Rock Bottom Milwaukee Falling Angel Dubbel Ale

Brewed by Rock Bottom Milwaukee
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Draft at Rock Bottom Milwaukee. Raisin and yeast, caramel and lots of roasted grain. Burnt sugar, rum. This is one of my first beers that use different sugars to layer in the flavor. It tastes strong, there’s a lot of flavor. My ’bud light’ friend took one sip and declined another one. Yay beer!

Sampled at the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild 2008 Strong Beer Fest, on February 17, at the Mesa Amphitheatre.

Growler from the brewpub: Very unremarkable beer except for the trappist ale flavor. This could be just about any brown ale with another type of yeast. No real distinctive fig or prune flavors. Not impressed.

I thought this beer was pretty tastey, but it did not seem true-to-style to me. Its flavor was chocolatey and coffee-ish and it was missing the wine-iness and full mouthfeel of a dubbel. Not a bad beer, but it struck me much more like a porter or a scotch ale than a dubbel. Appearance was good...a medium amount of white head on a maybe 8 oz serving in a tulip glass. Aroma was of a chocolate and caramel, with no hint of spiciness or sourness. Flavor was good - rather chocolatey with a good caramel malt character, but not very consistent with its stated style. Mouthfeel was a bit thin for dubbel, in my opinion. A very drinkable beer, but not what I was expecting.

Translucent chocolate-amber-rose in color with a thin sliver of a skin patch to form the grayish sheaf and similarly colored wrung. Chocolate hazelnuts eventually work through the nose, followed by almond butter, nutmeg and cocoa nibs. Sweetness comes through with chocolate-accented coffee-hazelnut sweetener. Sugary dates get rolled into brown sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa nibs to spice. Definitely sweet, but it recesses dryly to form a dry chocolate powdered piece. Hazelnut sweetness moves perfectly into the Nutella look-alike contest. Medium bodied but the rushed sweetness hinders it, wrapping up with a dry, chalky Nutella nougat flavor.

On tap at Rock Bottom Milwaukee. Deep ruby-garnet pour with a splotchy caramel head. Nose was of chocolate and dark berries with quite a lot of alcohol present.. quite fragrant. Soapy hops and alcohol gave a less-than-pleasant first impression from the flavor, but dark chocolate and berry sweetness as well as a woody/herbal presence dug it out fairly well. Lighter-than-expected and boozier than it should have been. Meh.

Draught at the brewpub. Clear copper brown color with an off white head that laced the glass. Not much aroma other than light plum and alcohol. Tasted of biscuity malt, raisin, fig, alcohol, and a hint of nutmeg. Good, but not great.

Gold to bronze in color with a minimal white head. Lots of saaz, along with floral and honey aromas. Malt, light grass, honey and alcohol flavors. Thick, near cloying feel. Strong slightly woody finish. Reminds me of a lot of mid level strong belgian ales.