Unibroue 16

Formerly brewed at Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chambly, Canada

25.4 oz bottle. Cloudy cider with a thin ivory head. Yeasty honey with light floral. Prickly carb with candied lemon peel and apricot. Melt-away toffee leaves hints of almonds. Smooth, pink grapefruit drying. Fun to drink; an easy 10%.

Cloudy golden copper topped by an initially large off-white head. Strong aroma of spicy candies. Signature Unibroue yeast, lots of biscuit malts and a lively carbonation support a superb body, full and smooth with a dessert Mousse-like mouthfeel. Rather sweet without being sugary. By Unibroue standard the beer is unusually spicy. The candies flavour, spices and biscuit malts all come together and create some kind of variation on the barley cadies and gingerbread man flavours. Lots of floral hops. Some dry coniferous in the finish. The alcohol is exceptionally well-hidden. In small tasting samples this was easily a 4.0 but this rating follows my first 750ml by myself and I must admit that by the end of the bottle the spicy candies flavour was getting a bit tiresome. I think this has aging potential as the sweet spicy candies should evolve and settle into something quite nice. However this is a very nice beer right now. 16 is not too young for me. Taken out of context this could really get me into troubles.

Thin dense head of fine bubbles. Great carbonation. Sweet and fruity aroma with plenty of malts, spices, yeast and a bit of honey. Color is a cloudy orange brown. Wow, I like these unibroue flavor. Nice alcohol presece and warming. Lots of intermingling flavors. Spices, yeast, soft malts, light metallc overtones and a bit of raisin. Damn good but predicable for Unibroue. FInishes spicy and warming. Good stuff.

Pours to a glowing dark amber body with a thin fizzy white head. The aroma is muddled mandarin oranges, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Nicely blended. The flavor is spice muddled oranges. Cinnamon, mace, orange rind, nutmeg, pepper, and earthy yeasty malts. The palate hides the 10% alcohol extremely well. Sweet, medium bodied, and carbonated.

Bottle shared by Blake. Clear amber body under a foamy white head. Sweet and spicy aroma - taffy-ish caramel with nutmeg and light pepper. Very appealing. Interesting flavor - lots of woody spiciness (cinnamon bark, pepper) over sweet fruity malts; finishes with some light spicy hop bittering. I like this Unibroue because it has a strong orange fruit and spice component. In addition the alcohol is very clean.

Cloudy, orangish-copper body with a frothy off-white head with orange highlights. The aroma is sweet with caramel, candy sugar and apple with notes of clove and yeast (earthy). The flavor is mostly sweet and moderately acidic. The finish is lightly tangy and alcoholic. Medium body with a watery texture. Moderately carbonated. OK, but not as satisfying as other Unibroue strong ales. It’s missing their complexity and fullness.

750ml bottle: Pours a fiery amber with a sky high white head that eventually settles into a sticky mound. Lots of bubbly carbonation and sticky lace is noticable. The first breath reveals alcohol and cane sugar - but after a few minutes the beer opens up with peach, strawberry bubble gum and banana esthers. The cidery/refined sugar trapped in plastic note remains. The body offers a sugary sweet malt profile, hinting at caramel and toffee mostly. The yeast fails to define itself here, letting the sugary malts create a one-dimensional experience. This lacks the depth I’ve come to love from Unibroue.

The 750ML Bottle poured a hazy (because it’s bottle conditioned) reddish-amber colored beverage with an ample thick frothy off-white head that lasted nicely throughout and left great lacing on the glass. The Belgian Strong Ale style is nicely represented with lots of sweet fruity notes of orange peel apricot and coriander. The body was full with lively carbonation and a slightly dry, smooth texture. The flavor starts out lightly sweet that is then joined by a subtle sourness. The finish is long and has a light alcohol warmth to it.