My collegue Thierry works in Parma, Italy, so when I knew he was coming to Oslo for a meeting, I asked him to bring along a few bottles of Italian beer from the Baladin brewery.
The Elixir has a lively carbonation and a long lasting rocky head over a cloudy golden beer. It smells of Belgian style yeast. There a whiff of barnyard - not stable, but more understated.
This is a rich, malty brew and it is quite spicy. There is ginger and cinnamon, and a pepper and mustard flavour similar to the one you get from a salad with watercress or rocket (ruccola). There is a bitterness, too, mostly of the burned sugar variety, and the beer does not come across as too sweet.
Port-like overtones as there often are in a beer of this strength, and a warming alcohol finish. This is a seriously good beer!