5 Seasons Delerium Dubbel

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

2004 Vintage- Pours a murky brown color. Aroma is incredibly sweet and oxidized. Rum and raisins. Flavor is sweet, not very oxidized. Not bitter. Sweet with more dark fruits, kind of mushed and melded together.

2004 bottles TBC2: Murky brown pour. Quite a bit of hops in the aroma with a touch of yeast. Some serious caramel malts in the flavor. Decent beer, but could possibly be past it’s prime.

2004 bottle per TBC2. The beer pours to a murky brown body with a lasting creamy tan head. The aroma is very hoppy. Floral and interesting. Not my thing however. The flavor is floral and odd. Also, not to my liking. Perhaps a touch old?

Bottle (2004) : Courtesy of TheBeerCellar2 a the Hampton Inn Tasting (Friday). aroma has some buttery caramel and a moderate grain presence that is out of place. Pours a cloudy orangish-brown with a small off-white ring for a head. Lots of caramel up front with a hint of yeastiness. Definite oxidation. Finishes with a moderate grain flavors which I’m not a fan of.

Vertical tasting: I had the fresh on-tap keg as well as a bottle condition version from mid 2004. While they each had their own characteristics, and similarity of dark colour, I found the recent batch to have a creaminess, lace, and distinct fruity colour. The aged bottle had lost that fruitiness, there was more caramel as predominant taste bit while drinkable, had to have food to offset the astringency.

This was served up in a small snifter from the tap. When this beer arrived at the table it still had about a half inch of a creamy white head. The color was dark amber. There was no lacing, but it had a good carbonation. There was no smell. I tried getting a sniff of this as the volume in the glass reduced and the beer warmed. Never smelled a thing. This dubbel was served to cold and at first the taste was faint. As it warmed I was able to taste dark plum like fruits. There were some malt flavors there too, but it was not overly sweet. I never detected any hop flavors. In all I’d say this is well balanced. This had a medium feel on the palate and was nicely carbonated.

Draught. (2003 vintage, tasted in 2005... 5 Seasons is kind to raters!) Pours dark mahogany with tan head. The nose is very caramelly with some starch. The flavor is a smoothly malty blend of caramel, zest, clove, cardamom, with a sort of dry wine quality. This is tasty stuff, and apparently ages quite gracefully.

draught ’03 vintage. Nice mahogany pour. There’s an appealing, complex aroma on this of caramel, dry wine, and plenty of fruits and spice. It’s got a nice sweet flavor also, some cloves, peaches, leaves and no real alcohol burn which a little weird for this style. I’m most impressed with the 5 Seasons pub!