7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

One of several variants of Mind Your Step, the superstrong stout by Uiltje, this time flavoured with coffee from Moyee, a fairtrade coffee brand from Amsterdam. Can from De Picker in Zele (much to my surprise). Thick and densely creamy, warm mocha-beige, softly crackling, very regular, tiny-bubbled, massive head visibly built from uprising carbonation on the underside, on a jet black beer. Strong bouquet of espresso powder and lots of cold black coffee, juniper branches rather than berries, burnt oak chips, unsugared black chocolate, salmiak, hard caramel candy, gin, dark Brazil cigars and black Danish pipe tobacco, whisky, molasses, hazelnut crisps, dried prunes more than cranberries, treacle, melting mocha ice cream, toasted walnuts, old linen cloth, limestone. Thick, dense, concentrated onset, sourish blackberry edge round sweeter dried fig and prune impressions, softly carbonated with - unsurprisingly - utterly thick, viscous, syrupy mouthfeel, hampering drinkability a bit, so forcing one to sip this in small portions. Big fat slabs of caramelly, black-chocolatey, walnutty and black-toasty malts and grains then fill the mouth completely, bittersweet but more bitter than sweet, especially when roastiness sets in, strongly amplified by the 'tons' of added Moyee coffee, which brings both additional spicy bitterness and retronasal coffee aromas. Some blackberry and dried fig fruitiness lingers along with aspects of leather, blood, salmiak and limestone, before a 'grand finale' heats the back of the mouth, highlights both the sweetness and the bitterness and then slowly fades away, unveiling traces of juniper berry 'ethereal' spiciness and very rooty, leafy hop bitterness in its path, the latter much more evident than the former and lingering for a long time. Coffee travels along as well, very prominently so even, but nothing here stands a chance against that superthick, layered, impenetrable, massive dark malt structure, absorbing the alcohol, the coffee and the hops to a large extent - cranberries, probably being a more 'frail' ingredient, are even lost completely without ever being noticed. Boastfully thick and bold - a bit too much so even for its own good, many subtleties, both good and bad, are covered under a thick carpet of oily dark maltiness and apart from the coffee, which must indeed have been added very generously, the added ingredients are completely buried under all that weight. The alcohol too, though, as said, largely absorbed by the malts, remains too prominent in the end and eventually acquires a rather astringent character, which I dislike. One to slip slowly on a cold November night like this one - spicy, bittersweet, viscous and syrupy, this is not quite an easy drinker even for a powerful imperial stout. Could do with more 'drinkability' and less alcohol, if you ask me. Less impressed by this version than by the original one, I must say.

8.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8.5

Süffiger, intensiv malziger Antrunk. Schokolade, viel Kaffee, cremig. Äußerst geringe Karbonisierung, sehr trocken im Mittelteil, der Alkohol ist fantastisch verborgen. Langer malziger Abgang, vollmundig, gut. 9/13/12/13//13

8.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9

Black with creamy head. Really rich, silky texture. Loads of bitter coffee notes. Really roasted, slightly burnt even.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

33cl can. A black beer with a tan head. Aroma of intense dark roasted malt, coffee, wood, cocoa. Taste of intense strong dark malt, sugar, coffee, roasted malt, hints of liquorice, sticky. Nice stuff!

7

Koffie met een kilo suiker --- Beer merged from original tick of Mind Your Step Moyee Coffee Edition 2021 on 25 May 2022 at 21:55 - Score: 8

8.2

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8

0.33 l can from 'Het Biermoment', canned in November 2019. Black with a thin, foamy, almost stable, beige head. Sweetish-malty, gently roasty aroma of dark chocolate, coffee, some hazelnut and a touch of licorice. Fairly sweet, malty, quite roasty taste of praline, mocca, some hazelnut and traces of licorice, followed by a long, fairly roasty-bitter, gently earthy and slightly boozy finish with a touch of juniper. Full body, smooth and creamy mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Great Imperial Stout, smooth and moreish while the addition of coffee is not overdone.