Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru

Brewed by Brasserie de l’Abbaye des Rocs
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Montignies-sur-Roc, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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I was pretty excited to try this one for my 200th beer (okay, 202 if I could only remember the names of those other 2 beers). It’s tough to beat the appearance of a good Belgian ale, and that’s no exception here. Poured a ruby/amber/brown color, lots of medium sized yeast particles floating towards the bottom of the glass, with a large frothy mocha/tan colored head. The head eventually shrank to about 1/8" creamy layer covering the beer. Towards the end of the glass the head thinned, but was still there. Aroma: This beer has one of the best aromas of anything I’ve sampled to date. It’s big and not holding back with notes of yeast, sweet malts, honey, carrot, pepper, anise, pears, apples, plums, raisins, and even a little bit of caramel and chocolate. This is worth buying just for the nose. Flavor: The taste is big and hearty with hints of pear, plum, raisin, carrot, pepper. There’s plenty of malt backing to this beer which adds sweetness and somewhat of a syrupy feel to this beer. This malt is equally balanced by a moderate well-rounded hop bitterness that manages not to drown out any of the other flavors. But it doesn’t stop there. You can also treat your taste buds to sweet chocolate, yeast, coriander, orange, and toffee. Finishes slightly sweet, mildly acidic, and moderately bitter. Also noteworthy is how well this beer hides the 10% alcohol. I could tell that the content was up there, but I didn’t get overwhelmed with an alcohol taste at any point while drinking this beer. You need to try this beer if you haven’t already because it truly is great.

I’m pretty sure this beer despite the high overall ratings is still under appreciated because it is so damned ugly. Appearance suffers from large bubbles, huge chunks of yeast floaties even with an extremely careful pour and leaving 1/2 of liquid gold in the bottle. Looks like pond water met a dying squirrel carcass. Red with floating masses and murky/ muddy looking. Now.... with that out of the way. This is an otherwise incredible beer. Aroma is prunes, raisins, caramel, toffee, figs, dates. Biblical if you catch my drift. Taste: Is pleasantly, surprisingly, bitter. All of the flavors of the aroma are still there but there is a wonderful tongue cleansing, refreshing, more please, firm bitterness. Palate is a perfect, just thick enough for the flavors and just thin enough to not become cloying. Overall, this is a great find. It seems to exist as proof positive that all of the "appearance is proof of a well made beer" yahoos are wrong. This is an amazing beer that is ugly as sin. Find it, buy it, put a blindfold on if you have to , and drink it.

Pours a dark murky brown with solid tan head from the bottle. Smell is of sweet fruits, toffee and caramel malts. Taste is complex, starts off sweet, then gets a nice bitter bite, before a clean alcoholic finish. Great beer!

Shared a bottle (thnks BelgBeerGeek) at Kulminator. Reddish brown with a small pale head. Aroma is raisins, brown sugar, date, anise, hint of banana. Slightly creamy on the palate and a nice sweetness. Taste is raisins, candi sugar, dates, bread. Very enjoyable.

Dark brown colored beer, murky, with a muddy head. Aromas of caramel, and cherries. Tastes of cloying brown sugar, some muted spices, toffee, and some sour cherry flavors. Finishes on a boozy, medicinal sweetness. Syrupy mouth feel, thick brew. I was expecting something a bit more impressive. Not a bad beer though.

Meh. Deep deep brown and malty. Got nothing from the scent and it ultimately ends up being an average brown ale. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Smooth, malty, syrupy, thick & sweet with loads of sediment. Notes of caramel, cola, cherry, carbonation is just right. One of our favorites.

Pours a caramel slight cola color. Aroma is of raisins with a hint of sweet caramel or molasses. Taste is of sweet alcohol, mixed with lots of raisins which gives it a good subtle taste. Towards the end the molasses and caramels really come through. A very nice belgian strong ale.

Clear brown with a beige head and loads of big floaties. Aroma is sweet, mlaty, caramel, dried fruit, yeasty and dark sugar. Flavor is quite sweet and moderate bitter. Sweet finish. Soft and very smooth. 230412

Bottle. Amber colour with floaters and a small off-white head. Aroma is sugar, alcohol, malt, yeast. flavour is sugar, dried fruits, alcohol, malt, cherry, peaches, caramel, yeast. Nice beer.

2*330 ml bottles bought in a mixpack and shared at tasting. Gusher! Pours hazy reddish brown with a huge creamy white head that slowly dissipates while leaving some trace on the glass. Smell is sweet with wet earth, mushrooms, cellar, orange peal, unripe pineapple, honey, dark grapes, red wine, wood and alcohol. Taste is sweet and spicy with wet earth, leather, black pepper, banana, brazil nuts, wet leaves, earl gray tea, funnel chanterelle, vanilla and hints of alcohol. Mouthfeel is tiny tart, slightly sticky sweet and full bodied. Finish is sweet and herbal with wet leaves, green herbs, nuts, dark sweet bread and alcohol. Interesting how a rather strange smell and taste combines into a really good beer.