Before we start this review we have to give a big shout out to Ian from the oak barrel in Sydney city for reluctantly selling us one of his last remaining bottles of this rare Dutch stout.
Served in a beer tulip the opaque black pour produced a brown 1/4 inch head that slowly collapsed to a ring of foam around the inner edge of the glass. From the first sniff of this beer there is only one word. Wow!! If we were blindfolded you could excuse us for thinking there was a delicious dessert in front of us. Basically the aroma is sweet, creamy, rich and caramelised. Intricately, we pick up butterscotch, caramel, toffee, treacle, cocoa, vanilla, nougat, brown sugar, lactose and cream. Just mind blowing. In the mouth the texture was silky smooth with mild carbonation. Full bodied. The palate is initially met with vanilla, booze and caramel. This delicious trio carries on through the mid-palate while a hint of creamy lactose and additional flavours of treacle and burnt sugar are picked up. The finish is literally all of the previous flavours combined with an emphasised roastiness with exceptional length. The 8% ABV is buried somewhere among the arsenal of rich, gorgeous flavours that it’s just a sideshow in this amazing stout. We’re not even going to try to put this into words, it is that good. If you see this beer on the shelves do yourself a favour and grab it right now. Phenomenal.