Here is how Brewery Het Anker describes it:

Every year on the 24th of February, the birthday of “Charles the fifth”, the Brewery brews the Gouden Carolus “Cuvee of the Emperor” in a limited quantity and with an eye on the highest quality and tradition. This unique brewing, with only extra fine Belgian hops and with a higher alcohol level, guarantees a better evolution in the time, than the already known Gouden Carolus. This beer, as all our beers, is 100 % natural, with no preservatives, no adjuncts and no chemicals.

ABV: 10%

Style: Belgian Strong Ale

Bottle: 750ml Caged and Corked

Appearance:

I thought this beer was going to foam right out the top, but I caught it.  So no mess for me to clean.  As you can guess from the near foam over, this beer is highly carbonated and pour with a good thick speckled sandy head.  The beer is a hazy reddish brown with lots of tiny bubbles slowly rising to the top.

Aroma:

I could smell this beer as I was pouring it out of the bottle.  A very heavy aroma of ripe plums and raisins greats your nose which expands into bananas, chocolate and licorice. There is no holding back in the aroma with this beer.

Taste:

The intensity of this beer doesn’t stop at aroma.  This is a very warming beer with a full palette of complex flavors.  Right off the bat you are hit with the alcohol and yeast as well as the intense fruitiness of the beer.  That doesn’t go away in this beer.  The alcohol heat actually continues to build and the fruitiness turns into a sherry like quality as notes of chocolate begin to creep in the middle of this fairly full bodied beer.  As the beer finish, the heat from the alcohol is a dominate player and that sherry flavor becomes more of a raisin and muscat sweet wine like flavor.

Glassware: Goblet

Calories: 10% Abv beer with a decent amount of sweetness would have about 300-320 calories per 12 oz (Calorie Chart)

Overall Impression:

Insanely complex. I wish I had another bottle to let it age another 2 years.  This beer embodies how complex and flavorful a beer can be

Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor is a post from: Simply Beer

Appearance:

Black! No light what so ever comes through this beer which sits under a creamy dense cappuccino colored head.  Some petty significant lacing going on, the foam just wants to cling to the side of the glass.

Aroma:

Honestly I was expecting a ton of hops on the aroma, but I was surprised.  The chocolate malt really was the dominate aroma. There are some underlying citrus aroma, but it was very subdued.  Tiny wafts of vanilla once and awhile, but a very conservative aroma.  As the beer warmed up to around 60°, the oak started to come through along with some clove spice.

Taste:

Stone Vertical Epic 090909

Wow, what a big beer, so much flavor!  Right up front chocolate and vanilla, jab, jab!  Followed by toasted malty molasses sweetness, right hook! Bam, big spicy oaky presence, Upper Cut! Finishing with a long dry bittering heat, KO!  Sorry for lame fight commentary, but this beer really shook up my taste buds, beat them up, tossed them around, and my taste buds were asking for more.  The spiciness and oakiness in the middle mouth really battled with each other with the spiciness winning, especially as the beer got warmer

Overall Impression:

A very interesting porter, one I can’t wait to try again in a couple of hears.  Intense robust flavors really make this beer, but it needs some time for the heat to mellow out in this beer.  This is going to be one kick ass beer in a couple of years.  If you have one hold onto it, if you don’t try to find one and hold onto it.  The more you drink the more intense this beer gets.

Glassware: Tulip

Calories: 8.9% abv beer will have 275-300 calories per 12oz (Calorie Chart)

Simply Beer Rating: 91 (can’t wait to try it in a few years)

Beer Review: Stone Epic 090909 is a post from: Simply Beer

Great Divide Hades Belgian Style Ale

Appearance:

Think white head, fairly dense.  Looks fairly carbonated with a steady stream of bubbles coming up the middle.  Nice golden straw color, indicative of the Belgian Golden Ale style.

Aroma:

Quite yeasty, with a sweet malty funk.  Funk is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can make for a very interesting aroma.

Taste:

Very Interesting complex flavors going on here.   The beer starts with a subtle sweet candy like flavor, which is quickly washed away with a mouth filling effervescence.  This gives way a dry yeasty bready flavor, which isn’t like a American or English Pale Ale, is enough like them to remind you of a Pale Ale flavor.  As the beer exits your mouth, it leaves you with a slight spiciness and hop bitterness.  But just when you thought it was over, there is a bit of alcohol heat that comes through right on the end.

Overall Impress:

Good Color and Aroma topped by a nicely complex beer that I found to be nicely balanced.  While there were lots of flavors, one didn’t dominate another.  7.3% ABV shows through on this beer a tad to much.  I would buy this beer again, definitely worth a try.

Glassware: Tulip Glass, Snifter

Calories: This beer fairly dry, which would lead me to believe it had a good attenuation putting this beer around 215-230 calories. (see Calorie Conversion Cart)

Tasting Method: 12oz Bottle (Nov 21 2008)

Simply Beer Rating: 90

Beer Review: Great Divide Hades Belgian Style Ale is a post from: Simply Beer

Leffe Brown

Appearance:

Beer was a chocolate brown with a nice creamy head. Great lacing.

Aroma:

Strong yeasty aroma with a hint of cloves and raspberry esters.

Taste:

This beer was highly carbonated, malty with notes of banana, molasses, and blackberry.

Drinkability:

Not sure what it was about this beer but there was a flavor that just didn’t sit with me, and I think it was the banana flavor that I was not expecting.  I don’t think I would order this beer again.

