North Coast Cru dOr (Whole Foods)

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

12 oz. bottle labeled as North Coast Cru D’or. Pours a dark amber with little-to-no head. Aroma of raisins and carrots. Mouthfeel of beets and candy sugars. Beer ends with an earthy flavor that doesn’t go away.

Bottle. Pours dark but kind of watery and not a whole lot of personality, sort of generic for a belgian ale.

Cloudy, dark reddish brown body. Quickly dissipating, small, off-white head that leaves behind a tiny rim. The aroma is of candy sugar, black cherries, currants, and some yeast. Smells very sweet, and the flavor follows suit. It tastes like an overly sweet puree of candied sugar and dark fruits. The palate is syrupy and cloying, with a tingling fizz on the tongue. This beer lacks direction and depth. Candy sugar and dark fruits alone do not make a good Belgian.

Thin head which dissipates quickly. Decent carbonation. Sweet caramel aroma. Lots of caramel. Smells and looks like a fine barleywine. Some raisins and spices in there also. Kind of earthy aroma also. Color is a murky dark mahagony brown. Sweet and spicy flavor. More caramel and nutmeg. Noticable alcohol presence. Little bit of roasted grains inther also. Finish is sweet and sticky with a lingering caramel aftertaste. Not exactly what I expected for a belgian strong but plesant none the less.

Single bottle from Total Wine, Jacksonville. Organic, huh? I really couldn’t tell with this one, I guess the alcohol content worked to its favor. Nice brown color with a light head. Nice aroma and flavor is sweet and not too bad.

bottle: pours a chestnut brown with a fizzy light tan head. aroma of spice, orange, caramel malts and some bubblegum. flavour is sweet and malty with hints of spice and sugar. i can also taste the bubblegum i got in the nose. very enjoyable.

Very fizzy with big bubbles in the glass, with a orangey brown color, tint of red. Smallish head. Somewhat of a cola appearance. Aroma somewhat odd. Notes of chocolate, bubblegum, raisin, but also some cardboard, pumpkin and some other vague fruitiness. Flavor smooth and heavily sweet, with more of that vague fruitiness, perhaps some cardboard, and then an unpleasant bitterness in the finish. I can’t find any age markings on the bottle, but it wouldn’t be the first old beer I’ve bought by accident in Florida. But, I’d expect an 8% belgian style to hold up. Still, this beer doesn’t really feel old, the cardboard is more like a flavor component. This is just a weird and not very appealing beer.

Labelled as "North Coast Cru d’Or" and not purchased in a Whole Foods, so this may be an alias. Cloudy reddish brown, , thin beige head. Fruity, winwy aroma. Smoky and caramelly flavors at first, with some prune and raisin as well. Some smokey and chocolatey notes mixed in. Enjoyable.