Gouden Carolus Noël

Gouden Carolus Noël

Brewed by:
Brouwerij Het Anker

Belgium

Belgian Strong Dark Ale
10.50% ABV





Commercial Description:
For the Christmas and New Year festivities the Gouden Carolus range is now extended to include this seriously heavy strong brown ale. Het Anker are thus rekindling a long lost tradition from the days of yore when they marketed Cardinal Christmas and Anker Christmas.


Review:
The bier pours a very dark brown almost completely opaque with just a hint of amber hues at the bottom of the glass.

Wow, what an incredible first sip. Sweet roasted malts upfront then in mid taste you start to pick up more of a toffee flavor in the malt coating your moth then a nice finish has some of those classic Christmas spices and that classic Belgian yeasty bready background.

What a nice beer. My only regret it that I did not pick up a 750ml bottle. I just hope they got some 750 in, they were out of them and I had to by some 330ml 11.2oz bottles. The bottle conditioning of a 750 seems to be superior to conditioning in a 330. OK, back to the review.

The bier has warmed to 60 degrees and it is just getting better and better. It has really opened up now. I am detecting flavors that I did not notice before. 

Still predominantly sweet rich roasted malts but with the carbonation going down the mouthfeel is smoother then ever. The toffee flavors in the malts are even more predominant at this temperature.

I keep mentioning rich roasted malts. They are, very rich but these roasted malts are different from those roasted malts found in your typical stout. They may very well be from the same barley but these do not have that roasted bitterness that a stout would have. These malts are sweet and creamy without any bitterness. I would assume the Belgian yeast has a lot to do with this.

65 dreamy, is the only world that comes to mind and that’s not because it’s getting late either. This bier has reach such a creamy smoothness is it really is so smoothing at this temperature.

This is one amazing bier. I just can’t stop wondering what the 750 would taste like.

I purposely caressed the chalice in the palm of my hand to warm it up the last few sips. The bier is now at 70 degrees. This bier is simply amazing; smooth and delightful absolutely no harshness or unpleasantness whatsoever.

This is an outstanding Belgian Christmas beer. I am extremely impressed with this bier.

Lees
The lees are more funky, yeasty duh! Sorry
They are more chalky, yeasty obviously, but they also seem to muddle the other flavors of this beer. It’s like the volume was turned down on the flavors. That rich toffee malt flavor is there but not as crisp as it was. I really need to do a post just about lees.