Tasting Method: Tap at Cloverleaf Tavern

My rating: 8.3

New Review: Abbaye de Leffe S.A Leffe Brune is a post from: Simply Beer

River Horse Double Wit

Pour:

Be nice, this beer is highly carbonated and needs a delicate pour, but as with the style it should have a big head.

Appearance:

Nice straw color, big huge pillowy white head with lots of carbonation bubbles.

Aroma:

The beer had a strong coriander and lemon  followed with a yeast bready aroma.

Taste:

A very highly carbonated which was the dominate mouth feel.  The Coriander was the initial flavor that melts into lemon then finishes very dry with a bit of hop bitterness.

Drinkability:

The beer is refreshing and crisp.  Although I didn’t get the purpose on the double wit, for what i can tell it is just higher in alcohol, not any maltier or spicer then a regular wit.

Food Pairing:

This beer would match up well with scallops or like shellfish.

Tasting Method: 12oz bottle

My Rating: 8.8

River Horse Double Wit is a post from: Simply Beer

The Triple Reserve Belgian Style Ale by Allagash Brewing in Portland Maine is on the menu tonight, I really hope live up to the style.  With an ABV of 9.0% it barely is in the range of the style, but why not push the limits, rights?

Allagash Tripel Reserve

Pour:

Pour carefully, the head can explode if not poured carefully.

Appearance:

A cloudy golden straw color, nicely carbonated with bubbles tumbling throughout the glass.  Good frothy head, long lasting with amazing lacing.

Aroma:

Nice mild apple spice, fruity aroma with a slightly herbal fragrance.  A nice sweet aroma with a barely noticeable hop presence nicely rounds out this beer.

Taste:

Ummmm…  nice lemony peppery creamy start followed by a bready  citrus flavor.

Drinkablity:

High ABV, 9.0%, but almost unnoticeable until you have to write about it.   This is a very good clingy beer.  If you haven’t had one, buy one, it is a very good example of a Belgian Style Triple!

Tasting Method: 750ml bottle

My Rating: 94

Allagash Tripel Reserve Belgian Style Ale (Batch 113) is a post from: Simply Beer

Brooklyn local 1

Brooklyn Local 1 is a Belgium style Strong Pale Ale brewed by Brooklyn Brewery in Brooklyn NY. With an ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of 9% it is a definitely a strong beer. This corked bottle was interesting, it had two ring formed into the bottle, guess part of my $9 for this beer went to making the bottle…

Pour:

This beer requires a very delicate pour, with a massive head and tons of carbonation it can quickly overtake your glass.

Appearance:

As you can see in the picture, it is a beautiful golden color with a nice frothy white head. One thing I love with many Belgium style beers is the carbonation and watching the twisting torrent of gas bubble rising to the top.

Aroma:

After pouring this Pale Ale, I let my nose rest a couple centimeters above the rim of the glass. The aroma was very sugary sweet and malty. But, you could also get a tingle of hops and a slight sense of orange.

Taste:

After the pour, checking out the appearance and aroma, I was pretty excited about this beer. My initial reaction to the beer was sweet and yeasty, pretty much what I was expecting from the dominant aromas. I really could taste any hops, although every once and awhile I did get a hint of bitterness. The finish was sweet like orange and that transitioned into the alcohol taste that so many Belgium strong beers have.

Drinkability:

Overall a pleasant drinking experience, after a 750ml bottle it had left me a bit fuzzy. While it was a good beer, not one I’d drink very often because of two drawbacks. One, the beer was a bit thin. For a bottle re-fermented beer, I was expecting a bit more meat with the complex flavors. And secondly, the alcohol taste started to grate on my taste buds by the end.

Tasting Method: Weizen Glass, 750ml (next time, tulip glass)

My Score: 8.9

Brooklyn Local 1 is a post from: Simply Beer

Unibroue Maudite

Maudite is a Canadian beer from the Unibroue brewery. Once again, I’m drinking a beer with a pretty cool label. It was dark orange with a fly canoe and demon/gargoyle like creatures. This is another big beer/high alcohol brew from Unibroue. This one is a Belgium Style Strong Ale.

This is the second beer I’ve had from Unibroue, the first was La fin Du Monde. While this was not the caliber of the La Fin Du Monde, It was an excellent beer; 2-0 with this brewery. This poured a mahogany red, lots of little bubbles a good white head. The head retention was really nice. The one down spot of this beer was the aroma, kind of plain, malty / bready with a hint of sweetness and you could smell the Belgium yeast. As a brewer, I don’t mind that yeast smell, but it may not be appealing to others.

I found this to be a very drinkable beer especially for the style, while the alcohol taste was there it didn’t overwhelm all the subtle flavors. The dominate flavor was sweet, cherry, but there were hints of banana, fig, and honey.

Tasting method: Mug from 750ml Bottle

My Score: 9.0

Maudite is a post from: Simply Beer

la fin du monde

This beer had my attention right from the pour, with a huge white head and tons of carbonation, I was captivated. A really nice floral citrus aroma greets you before your first sip. With such a pretty beer, I was really hoping the flavor would hold up and it did. A rich sweet beer with a little bit of caramel and spice; had nice mild hop bitterness with a dry finish. Surprisingly enough the 9% abv is hardly noticeable, nicely masked by all the flavor.

The one thing that I appreciate about this beer is it continues to taste better the more you drink. (“sampled” from a 750ml bottle)

Tasting method: Tulip glass from 750ml Bottle

My Score: 9.5

La fin Du Monde is a post from: Simply Beer