Westmalle Dubbel

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

Appearance: Pours a cloudy, brown body strewn with fine yeast particles and topped by a full, foamy, off-white head. Smell: Quite fruity with strong notes of plums and dried bananas. Hint of chocolate. Spicy yeast character. Malts are less prominent. Taste: Dry, slightly bready dark malts with a restrained sweetess. No more than a touch of chocolate. Light spice. More bananas and less plums in the flavor. Mild hop bitterness. Dry finish with a tangy fruitiness and lingering yeast note. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Moderate carbonation. Drinkability: A solid, though somewhat subtle Trappist ale.

This wonderful beer is pretty much what I think of when I think of an abbey dubbel. It’s very dark red with a huge light tanhead that’s long-lasting and leaves a bit of lace. The aroma is a bit like a barleywine, with rich dark malty qualities, caramel, toast, yeasty bread dough, and fruit with hints of alcohol. The taste is first malty sweet, spicey fruit and toast with smooth, warming alcohol - also a bit like a barleywine. Then it becomes more bitter in the spiciness with more caramel, cehrries, prunes, etc., and balances out nicely. It is a rich, complex, but smooth and easy-to drink dubbel.

when i opened the botlle, it gushed out. maybe to much sugar for the fermentation in the botlle. Banana and yeasty aroma. complex flavours of nuts caramel and chocolate.

Just my favorite dubbel. Much better than their tripel which itself is a classic. Belgian yeast and dark fruits highlight the nose, along with a hint of purest water from a stone well (that’s what I get anyway). Has a perfect medium palate, like this beer was made by gods to be the perfect beer. Taste is clean apple-white grape and caramel. Beer is so good, New Belgium stole the bottle.

Dark mahogany pour with soda like sudsy beige head. Slightly nutty, sweet fruit, and pleasant alcohol aroma. I like this one much much more than the tripel. Rich sweet malt with a really nice bitter, nutty, dark-fruit aftertaste. Like the tripel its somewhat one-dimensional for the style and maybe a tad sweet. Lively fluffy body. 8.4.8.4.17 [rerate 10.25.09] 11.2 oz bottle. Pours a darker shinny brown with a huge foamy root-beer float like rocky head. Aroma is sweet and bready, dark sugar, raisins, hint of plums, touch metallic, trappist yeast note is nice. First taste is a bit bready, dark rye, bitter, plummy yeast, odd metallicness, subtle sweetness, flavor vacantly detached from the airy body, lightly nutty, bitter plumy yeast aftertaste and long lingering dry charcoal. Medium bodied, big corse fluffy airy carbonation. I appreciate this in a different way after trying the Westvleteren offerings. Age has dried it out in a nice way, but some of the oxidation notes are distracting 7.4.8.4.15

Nice deep amber. Pours with a small head. Quite a lot of malty sweetness to begin with, but this quickly dissipates. Slightly plumy and even a little bit raisin. Particularly good winter type beer.

Mahogany color with a viscous 1" head. Nice earthy smell of dark pit fruits. Decent taste same as smell is malty sweet up front with a fairly dry finish. This beer tastes better at 60-65*f than when chilled. The yeasty crud at the bottom of the bottle had a good flavor of ripe plums. 013006

Bottle: Not great raison and alcohol aroma. However, really good flavor and palate. Malty and fruity. Good.