Half Moon Bay Dubbel

Brewed by Half Moon Bay Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Half Moon Bay, California USA

On tap at the brewpub, served in a pint glass (I’ll take it). Thin dissipating head, lightly amber-reddish-brown color, a bit thin looking (slightly translucent?) Made me suspicious. The aromas were dominated by esters: banana (oops), bubble gum (oh god what is happening here), you know how this goes. Light caramel-malty flavors, but again mostly ESTERY stuff going on. Not that that’s bad. But I like a bit of a more solid malty backbone with these beers. I think the lighter color also threw me off. Flavors were similarly estery and bubble-gummy... which I do enjoy, but in the context of this style it comes off as a bit "cheap", or as I say, creates "the poor man’s dubbel". Just a tiny bit of spiciness along with it. The body was a bit thin for the style. I’m judging this fairly harshly because it is kind of a "special style" to me... and having had many of them, I’ve become a bit hard to please perhaps. As for the mouthfeel, this beer lacked the basic "slickness" that one finds in beers supplemented with sugar syrups. Just not enough of it in this beer maybe. I’d still drink it again though.

On tap at the brewpub. The body was hazy dark copper with a light khaki head. The aroma was sweet peach ice cream with hints of spice. The taste was cinnamon spice and pear. Notes of mango.

On tap at the brewpub with golubj. It seemed that this one was pretty new to the draft rotation. Aroma of nuts, their normal malt, brown sugar and cocoa. The color was an attractive reddish brown. Flavor was fairly sweet and not very representative of the style. Still it was not overtly bad.

Draft at the brewpub. Ruby brown pour. Aroma is nutty, the typical old caramel malt found in the other brews from here. Sweet bubblegum initially, but also lightly toasted, with vanill and tobacco flavors. It smelled bad, but the flavor was somewhat better. Not very true to the style though.