Westmalle Dubbel

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

Pours a dark brown with a medim light tan head. Aroma of dark fruit, yeast, and sugar. Dark fruit flavor with a sweetness. Bubbly on the tongue. Medium bodied.

11.2oz bottle, BB 7/14/07 (inspired by the "I can’t believe I haven’t rated..." thread). Poured a deep plummy caramel with a delicate and creamy cap of yellowy-beige head... left a nice, thorough lacing as it went down. Nose picked up a hefty dose of plum and raisiny fruits, dry, almost dusty notes of earth, and lesser notes of chocolate. The flavor department began with spicy and lightly sour hops, transitioning well into a creamy middle of darker fruits and caramel.. with spicy earth returning for the finish.. rather dry across the palate with a heavy yeast presence.. the finish didn’t carry much weight and felt almost empty after the fuller body. Very good brew, but fell short of the upper echelon.

Bottle (330ml). Shared with blankboy at Smokeless Joe. Very nice, but had it after the St. Bernardus and didn’t dig it as much. Poured bubbly amber-brown with some yeasties, a light tan creamy head. Aroma of apples and other tree fruits, hops, some mild brown sugar roast malt (fairly sweet). Taste follows the roast/apple nose, but there’s bitterness here too - some hops and almost crushed appleseed astringency. Mouthfeel is quite sweet/bitter balanced for an abbey dubbel, a tad thin, but very nice. An excellent brew, but didn’t do it for me as much as most of its competitors.

Strong carbonation and flavour. Residual spice, great lacing in chestnut brown. Sweet and spice. A great example of a trappist, a bit cheaper than the real westvleteren, but a good second choice. A Best Friend of a good meal. Cocoa, berries that seem and smell like wine but only a small percentage. Banana and fruit yeast smooth .

Bottle 330ml Aroma: front clean, medium green wet hops. Middle rich brown malts.End-vineus clean well refined alcohol. (8-) Appearance; medium fine haze, brown with some ruby saturation. Medium, average top. Slightly sticky oily texture, medium-full bodied, carbonation, medium dry. Bitter green middle Finish slightly woody with accented plums. Neat warming double Belgian. Surprisingly smooth if you consider sample age and above average carbonation. Older sample can be only better.

November 2006. Bottle from LCBO. Dark brown body with a good sized khaki head, and moderate lacing. Sweet malty aroma, with notes of raisins and dark fruit with a solid alcoholic kicker to finish it off. Sweet malty flavour has notes of caramel , muted raisins and caramel, and very mild ambiguous fruit. Alcohol is warming but not particularly prominent. Medium to full bodied palate is smooth but not heavy. Personally a touch more weight would be nice, but not necessary. (3+) Quite pleasant. 7/4/ 8/3+/18 - 3.9 <P> November 2004. Ruby brown body with an average tan head. Sweet malty aroma, some dark sugars (brown sugar, candi sugar?). Sweet malty flavour with pleasant touch of sugars again, some vague notes of chocolate. Very nice but seemed simplistic, may need to try this one again though given that it was precided in the evening by an Old Crustacean. Nice palate, I enjoyed this one a lot. 6/3/8/4/18 - 3.9

Very dark brown color. Large head, foamy and rich. Aromas are malts, fruity, hint of banana, plums, yeasts and brown sugar. A medium bodied dubbel. Malts are rich and fruity, with chocolate and toffee tones. Yeasty and malty. Nicely balanced. A surprisingly dry dubbel. The dryness balances and highlights the fruity sweetness. Interesting effect. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is dry. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

This bottle brew poured an extremely large head of foamy finely sized very long lasting light brown colored bubbles that left behind a very good lacing. The wonderful aroma can be smelled from a distance of over 2 feet. It has notes of mild caramel malts brown malts some vinuousness and mild spices. The mouth feel is vinuois initially smooth and has an alcohol bite followed by a brown beer lingering taste. Very potent tasting. The flavor is a bit overpowered by the vinuousness of the alcoholic mouth feel. Notes of caramel dark malt roasted malts and port come to mind. A very interesting beer. A must try.