5 Seasons Delerium Dubbel

Brewed by 5 Seasons Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Atlanta, Georgia USA

My Bottom Line:
An inviting doughy, fruity Belgian yeast character permeates the malt’s generous cocoa offering, building a lustful body for this textbook Dubbel.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A creamy sheet of foam dwindles into the cloudy reddish-brown.
-The fruitiness is redolent of dates and figs.
-This is not the most complex Dubbel, but it is ever so satisfying for lovers of the style.
-I was expecting the bottled version to be a tad better than the tap, but its carbonation was so expansive that it marred the body somewhat. Otherwise, the beer was as satisfying.

On tap at the brewpub and from the bottle.

Burgandy in color, just as advertised. Very sweet smell. The flavor is strong with Belgian esters. Sweet, candy sugar and banana bread. A tad thin is the only drawback.

On tap at 5 seasons; poured a dirty brown-leather color. Lighting was not all that great to get an accurate color description. Aroma reminded me of an amped up hefe, with bubble gum and banana. Some fruitness and toffee. Flavor was much of the same with a lot of sweetness, and not a lot of tart or bitter flavors. From the other ratings, it seems that this may be better out of bottle. Based on the draft version, this was a middling version of the style.

Bottle courtesy after4ever. Pours clear reddish brown with no head. Aroma of brown sugar and citrus. Medium body and fine carbonation. Sweet start on the taste of caramel and fig, leading to a dry finish.

Courtesy of after4ever and shared with after4ever and bitbucket. It pours a dirty brown with almost no head. The aroma is on the light side with mild caramel and some fruity esters. The fruitiness has prune, plum and fig notes. The taste starts even becoming dark fruity ester-like with caramel and some mild roasty malts. Mild tasting beer that becomes roasted into the finish.

1L bottle, thank you, you know who you are. Medium-dark mahogany with golden brown highlights. Fairly still, with very, very minimal gray swirls of lace. Toffee, molasses, and brown bread on the nose. Very light body for a dubbel. SMooth, clean, easy drinking. Rich, roasty caramel and toffee on the mid-palate. Nice progression from malty sweet to cola-like in the flavors, all within a very pleasant and drinkable body.

Date: 01/21/2002
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub
Score: iii

Dark ruby, thin tan head, sweet fruity aroma, rich malt flavor with strong essence of dates, slight hint of floral hops, dries out considerably when it warms
-------- /> Date: 01/05/2003
Score: iii

rich tart aroma with a sliqhtly alcoholic sweet fruity essence, complex malt flavor, lots of fruit character, sweet with a tart edge,
-------- /> Date: 01/04/2004
Score: iiii

still tart in the aroma, and very rich fruit essence in the flavor, resembling a burgandy, it’s all about the malt, better every year
-------- /> Date: 01/27/2005

rich sweet fruity malt aroma with only a hint of tartness, rich complex incredible malt flavor, hints of ripe fruit that surface as it warms,
-------- /> Date: 02/02/2006

malt flavor has dried out this year, still some really nice ripe fruit character,

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 9/10
Score: **4

jesus christ....... was it me or did this smell like barbe-que sauce. this is supposed to be an example of a trapest dark ale. was not sure if I was supposed to drink it or stick some meat in it. I had it on my best friends 21st b-day. She liked it but...she likes a lot of other weird things in her mouth.