7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Dark brown with thin head. Dark roasted malts with a hint of coffee. Some earthy bitter hop notes comes through too.

7.5

from a trade with tderoeck

7.3

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle at home. Almost black with lively fizzy brown head. Sugary grains, peppery, licorice, overripe fruit, cocoa, really a lof of aromatic peppercorns going on here with some overripe black errors and light tart red currants. Solid medium sweet and medium bitter. Very light tart. Medium bodied with a lot of carbonation. Nice beer, but a little underwhelming for Les Rocs.

6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle. Dark brown pour. Aroma of sweet chocolate malt, licorice, some roast, smoke and burned caramel. Taste of burned caramel, roasted malt, chocolate malt, licorice, coffee and hopbitters. Allright classic stout, but was hoping for more of that nice complex abbaye des rocs character.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

33cl bottle from Etre Gourmet web shop. F: medium, tanned, not long lasting. C: black, opaque. A: a lot of caramel, bit coffee, dried fruits, cocoa, chocolate, brown sugar. T: full malty base, liquorice, nutty, bit dried fruits, banana, figs, toast, medium carbonation, bit slicky mouthfeel, quite sweet but ok for the style, enjoyed.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle from Geers, Oostakker. Pours hazy dark brown with an unstable, thin, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of pear syrup, prune, toffee, candied orange, dried tea leaves, liquorice. Taste has sweet candied fruit, pear, fig, red apple, prune, syrupy, biscuity & caramelly malty profile, balanced by phenolic & herbal bitter accents. Herbal hoppy finish, malty, more candied fruit, liquorice & some toast. Warming brown rum-like alcohol in the very end. Medium body, syrupy texture, fizzy carbonation. Somewhere between 'roasted' Belgian Strong Dark & actual Stout, but pleasant surprise by this 'classic' Belgian brewery.

7.8

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

25/II/20 - 33cl bottle @ home, BB: 30/X/21 (2020-168) Thanks to ElManana+1 for sharing the bottle!

Clear dark brown beer, big creamy irregular beige head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: banana, malty, caramel, banana peel, yeast, soft roast, more yeast, dried fruits, molasses. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: soft roast, dried fruits, molasses, ripe banana, banana peel, some tobacco, mocha. Aftertaste: bit metallic, more roast, bit sweet, banana, caramel, mocha, hoppy finish, some dark chocolate, nice one!

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

Very good creamy, irregular head over red-shot black beer. Roast, ashes, bark, dark green leaves, moss, dry, brown candi sugar aromas. Sweetish-ashy, liquorice; faint, but nice acidity and a hint @ black chocolate. Finish accentuates the sweetness. Pretty well-carbonated, almost fizzy. Not really big-bodied. Aftertaste gets more black chocolate, and warming up, caramel/toffee. Just a bit... easy. Nothing really jumps out to say "wow".

7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 8

Flavoured stout made by old Abbaye des Rocs in collaboration with Barrel of Monks and named after the year Jean-Pierre Eloir, the founder of Rocs, officially started his brewery, in those days the first independent one in Belgium (though closely followed by Dolle). Apparently this old but importantly pioneering and still respected microbrewery has felt the winds of change sweeping through the beer world, and having been familiar with their standard beers for two decades now, I was very curious to find out what their approach to the international craft beer idiom was going to be. Thick, regularly shaped, medium large-bubbled, greyish pale beige, slowly dissipating and eventually all but disappearing head, black robe with thin, hazy burgundy edges. Aroma of liquorice, chewing gum, caramel candy, damp earth, prunes, candied figs, cashew nuts, pear syrup, cappuccino powder, brown game stock, cloves, hazelnut purée, toasted chestnuts, 'koetjesreep'. Sweet onset, cleanly fruity with hints of candied fig, ripe pear and banana, even bubblegum; quite fizzy carbonation for an intended stout, but with a smooth-edged, hazelnutty, Ersatz-chocolatey and chestnutty malt body. That slick bubblegum effect remains, while a liquorice-like flavour becomes more and more prominent, paired with a phenolic clove effect and roasted, near-coffeeish bitterness in the finish; a very earthy, even somewhat manure-like accent sets in at the back too, while herbal hops add a subtle bitterness. Both sweet-caramelly and bitter-toasty maltiness gets the last word. Not an unpleasant beer at all, but overcarbonated and 'over-liquoriced'; in any case this is a very surprising creation for Rocs, and if I had tasted it blind, I would never have associated it with this brewery. Unusual, surprising and enjoyable, but I am left with a feeling that this brewery could have done better... Still, if this is the first stepping stone to a whole new series of adventurous Abbaye des Rocs beers, then bring it on, this groundbreaking brewery deserves a new launch into the world of craft brewing as far as I'm concerned.

6.5

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6

Pours dark brown, medium, off white and creamy, stable white head. Smell is spiced, herbal, cardamom like. Mild roastyness. Taste is full, mildly roasty, tad sweet. No real bitterness. Spices are very mild, the specific adjuncts unrecognizable to me ( tasted without knowing what should be in there.. maybe if you know ? ) low amount of a plastic-like finish, which makes this beer not as great as I had hoped and expected.