North Coast Cru dOr (Whole Foods)

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

12 oz. Garnet with a three-finger head that settles to a lasting creamy icing with frosty lace. Aroma is clove, banana, and wheat bread. Flavor is a mix of caramel, cherry, clove and juniper. Finishes with raisins, berry, oak and woody herbs. Medium body is sticky, mostly smooth, and finishes dry.

12oz bottle from Jans Wine and Boos #2 (Tampa, FL). Rated on 3/29/08. Pours a reddish brown with thin tan head that dissipates quickly. Smells of faint chocolate, caramel, vague sweetness, and phenol. Taste is much the same with generally light, watery mouthfeel, faint sweetness throughout, lively carbonation, and a somewhat bitter coffee finish.

(USA) Brew courtesy of AFI96, Thanks !! Pours a nice hazy amber color with a sm-white head. The aroma is of caramel,brown sugar,and some mild spices. Taste is much of the same and the 8% is well hidden. The best organic beer that i’ve has so far.

Bottle shared with BeerGestapo. This beer reminds me a lot of Corsendonk Pater minus the big fluffy head. Pours hazy brown-amber with a tan head. Smells of brown sugar, caramel, and doughy yeast. Flavor is the same with a touch of spice. Pretty good and fairly authentic.

Sweet fruity aroma, tastes like bannana, mango or papaya. Light brown color kind of coppery. Good rounded flavor. Would recomend to anyone.

Deep hazy copper coloured body with strong ruby highlights and a brownish tint. Nice tan head that tops the beer and fades down to a decent lace. Aroma of strong malt, bread, bananas, curacao, yeast and a hint of raisins. Medium to Full-bodied; Nice start to the taste with hops, fading to a great malt backbone and finishing off with some good sweetness and just a touch of spice - very nice! Aftertaste shows more of the malt and spice than anything else, perhaps a bit of yeast and bread at the very tail end. Overall, a very nice and complex beer - more of a dubbel for me, but a good beer with a complex taste that should be sampled by all who can find it! I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased (not at Whole Foods) at Chevy Chase Wine & Liquors in Washington, D.C. on 03-May-2008, sampled on 30-May-2008.

Pour was copper color, weak but ok initial off-white head, turning quickly to nothing really, some mini suds bubbles around the very edges, nothing really. The aroma was overwhelming caramel, hot alcohol, some brown sugar and dark fruits. The flavor followed, too much caramel (and not great caramel either), boozy strong, esp. for only 8pct, and some undeveloped non-ripe fruity notes. Did I mention there being a lot of caramel? Mouthfeel was a little on the thin side, hot, slightly sticky. Lacking any real spice, slight funk that just is drowned out in the caramel. A loser within style for sure. Sorry to all the non-rate-to-style folks, but if 2.5-3ish is the middle of the rating range, there’s no way this can be above average among the belgian ales out there.

Pours a wonderful Ivory head. Has the aroma of bananas and cashews. This is a wonderful balanced Belgian ale with the yeast of the old world. Truly a Trappist in act.