Westmalle Dubbel

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Malle, Belgium

Bottled on 5/13/2008 - tasted on 6/21/2009. Pours a small, light tan head. Aroma of plums, dried fruit, and rye bread. Tastes of complex dark fruits, raisins, tempered with a slight balsamic note. Finishes slightly dry. A well composed, delicious beer. Given its age and distance this bottle traveled, it was surprisingly unmolested, and matured quite nicely.

Smells of apples, pretty strong. Nice dark transparent amber hue. unsuppressable golden white head. good lacing. Taste is less acerbic as the aroma, which is good. Distinguishing characteristics of this beers flavor are somewhat more subtle than other dubbels, besides a nice bit of sour apple fading into a light bitterness in the end. There is a nice earthy bitterness to it. I feel that this is a dubbel that a dubbel lover would love for its adherence to simple dubbel standards. Yum. nothing too extreme here, just simple pleasure.

Pours murky reddish brown with a 1 finger (in a chalice) chunky beige head. Aroma is overripe fruit, apples, fresh plums, caramel, toasted sweet wheat bread, honey, pepper, fresh grapes, some sweet grain, dusty cereal grain and cola. Flavor is musty grain, sweet grain, caramel, sticky sweet apple sauce, some dark fruits, creamed corn, raisin, some sweet bread spices, some mineral, a little cider vinegar, a little roast, fresh wheat bread crust, whole walnut, and salty asparagus. Finish is more salty asparagus, balsamic notes, some dark fruit and a hint of hop bitterness. Palate is medium body with a slightly syrupy entry, becoming progressively drier until it comes to a moderately dry finish. Not really as good as I remember it and with some odd flavor notes... I will have to re-rate in the future.

Deep brown and cloudy with a huge head. Musty and old aroma of plums and cardboard. Good palate, with the usual alcohol-like trappist flavor, and also some plum and woody characteristics

Bottle. Aroma of sweet, darkish fruits, murky, musty yeast, light maltiness. Flavor basic sweet fruits and Belgian yeastiness, pretty basic-seeming at this point. Solid, but didn’t find anything super special here.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy brown with a thick light tan head. Aroma of sweet malt, sweet fruits (applesauce and fig), some cola-like notes. Flavor of bitter hops initially with lots of malt and sweet fruits, even some soda-like notes. Hmm, not what I expected from the #2 dubbel in the world. The flavor is bland and the palate a touch heavy. I would have liked more fruity notes or spices....oh well. 7/4/6/3/14 (3.4/5)

11.2 ounce bottle from the Hillcrest Whole Foods (San Diego, CA). Pours a cloud brown with red highlights. Huge frothy off-white head with major staying power. The cola-like effervescence keeps adding more bubbles so that there is an almost constant one finger of head. Aroma of yeast, real raspberries, and plum. Tastes of malt, dark fruit, yeast, and a bit of alcohol. Taste improved a little as it warmed up, but overall I was not impressed. Definitely not as sweet as others in the style. The dry finish also has a noticeable hop sharpness to it. A good enough beer, but I really expected much more complexity and depth from this, being a Trappist and all.

Malty on the nose, caramel, bready, fruity with figs, dates, dark cherries. Pours dark brown with a thick tan head. Caramelly malts, a light toasted flavor, highly carbonated, slightly fruity with raisons, light figs with hints of spicy hops. Great trappist yeast flavors. Thinner than some dubbels but not bad at all.