Unibroue Édition 2004

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

Bottle. Hazy orange colour with a large white head. Sweet fruity aroma. Flavour is a bit overwhelming: fruity, yeasty and quite alcoholic.

Bottle; pours a cloudy butterscotch with some sediment; carbonated head that leaves very quickly, no lacing. Seems to be a recurring theme with Unibroue; starts interesting and sweet which works against it on the last half of the glass. Very interesting aroma of peach/apricot nectar, not much hops notable. Taste is a bit carbonated and pop-like.

pours amber with thin off white that laces. aroma is a nice champagne grape, allspice, caramel candied sweetness, and a little sprite soda. taste is spicy champagne flavored sprite. this is very interesting and pretty unique. finish is light and dry. quite a treat.

Bottle: Lots and lots of pears and granny smith apples. A little too much sweetness, and no hops to speak of. Some yeast and toffee flavors. I felt like it was a good ale, but something just wasn’t there that I can’t put my finger on it (hops, a bite, something bitter).

I found about 4 bottles of this at the Sherbrooke Liquor Store in Edmonton. I’m going back to buy the rest, because this is the best Unibroue I have had yet. Pours a cloudy orange amber with a huge pillowy almond head that demonstrates excellent staying power and lacing. Yeasty, caramelly, and fruity aromas in abundance. Rich toffee sugary malt with zippy notes of ginger, tangerine, banana, and sweet spice. Some breadiness in the background, but for once the Unibroue yeast takes a back seat to the other flavours. Quite a bitter finish as well, almost like citrus oil. Moderatley sweet, fairly heavy/oily mouthfeel, and perfectly balanced. You would never know this packs a 10.5% alcohol punch. Fantastic!

Bottle. Hazy orange/gold color with nice sized head. The aroma was spicey with some banana and sour note coming through. Sweet spicy yeasty taste with good dry ginger finish. Damn good beer.

Pours a hazy golden/copper color, with a ton of thick white suds. Very good lacing throughout the glass. Aroma is spicy and sweet, something like an expensive organic ginger ale from Whole Foods. Starts out medium sweet and malty, with a little yeast, but then the spice takes over. Lots of ginger, then black pepper. Superb, I really like the spice in this beer. Finishes dry and spicy, again ginger and black pepper. Lighter in body than the alcohol content suggests.

Pours a hazy burnt orange color with a frothy two finger white head that settle to a thick cap which never fades away, and leaves behind huge amounts of lacing in my glass. Smell; nice orange rind smell hits at first, followed by some nice spices and cloves. There’s a good yeasty quality in the aroma, as well as a little honey. Taste; There’s a strong citric/orange peel flavor, along with a yeasty funkiness. I also get some honey sweetness and cloves with some peppery spiciness and has a definite alcohol presence. This is a very different beer, that’s a bit hard to get used to. It’s almost like another reviewer stated in that it seems like a combination a several different belgian styles, that just don’t seem to blend all that well. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, and drinkability takes a bit of a hit with the overpowering alcohol presence.