375 mL corked & caged bottle.

Jet black pour with some nice looking, lively, pitted mocha head. The head is a touch thin, and not very well retained. Lace also minimal. Fizzy carbonation rather than anything deeper.

Nose has a roasty note.

There’s a decent amount of bitter chocolate based coffee that kicks off things. Interestingly, the alcohol (which is a little solvent based and quite prominent), only comes in toward the middle and back end. I’m quite surprised at how quickly the alcohol comes through. It creates a very dry finish too.

The fizzy carbonation hangs around the beer too, and gives quite a prickly feel against a thinnish mouthfeel and a little stinging bitterness. As it warms, the coffee/chocolate evens out a bit and the beer comes together a bit more than I thought that it might at first. Definitely more bitter chocolate/coffee on the warmer back end too. Licorice bitterness fills things out.

It’s a little thin, a little bitter and not really for me, and it also fails to bring much Belgian character. de Blaugies makes some great beers, but for me this doesn’t feel like one of them.