Unibroue 16

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

Found at Corvallis Brewing Supply. Amazing brew - flavors of honey and raspberry with a slight Belgian yeastiness that is not at all overdone. This goes straight to the top of my favorites list - up with Corsendonk Pale and Schell Einbecker Doppelbock (MN). I could drink this all night...

Deep gold, fluffy white head. Aromas of all the fruits of autumn, roasted and spiced. Nose is musky and sweet; flavor is slightly sweet and spicy with a hint of warming alchohol. Deep characteristics of a belgian tripel. Excellent.

Whoa. Outstanding brew. Pours a lovely cloudy reddish amber with a fluffy head that leaves behind some nice lacing. Citrusy, spicy aroma. White grapes, green apple, citrus, spice, alcohol, with maltiness and perhaps a little sweetness/tartness in the flavor. Palate is pretty much perfect. And boy, is this one strong.

Pours a hazey, amber honey color w/ a full, semi creamy froth. Head retention is remarkable. Takes forever to reduce and the final lacing is a fluffy blanket. Aroma of moist dessicated stone fruit, bananas, herbs, beef jerky, and Belgian granite. Full nectar w/ ample residual effers creating a cottony texture. A mild sweetness w/ a big malty backbone consisting of banana and vanilla cream, the nectar of kiwi, passionfruit, peaches, nectarine, and wild apple. Slight gingerbread. The pleasant tartness from a ripe strawberry. Posseses a defined spicey character. Throughout the whole sip a playful tartness runs rampant tantalizing my taste buds. I walk away and the whole while I’m thinking to myself, did I just eat a kiwi ? The finish is long on flavor w/ a equalizing bittering component from the acidic/peachpit realm. A magnificent brew indeed. Highly recommended.

750 ml bottle. Pours to a cloudy, deep caramel color, with a thick, creamy, white head, and a lively carbonation. The nose on this beer is exellent, with lots of good sweet malty aromas, paired with funky/earthy yeasty aroma, and fruity/plummy aroma. The palate is firm, with lots of good sweet and caramel malt flavors, paired with good estery fruit flavor, hints of tobacco, and spicy/funky yeast flavors. This beer finishes with lots of big sweet malt, fruit and yeast up front, then ends with some peppery alcohol that lingers. Complex, flavorful beer, with a ton of character. Wonderful aperitif or digestif beer, and would be a nice beer to match with hearty dishes.

BB December 2009. Pours a dark, orangey, coppery amber color with a nice murky and effervescence look and an enormous head that almost gets in the way. After a few minutes it settles to a full, off-white with tan hints, creamy/fluffy head and is mostly lasting with lots of excellent lacing. Nose is like a complex Golden Belgian (like the Duvel-types) and quite potent. Spicing noted first with pepper, clove, and nutmeg, with fruits like apple and pears and maybe grapes, plenty of yeasty esters creating a banana bread tone and a note of pie crust. Taste is similar but with great malty tones to balance the Golden notes. Fruits are the same (grapes, pears, apples) but white grapes are now more prominant and with some almost plum-like tones; spicing is more complementary with clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon creating a pie crust note and some caramel as backing tones. It is quite yeasty and notes of banana are apparent; it dries out some with some almost floral notes and some balancing bitterness to round it out. Palate is soft to lively and medium-bodied with a very delicate feel and a round texture; warmth felt but very fitting for the beer. Finishes with plum, grape, cinnamony pie crust leaving ghostly and quickly, but a lingering, estery, floral, lighly bitter note remains for some time. Besides the outrageous head, this was truly something of an anomoly for such a light-type beer and it was strangely complex compared to others of the typical Duvel-type style. It was a combination of a great Golden Belgian and a Chimay Blue-type Dark Belgian which was really quite amazing and surprisingly more to my liking than I thought it would be. My favorite from a very good brewery, and hopefully something that will age well and/or be sold for years to come.

75cl bottle from Willow Bend Liquors (Tampa). Pours a dark, brown with a thick, creamy white-tan head that settles quickly but provides ample lacing on the glass. Aroma: Sweet caramel overtones with hints of sweet, ripe fruit and honey. Flavor: Sweet malt, spices, caramel, and honey. Medium-bodied ale with a sweet, lingering finish. Perfect balance of sweetness. malt and alcohol. Too bad Unibroue doesnt make this every year!

Bottled. Cloudy amber, rich lively head. Almondy nose with herbal spices. Sweet and caramelly, lively and sparkling with notes of pears and fruit salad. Grassy finish with some coriander. A compleax and arousing beer. Unibroue’s releases may be rather similar, but they’re still top class!