Hales 25th Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Hales Ales
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Seattle, Washington USA

Dark brown color with a fleeting tan head. mild rootbeer spice, earthy brown malt aromas. medium body. Decent brown sugar, earthy brown malt flavor with rootbeer spices.

Bomber. Poured rich brown with a short-ish lived cap of beige head. The aroma picked up sweeter chocolates, plums, and caramel surrounded by spicy warmth.. the sweetness laid it on a bit too heavy and too fast.. toasty and strong, especially on the back. The flavor found primarily raisins and semi-sweet chocolate at the core.. some vanilla and molasses were laced through there as well.. spicy and hot again around the edges with earthy character.. boozy finish. Medium-bodied with prickly carbonation on the palate.. this wasn’t bad, but it lacked a certain element of smooth.

Brown color with a small imishing off-white head. Aromas of nut, caramel, lightlight phenols and must. Fruity start. Middle has raisins and figs, Seems a bit unattenuated. Finsih has some raw sugar floral hops and a bit of spicy alcohol.. Seems to get sweeter with each passing minute as well as having the alcohol gain precence.

Yeasty, fruity, dried plum and raisin aroma. Mahogany color. A little sweet and fairly clean finish. The hops are only in the finish detectable. Very drinkable, yet complex. For the price, a very decent double. All the expected components of a great double are in place.

Quite a bit of banana in this. Flavor is sweet, a lot of banana and some wheat. A bit of heft, but not that great of a beer.

Just found this at QFC - odd that a store like that would shelve this so late. I’m still of the belief that if you’re going to create a Belgian knock-off, you need to give it the proper carbonation, which requires certain ingredients. This doesn’t do that. Pours a dark cola brown with a small (sigh) beige head. Aroma is dark fruit (sweet cherries), brown sugar, very malt-heavy. Dull in the mouth - this has the carbonation I’d expect from an impy stout or DIPA. Certainly not a dubbel. There’s a hop note that comes through a little more in the flavor, which is nice, but it still just tastes like a mild porter with too much residual sugar. Not impressed with this one.

Nice deep ruby brown with odd white head. Nice sweet plum aroma. All the right abbey dubbel flavors just a bit thin. But overall very nice.

Pours a dark brown with a thin off white head. Has your belgian fruity yeast aromas. There’s a note to it that reminds me of candied cherries. Flavor is a bit earthy on top of that.