Val-Dieu Grand Cru

Brewed by Brasserie de l’Abbaye du Val-Dieu
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Aubel, Belgium

Brown Sugar, molasses and hints of anise on the nose. Pours dark brown. Raisons, brown sugar, spices, yeast and bread. Great Beer.

Dark Brown Color with Sandy Ring. Rich Dry Dark Breads, Dried Apricot and Sugar on the Nose. Medium Mouthfeel...Bready Quality Coats the Mouth...Dark Bread, Raisins, Toffee, Dark Dried Fruit, Very Sugary Quality to it...Clean, Spiced Ending. Very Nice .

BB 09-08. Dark brown pour with mahogany highlights and a brilliant head, full, creamy, almost rootbeer float-like, and beige; fully lasting head and plenty of great, tight lacing. Nose is decent with raisin, prune, lightly nutty toffee, brown sugar, yeast, and an earthy nutmeg spice to round it out with only hints of alcohol. Flavor is similar and rich in malts; notes of prunes, figs, raisin bread, toffee, and candi sugar. Taste is sweet but does carry a subtle earthy allspice note with minimal bitterness. Palate is nice, nearly full, silky, somewhat chewy, and soft to moderate carbonation. Finishes still mostly sweet, with a little dryness and notes of prune, the allspice, mild warmth, and a toffee aftertaste. Nice Grand Cru with very little to say bad about, but overall, a bit too sweet with no real memorable qualities. Good, not great.

2005 Chalky and dusty, but in a good way. Good amount of candi sugar. Great.

27April07. On tap @ Toronado as Val-Dieu Winter. very dark brown, white foamy head. spicy aroma. very sweet. Molasses, candi sugar, light dried fruit. Ton of malt, almost too much, very sticky. Hints of nutmeg.

Bottle sampled on 1/18/07: Pours a transparent dark mahogany with a nicely-lacing light tan head. Aroma of sweet dark caramel malt and bready Belgian yeast with a touch of raisiny complexity. Body starts sweet and malty with nice, full-bready texture toward a drier, earthy sweet finish. A nice Belgian strong ale.

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a chalice, dark brown with no head to speak of. Aroma was a big dose of dark fruit. The taste was sweet and as expected a lot of prune, raisin, fig and the like. Lightly carbonated. Very little alcohol burn. This pales in comparison to something like St. Bernadus ABT 12, but still a nice beer and an under-rated brewer.

The aroma was earthy and citrusy with a peppery spice phenolic. Dark fruits of raisins and prunes were notable along with some dark caramel character. Alcohol wafted slightly bringing the citrus esters and the spice to the forefront. The beer poured into the chalice crystal clear deep brown, black actually. The head was white and rose moderately lasting enough to lace the glass. The flavor was malty with a strong presence of prunes and raisins along with a sherry presence. The flavor began a bit sweet and earthy and then those sweet malt and fruit characteristics became entrenched with earthy flavors and light peppery spice. The flavor was well done and quite complex. The finish was just dry with lasting impressions of dark fruit, dark raisins and prunes, with a very light pepper spice into the aftertaste. The body was medium-full and the beer had a moderate level of carbonation. The alcohol warming was substantial and lasting. A really great flavor on this one, the aroma could use a slight boost in complexity. 750 ml corked and bailed bottle.