Ottos Abbey Dubbel

Brewed by Ottos Pub & Brewery
Style: Abbey Dubbel
State College, Pennsylvania USA

In short: An overly spicy and soapy/perfumed Belgian ale of some kind
How: Tap at brewpub
The look: Clear golden copper body with a small beige head.
In long: Spicy nose. Taste has way too much herbal and perfumy spiciness for me. Coriander, lavender, camomile, cloves, rose water, some spices that I use in my unsuccessful Chinese cooking attempts. Second in line was an intense “having my mouth washed with soap” feeling. That thing got gross before the end of my 4oz sample. I think I got a bad batch, a bottom of keg that shouldn’t have been served or something like that. This beer was like seeing my cousin Louis with working-boots on and a lunchbox, you know there’s something not quite right and that’s not how it’s supposed to be.

Draft @ Otto’s. Mostly clear amber body with a small white head. The nose is fruity and estery with bananas, clove, plums, candi sugar and dough. The taste is moderately sweet, moderate to light bitterness with plums, light berry, candi sugar and some banana. Medium body is round with moderate carbonation. Finishes with a bit of pepper.

Draft @ Otto’s. Shared by artusory. Pours a bright, orange-reddish color; thin off-white head with fine-bubbled lacing. Lots of straightforward cloves and brown sugar and oily dried fruits in the aroma; a bit syrupy. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: chewy dried fruits, bananas and cloves, with lots of chewiness and residual sugar. Sticky, but tasty enough. Lengthy finish from all the sugar; cloves and bananas and dried fruits.

Wonderful - really candyish and sweet. Lots o’ malt with no hoppage at all. Nice.

On tap at the brewpub. Aroma is a lightly coarse phenolic blast, with the curtness of salted ginger and heavy yeast. Very pungent and a bit chalky. Not my most desirable Belgian profile. Pour to the scupper with a rather clear middle red, thin rim of opalescent head above. Flavor rings with the aroma, in a lightly grainy, astringent yeast profile. Pale fruit liqeurs dominate an otherwise lightly chewy malt body. I just don’t get the malt character and soft, estery yeast expression I want. Hops are right on with a blast of juicy cone resin in the back end. Fresh, but the yeast got ugly and takes the beer down. Not my kind of Dubbel.

About as good as most American brewpubs get when they try the Dubbel. I still encourage them to try...but few can get it right. I can’t remember if I was served in the right glass when I had this...

Listed as "Otto’s Dubbel Ale" - I had this on draft at the brewery. First impressions are that it smells and tastes a bit stale, but I’m learning that this is probably a product of the house yeast - I find this presence in almost every Otto’s beer. The thickness is remarkable, since it appears, at least to my palate, that they didn’t use candy sugar and instead just used straight malt to get the gravity - the effect being of course that the body is far too thick for a proper dubbel. Doesn’t mean this beer doesn’t taste good, in fact it’s delicious, though the banana is a little too dominant, and the requisite clove character is a little too subdued. Brash and slightly metallic at times, with a decent hop bitterness, also not to-style, but still tasty. Reminds me of a fresh New Belgium Dubbel but of course with a much higher gravity, or at least I perceive it to be too vinuous and heavy.

I still haven’t had a Dubbel that I really loved. This one was good, deep color and some sticky-sweet maltiness, molasses or caramel or something, but I would’ve rather had something else. Oh well, worth a shot.