Achel 8 Bruin

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappistenabdij De Achelse Kluis
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Hamont-Achel, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Cloudy. Banana esters. Nice dark fruit flavors. Very yeasty. Big malt presence. Creamy. Wonderful.

Caramel, brown sugar aroma. Auburn coloured, medium toffee head. Fine caramel, malt and molasses flavour. Complex, good tongue tingle too. A great Beer, Thanks again joey_capps!

Yeasty, floral aroma. Very sedimenty. Malty, soft mouthfeel. Somewhat fruity caramel flavors. Finish becomes piercing and astrigent as the bottle warms. Something is definitely wrong here, perhaps with the yeast. Any complexity in the malt seems drowned out by the cloying sweetness and lingering alcohol in the finish.

Poured a nice brown color and full of yeast. The aroma was sour and full of alcohol. A yeasty bitterness resided in the flavor.

Smells like lye. Pours a nice brown. Some yeast, sweet, some orange, bitter finish. Decent brew.

Had from bottle at The 12 Hour Belgian Beer Party at Pizza Port Carlsbad on March 8, 2003
#12 on the program. The Bruin was a hard find, and I'm glad I got to it. The listed ABV on the program is 7% (below the 8% listed above), but either way, I'd enjoy this one. The aroma offers a nice blend of sweetness and smokiness, perhaps a bit of oak. Beer pours a creamy, cloudy brown. Very nice to look at, a very good Belgian. The flavor is very good - sweet with a bit of dough and a hint of acidity - but whereas I thought it'd be a bit heavy, it was quite light and a fine specimen. Finishes with a slight bitterness, but still finishes nicely. Good stuff.

brown tending to be a tad light but with a nice big head..malty pumpernickle bread with some yeast in the nose..bready flavors..dark malt complexities...some alcohol, moderate bitterness...a tad sugary too..

MY BEER #400! Dark hazy brown in color, didn't have much head. Aroma of fruit and caramel. Taste is malty sweet, with hints of the caramel and fruit as in the nose. An excellent brew, but slightly behind some of the other trappists.

UPDATED: JAN 11, 2008 Nose of candi sugar, gingerbread and raisins. Colour is brown with orange shine throughout, slightly hazy. Yellowish-brown head, fast disappearing. taste is rather sweet, with a bitterness in the back of the mouth, referring to dark malts. Esters. Taste of certain caramel-sweets, grapes or raisins and rhubarb. medium-bodied, some alcohol, warming-effect grows. No real new aftertaste - main flavours fade.
Infected version, thanks to Van Steenberge bottlers
Absolutely huge dirty-beige head, like dirty whipped eggwhite. Faint sourish nose, suggesting all kinds of things, but nothing definite. Some dark malts left, probably lactic acid. Taste confirms lactic acid, very Oud Bruin-like. My contacts in Achel were a bit bewildered that people actually liked this, but I’m starting to understand why they did. Unfortunately, it’s not an honest lactic acid - there’s something toasted, and moldy at the same time, lurking beneath. It’s definitely infected, even when maybe pretty benign. Even a kind of ripe mango flavour, not at all bad.
Don’t tell me THIS is why Van Steenberge is actually stopping production of their top-product, Bios, no?

This one pours a dark cloudy brown color with a medium sized off-white head. It has a nice fruity aroma with hints of malt, plums, and raisons. Full bodied, the flavor is richly malty with some some fruit undertones and a nice fruity finish. An excellent brew, but I actually like Achel 8 Blond a little better.