Good evening all. Tonight's beer has been in my collection since last Christmas but I'm only just getting around to drinking it- let's hope the extra storage time has paid off in some way. It's Spéciale Noël, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale from Brasserie de l'Abbaye des Rocs (Honnelles, Belgium). This is one of the few overtly Christmas-themed beers that I'll be drinking for this year's advent calendar, so it might help me get into the festive spirit as it's been noticeably absent so far. Review after the pic....
Spéciale Noël (9.0% ABV) pours a murky copper colour with a short lived white head; unfortunately the yeast in the bottle is quite clumpy and so most of it ended up in the glass! The aroma is more subtle than I was expecting, with light esters, nuts, spice, candy sugar and some dark fruits. The nuttiness comes across significantly during drinking and in the finish, virtually obscuring any other flavours that might be on show aside from some acetone/alcoholic notes. Carbonation levels are also surprisingly low, which leads me to think that this might be a bad bottle. As a result I'm not massively impressed with this, but I might try and pick up another bottle in the future to confirm or deny my current opinion.
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