Bands, festivals and the lot are releasing branded booze by the dozens these days. GRIMM makes it its mission to get to the bottom (of the bottle) of this trend with insightful reviews and extra backgrounds. So sit back, PICK YOUR POISON, and discover all you need to know about your favorite band’s alcoholic brands!
Poison Fact Sheet
- Band: Channel Zero (tribute)
- Poison name: Black Fuel
- Poison Style: beer – Belgian Strong Dark Ale
- ABV: 9,5%
- IBU: 29
- Brewery: Enigma (Belgium)
(ABV = Alcohol By Volume; IBU = International Bittering Units)
Our latest review featured Channel Zero‘s Franky DSVD‘s own Turbeau Noir beer. He got the idea to start brewing his own beer after he discovered a bottle of Enigma‘s Black Fuel. Is it liquid, dark gold like many fossil fuels or is it a run-of-the-mill Belgian strong dark ale?
Tasting
The Channel Zero tribute pours with a lasting beige-brown head. While the beer is pretty dark brown in color, it’s not pitch black as we would expect from the name. Luckily, the beer doesn’t smell like gasoline, but rather roasted malts and sweet candy. Mouthfeel and carbonation are medium. The flavor has dark fruits, ripe banana, dates and plums. They give the whole something sticky sweet (without being too cloying). Aroma and taste are matching, but in the depth we also notice some sweet liquorice and light chocolate notes. There is a medium lasting aftertaste with herbal notes, even a bit minty. At the end we have some warming alcohol.
To deserve the name ‘Black Fuel’ we were hoping for impenetrable darkness and a massively thick stout. But this strong dark ale, bordering quadrupel style, definitely serves as a tasty tribute to one of Belgian’s classic metal bands with its many layers.
Packaging
We see an industrialized setting with an open pipeline pouring out the black liquid where this is all about. In the background we have orange rock formations and an oil drill. The whole background reminds me of the oil fields in the US. On the front we see one guy who seems to be collecting the stuff, while two others are enjoying a drink on a barrel. A fourth person is sitting casually on his motorcycle, who looks suspiciously much like Franky DSVD, vocalist of the band that inspired the brewer for this beer. An interesting choice of artwork. We have the feeling they could have represented the theme of the song a bit better. Or maybe the artist wanted to give a different message than we know up to this point from the lyrics or videoclip. In our opinion it’s not the best artwork of Enigma who usually has some pretty cool visuals (for example their Ragnaröck we reviewed in the past!).
The backside of the bottle teaches us the beer is brewed according to the recipe of Enigma by Brouwerij Anders! that we know from for example the Hoogheid (Your Highness) beer.
