Beer – #306 – Brouwerij Huyghe – Delirium Nocturnum

yes indeed, following the Belgium beer thing this is the Brouwerij Huyghe – Delirium Nocturnum

Brewed by Brouwerij Huyghe as a Belgian Strong Ale and they’re in Melle, Belgium

Can sized 330ml bottle of beer, Triple Fermented, A Strong Beer, of 8.5% ABV, and of 255 calories, making this 2.21 standard drink units.

Selfie

Colour and sight: Dark brown-red. A compact white-yellow, stable and lacing head. Scent: Touches of caramel, mocha and chocolate. Spices such as liquorice and coriander are also present. Flavour: Initially, a very good mouthfeel of alcohol and softness. This is followed by an increasing bitterness, partially from the hop, but also from the roasted malt and chocolate malt. Towards the end a nice balance between bitterness, sour and sweet.

Nice presentation, the bottle is painted to look like clay or pottery, and this has the purple foil, with the pink elephant label.

This is listed as being a “Dark” ale.

Familiar bitter yet smooth aroma on opening, Pours a darker shade of brown than you could expect, and it seems to pour “thick” and delivered a great white creamy looking and persistent head.

Aroma in the glass is fruity.

Well I nearly used a sweary word. That’s a a really attacking taste on the palate. I really wasn’t expecting something so tart, abrupt and frankly as full as that. Shows you that the pretenders to the Belgium style might have a ways to go.

Consider myself told.

This is really a full mouthfeel beer, and for me the amount of carbonation has two effects. One is that I’m distracted by the soda mouthfeel, and the other is that I’m aware that the fizz is carrying the taste.

The taste is, again, ‘full’, with a whole range of tastes and flavours clamouring to be heard. Aroma remains persistent of fruits and sweets.

The legend that tis the Pdubyah-o-meter ranks this as 8, very goodly good, on the arbitrary scale of things. The aroma persists, the strong mouthfeel persists and doesn’t waver, the range of flavours offered up stays the same beginning to end.

After a bunch of “Belgium Style” beers it is a bit nice to get back to the benchmark. But I’m easily impressed, as you know.

I’m also trying to be again, harsher on the scale of things. It’s way to easy to mark everything as great, particularly when you’ve put your own dollars down.

I finished this beer before I finished thinking about writing about it, which makes this a beer that is easy to drink, enjoyable and worth your coins as much as it was worth mine.

Disappointingly not a music night, if it was it might be a bit of Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

BELGIAN STRONG ALE

Belgian Strong Ales can vary from pale to dark brown in color, darker ales may be colored with dark candy sugar. Hop flavor can range from low to high, while hop aroma is low. The beers are medium to full-bodied and have a high alcoholic character. Types of beers included here include tripels, dubbels and ultra-strong abbey ales.