Festival Smoked Black IPA (11%) from Brouwerij De Molen
As you would expect, it has a big smokey aroma. Good Cigar Tobacco smoke, bitter orange hops, and a slight ashy background note like a nearly cold BBQ.
The taste is initially very smokey, it dominates the palate in the beginning but even in your initial few sips the finish is really nice bitter with a mix of bitter citrus fruit and more fresh smoke. As your palate adjusts to the smoke there's also a resinous pine flavour and a very slight sweetness with layers of smoke, sugar, malt, orangey hops and resinous pine.
It's a big beer and it tastes every bit the part, but the booze isn't overly noticeable, and believe it or not it is actually pretty well balanced for something that sounds so mental, particularly between sweet and bitter.