Het Kapittel Watou Pater

Brewed by Van Eecke
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Poperinge-Watou, Belgium

Slightly hazy amber coloured body with strong ruby highlights and a nice frothy off-white head. Aroma of malt, coriander seed, curacao, caramel and a very light hop presence. Light-bodied; Metallic & vegetable tasting up front with pungent twangs of blood and stale malt. Some funky sweet flavours follow soon afterwards, then leaving a bitterness in the palate that lasts and lasts. Overall, a fairly bad beer-nothing too great going on in this one. I sampled this 33 cL bottle purchased in the special four pack at Village Pump Liquors in College Park, Maryland on 15-January-2004 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

33cl bottle, BB 03/06. Pours brown with nice tan head, leaving good lace...immediate aroma is the metallic/chlorine smell that I’ve gotten from every other beer they put in my 2 sampler packs....Under that lies some fruity malt...drinks fizzy. Some nice carmel malt and pear(tart pear??) before finishing off with metallic bitterness. Despite some glaring defects, it still manages to pull itself together yielding some odd fruitiness.

Very fruity with a lot of malt sweetness in the nose. The sweetness is also very prevalent in the flavor along with some unpleasant metallic elements. Very little hops character along with a murky brown color and a somewhat flaccid body make this a dissapointingly average selection.

Draft. Hmm. Very promising appearance and aroma. Color is dark caramel, and it smells like fruits and toffee. At first, flavor is very smooth and sweet, but then it hit me as nauseating, and in the end, all I could taste was metal. Very disappointing.

My favorite of the Kapittel beers. I find it is at its best when room temperature--at colder temperatures, metallic and stale notes are present. The flavor is wonderful. Gentle caramel maltiness (less caramel than in the Prior, which gives this the edge) with wood notes and some cinammon. Lush body indicates that this is real Belgian. Not enormously complex, but still one of the finer light Abbey browns.

Bottle: Malty aroma of fruit and yeast. A little grape. Pours a slightly hazy amber with some very fine sediment. Off-white soapy head lasts for about a minute. Decent lacing. Flavors are sweet, fruity and malty. Light raisin int he background. Light yeast and even lighter hops in the finish. Every few sips I seem to get a light metallic flavor lingering into the aftertaste. When it’s not there, this is rather good. When I pick it up, it really hurts my impression of the beer. Also, a little thin for a Belgian.

Bottle. Medium to deep amber colored. Nice off-white head provides nice lacing. Aroma is a little fruity and slight sugars. Initially sweet and then a bit sour/off. Perhaps metallic. Fair, nothing to search after.

Caramel malt is very prominent with a bit of candy sugar and dates evident and some black tea. Finishes nice but a bit to sweet.