Tasting Notes: De Struise: Cuvee Delphine

De Struise: Cuvee Delphine (Belgium: Imperial Stout: 13% ABV)

Visual: Black with a large toffee brown frothy head.

Nose: Coffee. Roasted nuts, Hint of chocolate orange. Creamy mocha and hints at vanilla. Rye and barley. Cinnamon spice or spiced orange. Fudge. Definite bourbon influence.

Body:  Tingling punchy front into a peaches flavour. Vanilla. Slight light grapefruit.  Feels slightly hopped in its bitterness. Oranges, fudge and slight chocolate comes out after a while.

Finish: Dry coffee and bitter chocolate. Toffee. A very long and dry finish.  Slight charring. Milk chocolate as well. Roasted coffee beans. Strawberry touch occasionally surfaces.

Conclusion: Oh you Belgium stouts, you never do what I would expect. Now top and tail you do get chocolate and coffee as you would expect, but that’s not what I’m referring to.

On the body though, well oh my. Spiciness, vanilla and spiced orange, some of which I presume is from bourbon influence. The grapefruit of all things I have no idea where that came from.  It’s fresh and fruity and very easy to appreciate.  Very cool, it’s almost a direct beer of its label image – an unexpected and colourful art piece of a beer.

It is then the perfect imperial stout from when you fear you have bored of the wonders of the style. It makes you look with fresh eyes to imagine what may yet be done, and wonder at what has already passed.

So, yes, it is a good beer.

Background: 2009 Bottled, Drunk 2011. As visible from the images this is a bottle of Black Albert that has been aged in Four Roses Bourbon casks.  Drunk in the amazing Bruges environment with friends, this was my second choice of beer after finding Black Damnation was out of stock.  I am a sucker for little extras like art on the bottle so this put me in a good mood before trying it.