Bottled 6/1/23.

A huge gusher which always makes me think about a possible infection, but I wonder if it was because this was opened at cellar temperature rather than being chilled. Anyway, once the beer had calmed down it was just fine.

Chestnut dark brown pour with a large, pitted head.

Sweet malty nose with bread and some laced alcohol around the edges. As one would expect.

Mouthfeel has a little prickle from that initial carbonation. It lingers a bit. The alcohol is definitely a feature of the tastes here, and it hits above the advertised 9% for me. Some raisins and Belgian ester notes, the beer drinks much more like a high powered Dubbel than any Scotch Ale. Obviously malt based, but not quite as malty in terms of the taste that I was expecting. In truth it gets more Scotch Ale as it warms even more.

This is like a Dubbel-BSDA hybrid in the end, with the yeast notes coming through quite noticeably. Dry in the far back end and this thing hits quite hard. Alcohol burps ensue.

A pretty big beer in the end (bigger than I was anticipating), and not as stylistically correct as it might be. Still drinkable, nice and definitely warming.