Achel 8 Bruin

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappistenabdij De Achelse Kluis
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Hamont-Achel, Belgium

Bottle. Aroma of brown sugar, plum, fig, musty yeast. Flavor very sweet, sugary even, and overly alcoholic for the other flavors. Sugared-up, thinned out mouthfeel. I don’t get this one.

Dark brown pour with big, fluffy, off white head. Dark malt, rich, sweet aroma with a bit of must, wood, well water. Flavor is dry, oaky, with some fruits. Raisins, plums. Finishes dry with a light bitterness. Well carbonated mouthfeel. One of the best Trappist beers.

Sweet and full with a good alcohol finish. I would personally enjoy a sweeter finish but would not hesitate to have this again.

Pours a semi-translucent red-brown into a chalice, big fluffy head with some sweet aromas. Nice tastes of wood and barley. Mouthfeel is nice but a little watery compared to other Trappist browns.

Bottle. This Dark pour is different than other dark sty;ed belgian ales. Decent beer.

Poured 100% head. Foamy like crazy, head finally collapsed into a clumpy mess. Color is a hazy brown-red. Lager-like aroma with alcohol. Flavor not a lot different. Mouthfeel is all fizz. Disappointing. Probably a bad bottle.

Bottle 33cl. Aged this bottle for almost 2 years before drinking it. Pours a dark brown/reddish colour with a good size head and little carbonation. Smell is very fruity and present. Very fresh and fruity aroma that is very present and pleasant, excellent subtleness to the nose. Taste is absolutely magical, I would almost dare say that this tops the westy 12, has a lovely sweet and bitter fresh fruity taste to it and has a nice mouthfilling texture and goes down like a charm and leaves just the most gentle bit of alcohol burn in your throat, but just the right amount to not cause you to experience this as pain. Besides from the appearance, overall I would really rate this beer better than a westy 12 and rochefort 10, this is much much better than I was expecting and I recommend to everyone to age this a couple years (mine was baught in the summer of 2007). My bottle was, according to the label, valid until the 23rd of March of 2009, so a couple months overdate, but WOW.

Thanks to Phil l and Beer Merchants for this one--cheers mate! (This is a very belated add of this rating. Some got lost in the move and just finding and adding them now, months later.) Shiny brown, lots of old fashioned shaving-foam light tan head. Woody cinnamon aroma surrounded with a nice creamy quality. Bright mouth-filling carbonation, resiny caramel sweetness with an interesting mineral edge. This is an interesting one: it doesn’t inspire an avalanche of adjectives. And yet, it is disappearing from my glass in an alarmingly fast way. Solid as can be.