Struise Pannepot

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

2006 bottle from my Secret Santa. Let this one settle for more than a week after shipping and it still exploded from the bottle. Took more than 10 minutes to pour a dark plum color with a frothy brown head. Smells like a mince meat pie. Loaded with spices, fruit and yeast. Tastes of tart charries, red apples, cinnamon, butter, caramel, and faint lemon with plenty of char and a boozy finish. Sticky and syruppy. Delicious.

2007 Bottle from West Lakeview. Pours a dark brown, almost black. Huge fluffy off beige head that sprouts up. Nose is great, I get dust, tart lemons, white pepper, plums and apple. A little baker’s yeast and some light candy scent. The body is lively with sweet candy sugar, vanilla creme, a slight salty tartness, coupled with coriander and a bit of thyme. Pretty robust and finish carries on into blueberries and some light juicy notes. Pretty darn good, though I’d not put it in the top of the top. Nice though.

Vintage 2003 but bottle says 2005. The nose is rather thin with caramel malts dominating, vanilla, tobacco and wine-yeasts. The taste is sweet with a smooth sweet but weak finish. There is alcohol, brown sugar and roasted malts. The palate is creamy with an medium carbination.

Cloudy redbrown with a large cream head. Aroma is sweet malt, roasted caramel, blackberry, fernish at the beginning. Taste is candy caramel and molasses. Not what I have expected.

75cl bottle dated 2007, which was very lively and frothed out as the cork was pulled (yes, there’s a cork under the crown-cap). Pours a very dark brown with a fine beige head and an aroma of demerara/burnt caramel with a hint of ginger. The first taste is surprisingly dry on the tip of the tongue, then there’s a big sweet, smooth and slightly spicey body, and finally tartness develops in the aftertaste. A fascinating blend of flavours.

(Draught at Monk’s Café, Sveavägen, Stockholm, 19 Dec 2008) Dark brown colour, almost black, with frothy, pale brown head. Malty, fruity nose with notes of dark fruit and burnt sugar, slightly vinous. Malty taste with dried fruit, raisins, prunes, dark bread and burnt sugar. Vinous hints of alcohol, rather sweet (but not excessively). Medium to full body. Very nice beer to be savoured slowly.

33cl bottle, 2007 vintage. nearly black dark brown color with a tan head. Vinous, sweet aroma, with some dried fruit and an acidic edge. Cookie and mild chocolate sweetness balanced by an almost funky tartness and some alcohol. Almost dry and woody in the back end. Medium to full body with an almost over-carbonated airiness. Once you let it sit a bit and get some of the bubbles out, its quite smooth, but packs some pressure for sure. This one caught me a bit off guard. I wasn"t expecting the acidity, but it gave an elegant balance that actually worked really well, though I think it overshadowed the spicy subtleties that many others seem to get out of this, which was fine for the most part because I could drink a few more of these with this balance. (3.8) Rerate: 33cl bottle, 2007 vintage. Dark brown with a small tan head. Spiced cookie aroma with some dried fruit. The flavor is like a chocolate chip raisin oatmeal cookie. Straight up. There are some spices as well, but the cookie flavor is dominant. Medium-high carbonation cuts the full body down to size. Sweet, but with enough booze and bubbles to balance things out. Rather nice stuff without infection, though it was still pretty good with a light acidic touch. Pretty different than the first bottle that I had, and a touch better this time.

Bottle rating #1700: Poured a dark black-brown with a lacy light brown head. Aroma is that of dark fruit. Taste is dark fruit with a metallic alcohol off-set.