“The Druid is as arcane and eldritch as the name suggests. Dark malt sweetness, banana and bubblegum esters combine with raisin, fig and plum characters from the Pedro Ximenez barrel ageing process, to form an extremely smooth and dangerously easy drinking beer.”
Served in a Trappist tulip. The Druid offers a dark brown body that reveals chestnut edges when held to the light. It struggled to maintain its short head, eventually settling to a halo that deposits thin rings as we imbibe.
Bam! The nose is absolutely spot on. It’s hitting those rich and super sweet raisin notes and accommodating for the yeasty banana and spicy clove as well. Then we’ve got this creamy vanilla accent, a syrupy caramel and toffee and caramelised pear/apple pie scent over here. Even getting hints of blueberries as it warms. Brilliant.
The flavour comes on strong with prunes, raisin, clove, banana and stewed plums. It holds this combo so well as hints of brown sugar and toffee apple are offset with a bit of warmth from the booze (10% ABV). The alcohol burn hits a crescendo then eases in to a yeasty finish where we see an arsenal of flavours like banana, clove, bubblegum, rum & raisin and vanilla finish it off with excellent length in the tail.
Dense and syrupy in texture but held up really well by the alcohol. Full bodied with mild co2.
Jeez the difference between the Little Raven tripel and this is like chalk and cheese. This quad has all and we mean ALL the traditional aromas flavours whereas the tripel was left lacking and a bit off target. More of this please! Top shelf offering from 3 Ravens here.