beer_name: Ecaussinnes La Loubécoise
text: Purchased at the UTOBEER stall, Borough Market, S. London. BB 01/03/2010, served lightly chilled in a large Burgundy bulb wine glass. The beer label states that the abv. is 8%, stronger than that reported on this site. A: pours a stunningly thick and frothy beige beer head with superb retention and leaving tight sheets of lace; on top of a reddish brown nectar (quite ruby when seen against light) and abundant fizziness... nearly perfect. S: incredibly sweet-spicy... licorice, cinnamon, star-anise, mint-leaves all approach at once, like a bag of mulled spice infused in Chinese Lo-Ham fruit (Corsvenor Momordica) tea, wrapping in the centre a thick layer of sour-sweet dark maltiness laced with ripe-plummy+star-fruit fruitiness and dark candy sugar... Intensely spicy and distinctive~~ T: a very sweet wave of dark malts overwhelms the palate in no time, but surprisingly light and semi-sharply fizzy in texture; closely ensued by a brown-sugary flavour, sweet coffee, ground cinnamon+star-anise, and black-date/plum preserve like slightly sour and sticky-sweetness... gradually taken over by a restrained (as opposed to the nose) spicy-sweet aftertaste of the above-mentioned mixed-spices, bearing but a light touch of bitter-sweet malts and a residual flavour of preserved berries in the very end. The aftertaste is unfortunately short and rather clean, but not too disappointing in any sense. M&D: a nicely-carbonated texture keeps the palate fresh and light, while the flavour is also less than full to retain a reasonable drinkability. Alas, the overall body is thin-ish and the sweet touch of malts is sort of too much for my palate, even a bit like aspartame in the end. Besides that, this is an enjoyable and distinctively spicy-smelling beer.