Val-Dieu Grand Cru

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

TAP: brown/reddish pour, huge frothy white head. Huge creamy mouthfeel, grape notes in the taste. Excellent.

750 ml bottle. Pours a deep dark dense brown with a thick biege head and very nice lacing. Smell of dark fruits, malt, dark sugar, and vanilla. Taste is sweet and bready malts upfront with lots of dark fruits to follow along with a nice spiciness. Medium bodied with a velvety smoothness and alcohol that is only present throught the finish.

Bottled. Pours dark brown with a massive cream colored head (almost like canned foam). Aromas of alcohol caramel, Flavors of dark cherry and raisins. Alcohol present, but not overwhelming. I will buy thisagain.

Bottle. Poured brown with a frothy off-white head that had some lasting and left light lace. Aromas of brown sugar and dark fruits. The flavor found sweet malts and brown sugar. Medium body.

750ml bottle, cork is dated 03/09 (fairly sure this is a best by date). So it goes. Richly sweet, indulgent aroma, with suggestions of plum, cherry, red grape, dark chocolate and molasses, along with lighter notes of dried flowers, bubblegum esters and roasty malt. Deep red-brown color, clear, with a lasting, fine, light tan head. Flavor follows the aroma very closely, with darkly sweet, sugary malts dominating fairly easily, blended with dried fruit, candyish tones, faint spice, earth and peppery alcohol along with a very slight degree of tangy bitterness late. Lingering raisin and carob. Palate is a bit syrupy and thick with creamy effervescence and a truly full body. A little one-sided to be included with the best of the style, but a worth a try to be certain.

Deep copper pour with off white head and lace. Light brown sugar and yeasty aroma. Brown sugar and bread on the taste. Medium bodied with good carbonation. A very nice beer.

Drunken 750ml uncorking at The Penguin with Dirtman. Mahogany with red edges beneath woolly, climbing beige. That nutty sourish hazelnut yoghurt, parsley and chocolate Westy thing aroma. Cherry liqueur chocolates, lingering fleshy cherry in fact, marzipan, prunes, yeast, mown grass hop and a slim beige collar 2 HOURS after the pour. Incendiary, (only just) sub-Trappist Belgian heavyweight provoking some unusually robust early morning debate.

Pours a deep amber brownish color with a large head. the aroma is nutty with some molasses, some raisin, and some alcohol. The flavor is nutty with some brown sugar, plum, fruity notes including cherry and some light apple, fairly dry for what it is but very well balanced.