Sand Creek Noir Black Belgian Barley-wine Style Ale

Noir Black Belgian Barleywine Style Ale, Sand Creek Brewing Company, Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Product of USA, 12 fluid ounces. That's all I have.

Let's look at it, smell it, and drink it.

Yup, that's black, all right! With a neat cocoa ring of foam.

Aroma: charcoal, figs, and fried bananas. Not really. I'm not getting anything really specific out of this. Besides "dark", which isn't a flavor. There's some fruit, dark malt, but nothing really jumps out.

Taste:  Here's what's odd. I get the "black", but nothing particularly "Belgian", or "barley-wine". Dry, smooth chocolate malt, and little else. Rather thick and full in the mouth, good balance, with nothing too this or too that.

Odd little number. It provides no particular delights for me, there isn't any one ounce of sweetness that scream out and brings a smile to my lips. In that, it does recall some Belgian-style ales I have enjoyed, and I'm thinking particularly of some from Unibroue.

This is just fine, but doesn't really move me, what can I say? Ain't nothing wrong with it. Wait, hold on…okay, I'm liking it a little more. It's feeling like a dry porter, but lacking a lot of the inherent promise of the blackness, and the Belgian-ness, and a little of the barley-wine.