Sur-les-Bois Biére de Noël (was: La Botteresse)

La Botteresse Noire. Brown color with a big quickly diminished, bubbly tan, cola like head. Dark caramel, coffee, cloves, and dark cherries in the aromas. Sweet dark malt start, lightly sour dark cherries in the middle. Quite airy, nearly making it feel thin, but enough flavor to hold it together. A bit metallic in the finish that seems to go along with the thinner feel. Bits of cinnamon and allspice. in the finish and into the linger. A dry fruit cake.

Bottle, bought @ Belgianshop.com
Pours deep brown, bordering on black. A fair, but rather fizzy offwhite head that settles as a millimeter thick foam. Heavy spicy aroma. Lots of cloves, coriander, sour-ish plums and cherries, chocolate. Some sweet caramel to back it all up. High carbonation, very prickly. Otherwise fine, and lightly dry mouthfeel. Nice flavours. Chocolate, light tart fruit, yeast, well-balanced spiciness with some coriander, cinnamon. Fine dryness with some cocoa-powder feel. Actually a very nice Christmas beer.

I got the bottom end of this bottle. So the appearance had more yeast poop, which actually came out more brown while the clearer pour was more of a black color. That comes with a khaki medium sized head. Aroma is a very airy Belgian yeast with some chocolate and as it warms up a roast character. But it is a light sour tinge to it that makes this special. In the flavor the sour tinge grows stronger as it warms and eventually overwhelms the highly carbonated and tingly feeling, dark Belgian yeasty (cocoa, earth) flavor. The flavor has a bit of a sour cherry finish there as well. Good stuff, very easy drinking for such a strength. Just ease up on the sour aspect a bit and lower the carbonation.
330mL stubby bottle, labeled La Botteresse Noire, BB 10/2010, Duvel tasting glass.

Bottle, 33 cl. Tasted with Leen on 20.07.09. Dark brown color, with little beige head. Aroma raisin, sweet, dark fruits. Medium body. Taste sweet, dark fruits, spice, bit herbs, chocolate touch and some bitterness. Warm alcohol feeling at the end.

Deep dark brown beer with a thin white head. Aroma is lightly tart and chewy with a distinct nose of licorice and clove. A touch of mint and more anise character. There is a bit of light vineous tartness on the front. Flavour shows a lot of candied fruit and heavy spiciness. Cooked caramel, clove, coriander and a touch of lemon. A fairly hot peppery flavour on the back. Light chewy cherry/sweet toasted malt flavour. Heavy spice and woodiness and a lingering bitterness.

Bottle, Botteresse Noire. Aroma of anise, other spicy notes, candy malt, roasted malts and nuts, light chocolate. Flavor highlights the candy aspects of the malt, rock candy meets sweet pastry, and is balanced more than firmly by an array of spices, seemingly mostly from the spices themselves, not yeasty notes. On the one hand quite sweet, on the other hand, admirably balanced. A tasty and unique treat.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with a small light tan head. Aroma of spices upfront with roasted malt and roasted nuts, and dark fruits (fig especially) in the background. Flavor of sweet fruits, some breadiness, and spices. A bit on the sweet side but otherwise tasty. 7/4/7/4/14 (3.6/5)

33cl bottle, marked as La Botteresse Noire, with a rather comely-looking lass on the label - pours a very dark ruby, with a lot of chunky floaties - a lot of sweet raisin in the nose, treacle, nutmeg, brown sugar, overripe dark fruits - the flavor is sweet dark fruits (loads of fig, raisin), tempered by bitter herbs and warming spices - some british barleywine-ish character comes in the form of treacly sweetness, light oxidation, earthy, prune-like flavors - finish of chocolate pudding, warming alcohol and lingering herbal bitterness - fairly well-balanced and tasty - someone ought to add an alias for the La Botteresse Noire, though.