Alvinne Mano Negra Oak Aged Bladnoch Barrel - Picobrouwerij Alvinne / Den Bierzolder

Mora2000

Texas

4/5  rDev +11.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks to bu11zeye for sharing this bottle.

When opened, the beer gushed for several minutes before calming down enough to serve. The beer pours a dark brown color with a tan head. The aroma is very nice. I get a lot of cherries and roasted malt notes. I don't get much wood or whiskey notes in the aroma.

The flavor is heavy on the roasted malt, chocolate and dark fruit - mainly cherries but also some raisins. Once again, I don't get much, if any, wood or whiskey notes. If the label didn't say barrel aged, I doubt I would have known this beer was barrel aged. There is a little bit of tartness in the flavor, but it is pretty subdued.

Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Serving type: bottle

12-15-2010 01:53:01 | More by Mora2000

Gueuzedude

Arizona

3.2/5  rDev -11.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

Sampled July 2010
A careful pour into my Cantillon Tulip still produces a four-finger thick, pale brown tinged, tan colored head on this brown beer. The aroma smells quite fruity (which I wasn't expecting) with notes of prunes, raisins and cherries. This really does have a rich fruit presence to it, but this is joined by a musty toasted malt character and a fruity cocoa type character towards the finish.

The beer tastes of sour fruit and a bit of sharp alcohol at first. It is excessively dry and thin bodied like the other barrel aged brews from Alvinne that I have had. The beer finishes with a bitter, burnt, roast character that is only out of balance because of how thin the body is. This really could use more residual malt character to balance things out. Lots of carbonation contributes a fizzy texture and carbonic bite / acidity, which doesn't help the texture really. This gets a bit vinous with the tart flavors, notes reminiscent of berries and red wine grapes as well as spicy oak notes. This is certainly an interesting beer, but the flavor falls quite flat and just never quite congeals into an integrated whole for me.

Serving type: bottle

12-27-2010 17:44:41 | More by Gueuzedude