Grottenbier Bruin

Brewed by St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Watou, Belgium

Pours a healthy hazy copper brown with a huge head. Aroam of yeast and earth is pronounced. Taste of malts, yeast, some spice ans sweetness. Tastes more like a blonde than a brown.

Smelled yeasty, earthy, doughy. Deep amber with a nice, creamy, off-white head. Medium body weighty on the tongue. Malts were nice at first, but with time they’d unlock more depth. Wholesome, underbaked bread dough quality. Light funkiness was quite pleasant, along with some aromatic herbs and flowers. A mild bitterness cleaved off the mild sweetness nicely. I’ve had this beer in my fridge for a couple months but I kept putting it off because I didn’t think it had much to offer. Boy was I wrong.

Bottle, Belgian Belly, Manchester. Had drunk a few of these at Quinns over the years, but had forgotten just quite how good this is. Poured a coppery lightish brown with a fading off white head. The aroma is decidedly cave like, posessing a dank, earthy quality that is quite wonderful. There are so many hidden depths and layers to the flavour its hard to know where to start. Spices are right in there with a healthy dose of herb too, caramel and plum are there tussling with hazelnut too. Quality...gets better with each sip. I love the whole concept of cave beer; and this is certainly a bottle worth retreating to and finding solace in.

75cl bottle from Total Wine Tampa. Pours dark brown with a one finger whitish head. Aroma is brown sugar, maple syrup, spice and flowers. Taste is sweet, malty, complex earthiness, peat, cloves, and spices. Interesting and complex beer.

Darkish brown/reddish in color. Fluffy light tan head. Lightly spicy aromas with a bit of sweet maltiness. A good amount of carbination thru-out. Flavors of strawberry, ripe plums, a bit of wood resin (oakish). On the last glass swish in the yeast from the bottle: the color darkens, and the flavors deepen.

Pours dark amber with light tan head. Aromas of fruits and Belgian yeast. Malty flavor with some dark fruits and caramel with a slight metallic finish. Thin, watery mouthfeel with lively carbonation. Not bad, but a little diasppointing.

Tasted 12/05/2008. 330ml bottle courtesy of BozoNZ (I think it came from one of the Chch BJCP tastings, possibly via The Beer Emporium, RIP). This sat around in the cellar for sometime but I needn’t worry, best before is not until 2010. Pours a slighty fiery murky dark amber - this really looks like muddy homebrew, so top marks for not trying to be this year’s model. Subtle but extraordinarily complex aroma features marmite at first, then an excellent mix of dark dried fruit (tending to prune) with a little baby sick and leather. Settles to a nice brett-like sourness with a light toast character and an excellent dry woody note. Caramel shows through as it warms. In the mouth it is more of the same - all the complexities of the nose, which I would simplistically describe as woody, brett-infected, peppery cola (is it Coke or Pepsi?) with a dry leathery finish. A little aniseed and earth enter the mix in the finish. Light mouthfeel, medium-full carbonation. Understated, sleek, simple, sublime, sexy. My style of beer, and one of the best. I want more. Thanks Craig, just like this beer: you’re a legend!

25.4 oz bottle. Cellared a year. Clear dark chestnut with a beige skin. Doughy nose with dried dark fruits. Port cola-ish with a lactic creaminess; like an ice cream soda. Taste is soft raisin and fig then bready with fennel and a little spice. Solid but subdued.