St. Paul Double

Bottle. Pours very dark copper with a beige head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is fairly light and sweet with notes of toffee, dark fruit and berries, as well as a slight metallic quality. Flavour is also very light, almost tastes watered down, with cherries, malt, toffee and blackberries. Thin, watery mouthfeel and quite highly carbonated, this isn’t the best dubbel around; drinkable but thats about it.

Doesn’t seem retired. Bottle (nice!) at St. Veronus. (Best before some time in 2011.) Hazy chestnut brown with a small beige head. Aroma is licorice, burnt caramel, and fruit. Lots of caramel in the flavour as well, and there is almost, but not quite, some milk chocolate. Some dried fruit in there as well. Unfortunately, overly heavy carbonation gets in the way of the flavour.

Bottle. Dark brown with a beige head quickly disappearing. Nose is sweet, and flavor is good- very mellow plum and caramel, late bitterness faintly rouding it out. Not muc complexity but very enjoyable.

Pours a very dark copper, with large off-white head that fades quickly to a layer. Aroma is quite interesting, lots of spices, sweet toffee and roasted malt, wholegrain bread and a hint of vegemite (might be getting a bit old...). Flavour also has a lot of sweet bready malt, hints of molasses and candi sugar. Quite enjoyable. Lovely creamy mouthfeel, but a moderate (low for the style) carbonation which fails to rein in the sweetness. Simple for the style, but quite drinkable although the unbalanced sweetness starts to get a bit cloying.

330ml bottle (Cracked Kettle, Amsterdam)
Deep brown, small head. Rich malty aroma, Anna says tea, I get a touch of perfume. Sweet malty taste, hint of marmite from the yeast. Really nice hoppy bite stops this being dull or sticky. Sweet malts and the ghost of those hops stay for the finish. Classic but not hugely exciting dubbel.

Bottle. A malty aroma with some chocolate, not that strong but quite nice. The head is normal, light brown and creamy-foamy with a normal duration. The body is dark red. The taste is malty with a little bit of chocolate, the finish is only light bitter. A nice taste. The body is creamy and only light watery with a lively carbonation and a rather soft body.

3L bottle, and a 1.5L in the cellar...Brace yourselves gentlemen. According to the gas chromatograph, the secret ingredient is… Love!? Who’s been screwing with this thing?

Deep brown colour, thin head. Very sweet tastewith a warming alcohol kick. Nice malty flavour. Bittersweet finish.