Unibroue Édition 2004

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

750ml bottle dated 3/3/04. Pours a cloudy, murky golden orange with very lively carbonation. It has a monstrous fizzy white head that setlles into a thick fuzzy looking layer that stays strong and coats the glass some.

The aroma is vinous alcohol, spicy, peppery and woody with a touch of apple.

The flavor is pepper and spicy cloves with a vinous sweet fruitiness and some yeastiness. It has a slightly bitter and very dry finish. The alcohol is very well hidden, but kicks you in the butt later. The mouthfeel is smooth and velvety.

Overall, it’s good but not great. A little too spicy for me and a little too much sweet apple/orange that seems kind of out of place in beer to me.

There were some bizarre reviews of this one. Quad gone bad? Coriander? This seems like a pretty traditional holiday beer, with a lot of alcohol, some peppery and clovey spiceness, and some sticky sweetness. Works either as a substitute for an after dinner port, or as a dinner beer with a carefully chosen spicy dinner. As with almost everything from Unibroue, it works really well. It haa enough alcohol and enough spice and sweetness to limit when and where you can drink it, though.

Not a big fan of this one, the aroma and flavor were like a quad gone kind of wrong. The balance on this beer is off, and frankly I haven’t had a belgian style beer since. This is my second beer from unibroue and I’m thinking maybe my last. If anyone really wants to try this there’s a store here in Maine that’s loaded with them still. Apparently people agree my take on this, as my tasting friend also seemed very unhappy with his. Probably the most overrated beer I’ve had.

Fortunate enough to find this on the shelf of the local Bevmo. Deceiving beer. Pours thick with sediment, but with a lot of carbonation, almost to the point it looks artificial. The aroma is heavily spiced, with some fruits. Taste is a lot lighter than expected. Spicy, like a Holiday tea, but also sweet. Don’t really know what to think about this one. Part of me wants another, but the thought sickens the other half.

I really didn’t like this version, way too much coriander (and other spices that I don’t care for in beer) for my taste. Other flavors were there, but I just couldn’t finish the glass to make further notes on this. Plus I was pretty buzzed. This rating is surely "against the grain".

Nothing wrong with Unibroue, but I tend to buy and rate them rarely since a parade of slightly different golden Belgian ales is not the most terribly appealing thing to me. However, I did hear good things about this one, received it in a nice trade, and was in the mood, so I cracked it open. Very nice beer. Lots of spice playing about the mouth, with a medium, smoth-sticky mouthfeel and plenty of candi-sugar sweetness. Mild yeasty notes.

Clovey, spicey and strong. It has it’s own flavor. Highly recommended!!

Note to self - retired, but still available here and need to go out and buy more as I recall liking it a lot, but my notes are DRUNK. fruity - peppery, alcohol well hidden- What the hell? Might as well have suggested it "tasted Belgian" and be done with it. Will buy again and re-rate