La Trappe Dubbel

Brewed by De Koningshoeven (Bavaria - Netherlands)
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Tilburg, Netherlands

Pours a red/brown color, with a tan head that disipates too quickly and leaving a poor lace. Primary smell is wet earth, then you find later the subtleties: cherries, cocoa, licorice and spices. Rough roasted flavour, though the body is lighter than expected and mouth of cocoa, licorice, plums and fruits. Sweet finish.

Not exceptional in any way. Amber with full off-white head. Kind of sweet, with notes of dark sugar and apricot in the taste. Aroma is pretty much the same, sweetish and full.

Bottle at De Hems, London. Pours brown with ruby highlights, fading tan head. Aroma is cherries, sweet candied fruits, slight spice - predominantly ginger, cloves. Taste is much the same, with dark stone fruits, candy sweetness, and a slight acidity. Very carbonated, almost over the top - not sure if it fits the profile here, at least I know I didn’t enjoy it. Better than average but not in the upper echelon for the style.

Labeled as Konigns Hoeven.. this is definitely not the delicious La trappe Dubbel I remember. Nice purple brown appearance, and delightful aroma of cherries. The flavor.. where is it? If anybody knows where it went please email me. Not impressive.

Aroma: pears, sweet, sweet malt, candisugar, dried apricot. Funky, exotic fruit esters – banana.
Appearance: very beautiful, deep red. Browntinted, very thick, fluffy head.
Flavour: very well balanced. Sweet, malty full-bodiedness, some bitterness aswell. Perfect chocolate and wheatlike aftertaste. Slightly sourish and vinous. Some mustiness.
Palate: very nice mouthfeel, very thick and longlasting. Invigourating.

The bottle says 7%

Appearance: dark brown color, with reddish tones. Great head, rocky, of beige color, dense and very persistent. Beautiful. Aroma: very sweet, malty, toasty, bitter chocolate, candy, liquory and winy. Berries, peaches and banana. Spicy of clove. Relatively complex. Low hoppyness. Flavor: complex, sweet, toasty malt, candy, chocolate and grain coffee. Fruitiness of figs, berries, plums and banana. Reminiscences of coffee’s liquor and vintage wine. Spicy of nutmeg and clove. Sweet toasty start. Warming and light dry-hoppyness finish. Palate: Medium body, creamy and semi-oily texture. Low carbonation. Advisable beer, with a beautiful head.

Bottle from Systembolaget. This comes across to me as a mediocre/sligthly better than average example of the style. Quite harsh in a way. Good maltiness though. And yeah, what’s up with no yeast in my bottle?

Sampled March 2007
Pours with a brilliantly clear, dark amber, purple-plum color. It is topped by an initially three-finger thick, amber-tinged, tan head. The aroma has a musty, almost woody spiciness to it; notes of clove, a touch of allspice, damp bark, cola nut, and perhaps a touch of wet cardboard.

The beer is fairly sweet, yet has a subtle dusty chocolate note. Quite a bit of fruit is here as well, with predominantly a raisin / fig note that is accentuated a bit by the light malt sweetness. There is a touch of cola character here as well as a more typical clove character and a touch of ginger in the finish. Really though the dark, concentrated fruit note are the dominant flavor here. This brew never approaches sticky though, and is in fact quite light overall and fairly easy drinking.

Not a bad beer, and considering that Dubbels are my least favorite Belgian-type beer, well it is even drinkable