Additional notes: 11/12/22 (pictured)

330 mL bottle. Still relatively thin for the style IMO. There’s still something that sits oddly in the combo for me, not quite hitting the mark and leaving me a little dissatisfied. All the notes below from 13 years ago still apply.

Original notes: 04/25/2009

$10 for the 750 mL corked and caged, black foiled bottle from Bruisin’ Ales in Asheville, NC, USA.

Pops open with a small amount of brownish foam. This one is poured into the L’Abbaye Brasserie des Rocs chalice.

The head is small a slightly disappointing especially considering the foamy nature of the bottle opening. The body is a little drab too – a murky brown that lacks much excitement or life.

This is a strange brew that ultimately misses for me. It seems to get caught between two stools with the fruity, dark Belgian notes being present, but they also sit awkwardly with the malty sweet, mildly smoky peat notes of the Scotch Ale. Both sets of attributes ARE there, but I think the Belgian yeast sits awkwardly with this style. This is a common problem when melding Belgian yeast character with non-Belgian styles.

The mouthfeel is also rather thin.

I was disappointed because the malty side of things is one I generally favor and I absolutely love a good Belgian Dark, but this didn’t come together well and so it was a miss for me. It’s a shame.