Steenbrugge Dubbel Bruin

Brewed by Brouwerij Palm
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Steenhuffel, Belgium

Bottle. Pours dark brown, good creamy offwhite head. Aroma of sweet dark fruits, yeast, with a big metallic note. Flavour is basically iron. Some spices, plums and yeast, but mostly metal. Nice and smooth carb. Fairly dull beer, nothing exciting going on here, feels very compromised.

Pours very dark caramel color with an enormous, lively brown head. The aroma is sweet, fruity, yeast, alcohol, and a bit metallic. It doesn’t taste as good as it looks. Kind of dull and a bit watery. Leathery, spicy, anise, licorice notes. Frothy mouthfeel.

Draft @ De Koornbloem, Roeselare. Pours a dark amber color with a small off-white head. Has a fruity malty caramel and dark fruit aroma. Fruity malty caramel flavor. Has a sweetish malty and fruity caramel finish.

A bottle 0.33 from Alko shop. Pale beige head. Mild nose. Slightly metallic nose. Dark brown reddish colour. Grassy taste. Mild hops. Not very sweet.

Bottle, 33cl, into a Trappist glass. Pours dark mahogany, with fingernail-deep head, and some decent lacing. Standard dubbel nose, and some tartness on the tongue. Nicely carbonated, but not very noteworthy overall.

33cl bottle from Dranken Geers. Clear russet orange ruby , thin beige head. A bit like the tripel really, no offensive flavours, but just a little light on the flavour and on the character, perfectly drinkable, but just a little lacking. Not particularly dull, but nothing to excite you here either. Very light on the malts for a dubbel too.

Expires 2012; Sampled July 2009
What started out as a solid pour quickly had to be throttled way back, but I still ended up with four-fingers worth of lightly amber tinged, tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a dark, red plum color that shows an absolutely brilliantly clear, deep red color (and even some gold around the edges) when held up to the light. The aroma smells of red wine soaked raisins, some earthy toasted malt notes, musty almost muddy malt character, plum / prune (almost reminds me of Dr. Pepper), as well as a note of diacetyl that contributes some not quite rancid butter notes as the beer warms up a bit. The diacetyl is actually fairly soft here, but I can be a bit sensitive to it and it definitely seems a bit out of place here.

The beer has a sweet dark fruit flavor to it up front that reminds me of concentrated plums, raisins, and perhaps even some berry or currant notes. There is a touch of butterscotch to the finish as well as a peppery carbonic bite and a spicy, phenolic clove note. The body is pretty light and about spot on in quaffability for the style. The diacetyl gets a touch more aggressive than butterscotch after a bit, though it is always fairly light and I could see many people missing its contribution entirely.

Interesting, I definitely wasn’t expecting the diacetyl (especially since it is lacking in their other beers), but even without it this would still be a fairly lackluster beer (though it would be drinkable at least); with it though this is a definite pass.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

33 cl bottle at Øl&Mat09 in Oslo. Brown color, fine tan head. Aroma is typical Belgian, with caramel malt. Flavor is very sweet with a bit fruit, a bit sweet aftertaste. Almost too sweet, a bit syntetic.