Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Brouwerij Het Anker Gouden Carolus Noël


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Brouwerij Het Anker Gouden Carolus Noël. 

From the Brouwerij Het Anker website: “Thirty-eight years we had to miss the Christmas beer but in 2002 the tradition was restored with Gouden Carolus Christmas.  It’s a strong, dark ruby beer with character and contains an alcohol percentage of 10.5% VOL. Brewed in August, the beer rests a few months to reach optimal balance. Three kids of hops and six different kinds of herbs and spices define the rich taste of this Christmas beer. Top-class!”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours a cloudy brown with an off-white head and a little lacing.
Aroma: Sweet malts, dark fruits, toffee, caramel, anise, nutmeg, ginger and a slight chocolate scent.
Taste: Anise is the first to hit my taste buds followed by dark fruits, coffee, brown sugar, toffee, nutmeg and molasses.
Overall: With its strong black licorice flavor Brouwerij Het Anker Gouden Carolus Noël took me by surprise.  I do not typically care for anise in any form, but this unique blend of flavors was really enjoyable and at 10.5% ABV is had some “other” effects going on.  This is a very complex beer that got better as it warmed.  Worth a try!

Merry Christmas and Cheers!

Mark Harvey

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