Harpoon 100 Barrel Series #03 - Abbey Style Ale

Formerly brewed at Harpoon Brewery
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Boston, Massachusetts USA

22oz Bomber Batch Date 9/8/03 Poured a glowing cloudy orange with a small head that dissapeared rather fast leaving only thin scattered dollops of foam. Has alot of yeast in the aroma along with some Tripel like notes of spice and fruit. The mouthfeel on this ale is excellent. Effervescent and medium bodied that is slightly creamy. Flavor is much like a Tripel in my opinion. Fruity and spicy with notes of candy sugar and Belgium yeast. Although not to style, this ale is still a decent effort for such a large and what I consider lackluster brewery. At least they didn't incorporate their one dimensional use of cascade pellets to this one. Ouch!

Pours a cloudy copper with a thin off-white head. Sweet bready and Belgian malt aroma. Body is lightly caramely and bready sweet with good yeast character and a touch of candi sugar. Finishes dry and semi-bitter. Could use a little more balance and complexity, but otherwise a nice dubbel.

Amber in color with a large white head. Huge banana aroma,sweet and fruity. Flavor is of more banana,sweet malt,fruit and spice. Finishes thin and lacking for the style. Very good Belgian ale,but more of a session ale, doesn't live up to it's label.

Batch date 9/8/03 drank 3/8/04. Hazy light orange color with a small bubbled large white head. Banana and light fruits and alcohol in the aroma, thin bodied with a sweet ending and some bready notes. Certainly not a dubbel.

The dubbel with an identity crisis. It is much more of a trippel IMO. Clear orange gold body with a white head. Aroma is yeasty and fruity, peaches. The flavor is much the same as the aroma, with lots of yeast and little bitof fruit. The body is medium lively and fizzy. Decent beer, especially for Harpoon.

Don't care what this claims to be, there's no way it's a dubbel. This is quite obviously not a brown ale, is a deep peachy gold. Nose is fruity with peaches and apricots. Taste is similar, big yeasty quality, some citrus at the end. Rather good, but certainly not a dubbel.

Hazy golden body with a small white head. Smells like a Tripel, with yeast, bubblegum, and banana. Taste is very sharp, somewhat sour and quite yeasty. Finishes dry and with more alcohol character than one would expect from the 6.5%ABV. To me this is a Tripel and not a Dubbel.

Bomber. Massive lasting head, bright orange hazy coloration. Yeasty, banana-tinged nose; surprised no one else has connected this with a Wit, as that's what I'm getting. Nice but puzzling. Flavor fruity but rather sour throughout, pepppery and dry towards the end, and a bit too thin. Really falls through after a promising start, IMHO. Drinkable, but well short of both of the other 100-Barrel series, and of most Dubbles I've tasted.