Zeven Zonden / “Seven Sins” - Luxuria

(Please note that this selections only comes in 500ml bottles)

The Seven Sins beers are all brewed at Brouwerij Gulden Spoor in West Flanders. Luxuria is meant to represent impurity and sensuality (aka Lust), or as the brewery puts it, “the sweetest of all sins.” We’d be hard-pressed to argue with that one. The heightened alcohol, the deeply red color, and a generous addition of six different herbs certainly help it live up to its name.

We poured this into some large-bowled stemware, its ruby focus shifting to a reddish-brown in the deepest spots, topped by a creamy light-tan head that lasted. The aroma, which poured out of the glass, offered up notes suggesting cinnamon, freshly cracked black pepper, and an ester-forward fruitiness that matched perfectly to the soft, vinous alcohol here. Nothing that felt even remotely sharp despite the generous spicing: more like the softness of mulled wine.

Like the best offerings from Belgium, the mouthfeel on this is ideal: finely integrated CO2, a smooth surface enlivened with tiny, almost-effervescent bubbles. Beyond the cinnamon and clove-like aspects found in the aroma, this offers up even more upon first taste: dried fruits, lightly sweet caramel, a generous display of esters ranging from red fruit to the slightest hint of cotton candy—but never anything that doesn’t feel entirely on point. This is seamless: an intriguing, arguably sinful mixture of cold-weather-apt spicing atop plush Belgian strong ale.