Val-Dieu Grand Cru

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

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.

Bottle @ Delices de Caprices. Pours dark brown with a nice lacing off white head. Sweet aroma of raisins, dark rum, caramel, bananas and toffee. Flavour of molasses, dried fruit, warming alcohol, caramel and yeast.

Pours a hazy brown/red. Nice tart fruit, candi sugar, and a slight somkiness on the nose. Flavor is kinda smokey with a bready malt profile. Nice creamy finish, but the flavor left me wanting.

The first pour produces a transluscent brown colour with little suspended yeast, but the second pour leaves a good amount of large particulates. The head is small and dense, light beige, and leaves good lacing. The aroma is rich with caramel malt, buttery toffee, blueberry, vinous notes (pinot noir), rasins, other dried fruits and some almond. The aromas are very distinct in this beer, leaving little guesswork for me. The flavours are equally distinct and rich. Flavours of buttery caramel, raisins, figs, other dried fruits, brown sugar, nuts, apple, cocoa and barley any booze to be detected. Its a little meaty too. The palate is full and chewy, finishing a bit oily, with gentle carbonation. Amazing.

75cl bottle, cork dated 06/06. Pours dark, with a lot of yeast/protein in suspension...head recedes but nice lace coats the glass...aroma is moderate with some sweet raisin/plum and malt aromas...drinks with a medium body, not thick and not light...fairly sweet but not cloying...flavors include chocolate chip cookies and toasted malt...not too complex, but still well enough...I enjoyed drinking it, although it wasn’t like I got ran over by a car or something(although with this strength I kinda felt like it!)...that’s real awesome the recipe was perfected centuries ago...man, real awesome...and by MONKS too...SHE OUGHT!...solid beer though, really.

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.

Bottle. Aroma light toast malt and yeast. Poured a brown to amber hue with a nice white head. Flavor was nice, sugar,toasted malts, apple. Palate was nice a little slick and finish was almost dry with the flavor of candy apple remaining. Overall I thought this was nice and tasty. I’d definitely pass this on.

Pours a dark brown. Has hints of dark fruits, spices, yeast. Aroma was the same. Finished spicy and yeasty. Had sweetness and alcohol taste as well. Good body.