Flying Fish Belgian Style Dubbel

Brewed by Flying Fish Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Cherry Hill, New Jersey USA

Bottle purchased at the brewery. Pours a medium brown with a little head and no lacing. Smells sweet and yeasty, just the way it tastes. I didn’t taste too much alcohol flavor but that’s a positive. All in all, a good beer and a very good value. I would definitely drink again.

Pours brown with a thin tan head. Smells of dark fruit, some sweet malty hints. Tastes sweet and spicy and fruity with a caramel finish.

12 oz bottle from Canals Rio Grande. Pours a clear deep red brown with an average size bubbly off white head. Aroma is sweet and malty with notes of sugar, chocolate, plum, prune and yeast. Medium bodied with strong carbonation and a watery finish. Flavor of chocolate, toast, raisin and bitterness. Suprisingly good for Flying Fish.

Sampled at the brewery and poured by the President just a week after this brew grabbed a Silver in class at the GABF. Hazy ruddy copper pour supporting a thin tan head with pretty good lacing. Mildly musty and sour aroma. Rich malty flavor with some dates, raisins, cinnamon and caramel. Silky texture that tended a bit thin on occasion but not anything too noticeable. Slightly spicy and moderate finish.

Bottle. Pours copper with a thin effervescent head. Nose is sweet malt, citrus, and yeast. Flavor is sweet citric, clove, fruity, and spicy yeast. Palate is thin and a little too carbonated, plus the alcohol isn’t hidden well. Not into this one.

The very first Belgian dubbel I had was in The Gingerman in Austin, TX and it was a life-changing experience, much like the St. Bernardus Abt 12 on draft was for my beer palate and horizon. I would have to give these two beers and beer styles credit for kick-starting my love for and with Belgian beers. So it should come as no surprise that when fellow American craft brewers and beer geeks take to the Belgian bug and offer up a Belgian inspired or Belgian style brew, I will be ready and willing to try it which brings me to the Belgian Style Dubbel from Flying Fish Brewery based in New Jersey.
In hue, her body was lighter than what I am accustomed to in the other Dubbels I have partaken of so far. Medium brownish amber, light shines through with ease versus fighting her way through the deep dark brown depths of a typical Belgian dubbel. A small head tops her off, fading quickly into scattered pockets of foam and a loose fluffy ring along the side of my glass. In her nose I detect hints of fresh caramel, raisins, and prunes with a background note of warm dark bread. As I go for my first quaffs, her mouthfeel is lightly viscous, coating ever so slightly my tongue and mouth. While I am savoring her palate, faint traces of brussels lace linger with each receding quaff. In her palate I am greeted by an assembly of caramel, prunes, raisins, licorice with a crisp bitter lemon finish which lingers only faintly. In spite of or to compliment her clean crisp finish, I am still left with a lingering essence of warm sweet and toasted bready malt notes.
Clean, smooth, light and simple, the Belgian Style Dubbel is a pleasantly albeit light interpretation of the style from Flying Fish. It would be a good starter dubbel for those are want to dabble in the realm of Belgians but are leery of their typically intense and complex palates. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was great, but she was OK. She is not what I would drink if in the mood for a Belgian dubbel, though.

Brewed in the USA !! (KSBF) Pours a lite amber color with med tan head. The aroma is of spices with a funky sweet malt taste. Not a very good abbey dubbel....... :(

Bottle. Pours an amber brown body with a light fruity aroma of raisin and banana. Light citrus with a moderate etoh flavor masked with sweet malt and a vinous thin body. decent.