she holds me in her embrace, her exotic perfume woos with lightly sweet and exquisitely spiced esters. Toasted raisin bread, butter, and cinnamon sugar while maple syrup, brown sugar, and gourmet turtles replete with nuts offer a helping hand. As we dance into the night, our lips are soon drawn together in a show-stopping kiss which leaves me floating on air while her essence lingers long on my lips. Warmth almost immediately starts to permeate my body while cinnamon and raisin bread wait for a drizzle of maple syrup. Each kiss is sweet, warm, and lightly spiced. Faint esters of candied apples with their soft outer sweetness and crunchy apply insides transport me to an olden farmers market where nature’s bounty is celebrated. Our time together cannot last forever; I know this and yet I do not want to admit it. As I bid farewell to my Pannepot Reserva 2005, she leaves me with one last gift of remembrance, dark breads and fruits steeped in spiced rummy oak. Ascendance is nigh.

As you can tell by the year of this particular Pannepot, she ages with grace and aplomb so I will be sure to set aside a few bottles for the years to come when I am finally able to acquire some. If you should be somewhere, anywhere, and have an opportunity to take this beer home with you, please do. Trust me. You will not regret it.

Thanks to puzzl for sharing (huge thanks!) - one of the best beers at quite an impressive tasting - soft but complex aroma of wood, scotch, brown sugar, lavender - very soft carbonation, silky mouthfeel - light oak, brown sugar, light nutty character - very light tartness - dark fruit, red wine flavors, anise and chocolate way in the back - indescribably awesome.

Dark chestnut colour with a light brown head. Rich and complex aroma (hardly surprising) with figs and dates first. Then some malt. Spices. Orange and other citrus notes. The fruity and malty flavour is rather dry, and finishes very dry. Perhaps one nuance less perfect than the regular.

Bottle. Light spicy aroma with notes of fruit. Deep brown color with a light beige head. Nice full but balance body with notes of fruits, raisin, caramel and chocolate. Has a nice light sharp and bitter palate. Very nice.

A careful pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three finger thick, lightly amber tinged, tan colored head that forms a fluffy, textured surface and leaves lots of lace on the sides of the glass as it slowly subsides. The aroma smells of tart raisins, prunes and figs that lie on top of a dense, toasted grain, molasses spice cake note. Hints of spicy and toasted oak character lightly scent the beer, but play a subdued role in the nose. There are also red wine like notes (rich, tannic berry notes) and a concentrated tamarind note. Once you dig around and explore enough here you notice a funky, musty mushroom note that becomes noticeable in the finish; it reminds me a bit of a musky blankey that has is scented with dried sweat. Other aromatic notes of light chocolate, earthy coriander, cherry pits, and quite a fully malty note are noticeable here as well; this last contributes a dark toasted, though not roasted, deeply caramelized, and brown malt character. The concentrated fruit and malt in the nose take on a sort of smoky quality at times. The nose on this beer is incredibly complex, it is very intriguing and worth exploring in detail.

The beer is full bodied as it first hits my tongue, but has a prickly effervescent carbonation that struggles free of the viscous heft. The beer tastes lightly sweet, but is still significantly savory. The beer has a sort of has a dark honey flavor to it, but without that cloying sweetness that honey has. Notes of molasses, tart-concentrated fruit (prune and fig as well as a touch of raisin that seems to get a bit bigger as the beer warms) and some dark cocoa notes in the finish start to come out after a couple sips. This is quite rich and satiating, but not overly sweet; in fact the tart and sweet notes are in such a good balance that neither is overtly noticeable. The malt character is concentrated and brooding with lots of Maillard browning flavors, a molasses character, some notes of dark caramel, savory complex sugars, plus some toasted / caramelized dark bread crust flavors. There is a nice spiciness here that, again, is not a note that is overtly noticeable; it provides a touch of clove flavor, earthy coriander notes, an oaky spiciness (this is the most noticeable spice note, but still is fairly subtle), a touch of ginger, a peppery piquancy in the finish, a richly integrated anise note (though more like one that has been cooked for a long time), a definite note of mahleb (if you consider this a spice), mellow vanilla, hints of mace and a wisp of cardamom.

This is possibly the most balanced strong beer I have ever had; this shows a finesse that is rarely achieved, it has a melding of sweet & tart, malt / fruit & spice, oak & base beer as well as earthy & bright notes. Definitely a tour de force, it takes what can be a phenomenal base beer and adds a couple more layers, as well as a melding process that integrates everything together as a whole. I like that this has lost the sweetness of the base beer (though even the 2006 Pannepot I had last night was not aggressively sweet).

Big thanks to puzzl for sharing this one. Dark brown beer, thin tan head. Hazy, rich and very inviting. Incredible nose, rich Belgian malt, plums and sweet toasted oak. Soft vanilla character against the sweet fruitiness of the malts and the yeast. The tropical fruitiness that is so prominent in the regular pannepot is much more subdued here, with that component replaced by rich oaky sweetness. Toast, heavy caramel and a hint of molasses. Light licorice herbal character. Man, this is tasty stuff.