Grimbergen Optimo Bruno

Mostly clear ruby brown body with full effervescence, growing a thick, compact and mountainous beige head in the Fin du Monde tulip. Rather fruity nose, not so expressive as could be with gentle esters of maraschino cherries. Rather earthy, almost rooty nature paired with the present, yet natural and clean alcohol makes it reminiscent to a distilled alcohol, I would venture into the scotch department, though the peat character is absent. Lighter in body than I would have thought, though the expansive carbonation helps the alcohol to come through. Well well, I don’t expect much from that brewery, but this works well. The grainy, almost toasty malts befit the candied fruits, raisins, figs and sweet apple notes. Growing vinous, but with an extra spicy, airy, sweetish back profile that screams Belgium. The yeast may be its largest weakness, where it renders considerable metallic gazy notes. A bit brash old breadiness, slightly tannic and with off almost roasted nutty notes that remove the emphasis from the fleshy fruits. A sweet and good common strong belgian. Not mindblowing, but typical of the relatively high standards that pretty large breweries are seldom able to maintain.

(330ml bottle) Bieropholie Order. Pours a beige, frothy head with a brown body. Nose of lots of fresh figs, warm whiskey and roasted malts. Flavour echos the alcoholic front and deep fig nose, the texture is nicely viscous with a somewhat brown sugar and bready base. I liked this one a lot!

Slightly hazy dark brown hue, with a beige head, but falls quickly, nice malty, yeasty nose, with some toasted, caramelized malts, hint of nutmeg and cinnamon spiciness, brown sugar, dark dried fruits in the aroma follows through on medium-bodied palate with a malty, grainy, fruity alcoholic warm character,with a raisiny, plumy accents, toasted malt, hint of toffeeish, leading towards a sweet malty warm finish.

Deep ruby body with tawny tinges. Light tan head leaving solid rings of lacing. Fairly full aroma of dried fruits and yeast. Plenty of characters in the taste, alcohol noticeable, medium body and long finish. This drinks best when it is not chilled.

Bottle at delirium, gothenburg. Red brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is dried fruits, alcohol, yeast, green apple. Flavour is alcohol, yeast, baked apple, spices, hop, caramel, malt.

Bottled at Delirium, Gothenburg. Clear, reddish brown beer with a dense, lasting, beige head. Dried fruits (prunes), sweetness, some alcohol, cellar and green apples in the aroma. The flavor has alcohol, dried fruits, baked apples, caramel, candisugar and raisins. Nice carbonation and sweetness in the mouthfeel. Nice hoppy and spicy finish. Quite complex and definately one of the best Grimbergens. (060823)

Bottle, own chalice @ Cambrinus, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. (let it sit for an hour as it was chilled from the fridge)
Why I wasn’t expecting much from this Abbey ale I don’t know, may be the ’Brasserie Union’ part. A pleasant surpirse it turned out. Poured an alluring, burnished ruby red, shimmering in the lights, and filled with fine, tight streams of bubbles. Head rose to fill the remainder of the glass with a thick, stable, rocky beige pad that left behind some fine lacing. Deep, sherry soaked and vinous, ripe plums and savoury, spicy fruit aroma is projected well from the glass. Underneath lies a little tart cherry syrup, sweet honey and feint earthy and dusty hops and malt. The first mouthful is sweet, treacly and slightly tart bringing upon some fat, juicy, rich malts and layers of ripe fruit. Whilst the aroma tickles the nose the palate is weighed down by some heavy, well rounded flavours that make this a slow sipper. Sweet toffee shows upfront as does some candi sugar and berries. Mid-palate holds those deep, chocolaty malts and the back is sherryish, spicy and oozing with earthy hops and dark fruits. Nice tickle of alcohol joins in with the long, dry, smooth and warming, malty swallow. This was lovely stuff, showing ’Union’ may have stuck loyal to the original recipe they recovered at the brewery. A nice, winter warmer. (33cL, BBE 08/07)

Bottled. A dark brown coloured beer with a dark red hue and a nice off white blanket of a head which leaves reasonable lacing. The aroma is moussey fruits with candy sugar and a little treacle. A very nice smell. The taste is strong and malty. A touch sweet and some candy sugar. Berry fruits and a tasty long finish. Alcohol doesn’t show itself to be 10%