General Lafayette Abbey Brune

Brewed by General Lafayette Inn and Brewery
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania USA

On tap at the brewery. Light tarty fruit character, macerated raisins, and cocoa powder with dry coffee. A bit odd but not unpleasant. Almost like a sour ale with some woody character. Dark cloudy brown with thin head. Medium watery body with medium carbonation. Starts kinda tart, with cherry juice, woody notes, and sweetness of raisins. Light grainy sweetness and mild chalky nutty dryness in the finish. Sweet-tang is the predominant flavor, and I can’t tell if this is funked up or supposed to be a little tangy. Cocoa powder notes and chalky bitterness in the after, too.

Bottle courtesy of JB175. Pours brown with a tan head. Smells of spice, fruit, some rich malty hints. Tastes of tarte cherries, nice sweet malt, spice, some earthy touches on the finish.

<b>In short: </b>A superior dubbel with strong red fruits flavour presence. Excellent.
<b>How: </b>Tap at brewpub
<b>The look: </b>Clear amber body topped by a beige ring of foam
<b>In long: </b>Skilful marriage of nutty and fruity flavours. Some nuts and pecans surrounded by a whole lot of fruits. Fresh red fruits and dried red fruits flavours abound going even including strawberries and sweet maraschino cherries. Some red liquorice. The light tartness and sourness just makes it even more quaffable. No alcohol presence at all. Overall crisp and fresh feeling and highly drinkable. Wow! what a kick-ass dubbel. I was told that General Lafayette is starting to bottle their beers and I hope they bottle their Dubbel because if the bottle version is half as good as the tap version it will be quite something. Actually not, if the bottle version is half as good as the tap version it will suck and that’s just a stupid expression.

Draft. Nice deep amber body with thin head. Aroma is dried fruit, candied sugar. Flavor is dried fruit, earthy tones and lightly sweet. A nice mouthfeel with light spices lingering on the tongue after each sip.

Draft: Poured a dark brown amber with not a lot of head. The aroma was malty and fruity with scents of banana bread and fruit. The flavor was smooth with a warm feeling from the malt and the sweetness on the tongue. Overall, one of the best dubbels I’ve had so far.

growler, from JB175. Pours a clear reddish brown when held to the light under a small and fizzy beige head that fades fairly quickly to a thin ring. Aroma is sweet and fruity with notes of alcohol, over-ripe bananas, yeast, and cherry skins. The flavor is slightly sweet with some candi sugar coming out on the finish. Notes of bananas, yeast, dark fruits, caramel, and light alcohol . The mouthfeel was pretty nice as far as body goes, but there was a little too much fizzy carbonation that caused a slight foaming senation on the tongue early on in the growler. Overall, a pretty nice beer.

I was a huge fan of Stoudt’s Abbey Double before it was retired. I made a special trip out to GLI to taste this and was somewhat disappointed. Much sweeter than I expected. It’s possible I tasted it too early in it’s life as it had only been on tap for about one week. I actually thought the Alt was the best beer I had.

Sweet aroma of dark fruits - raisin, plum, cherry + some quality malty bread and candy. Taste was very good with a full-bodied, malty presentation of sweet bread, cherries, and other dessert-like qualities. I am not a big dubbel fan, but this one holds its own against high-quality Quads and the like. Well done.