De Dolle Arabier

Pours a slightly hazy golden color with a very large, fine bubble head. Citrus and yeasty aroma with hints of lemon, orange, banana, melon, floral hops, honey, and light spices. The flavor is only slightly sweet with a grapefruit bitterness in the finish. It is very dry for a belgian, with a lot of spices and carbonation dancing on the tongue. It’s a very grainy flavor with lots of hops, and although the palate is nice, the aftertaste is a sour bitterness that I did not like.

Pours with a massive white rocky, lacing head of foam that never went away. Active carbonation, lots of floaties, pale cloudy yellow body. The head continued to build in the bottle and erupt even after the 2nd pour. Hard to get aroma through the head, but there are obvious spices, yeast. Flavor is spice, some sweet fruity citrus. Refreshing palate once you get through the foam. Warm finish.

Big yeasty nose with hint of strawberry and melon. Clear pale copper-gold color, sticky white head. Full malt front with some honey and pear. Light toasted grains. Grapefruit-like bitter end. Chewy, rough around the edges. Full of character and aggressive. Yeah man.

Murky dirty golden ale with an extra thick white head, resilient and lacing. Flowery hops come out with coriander and oranges, and light notes of honey. In mouth, dry sweetish malt with tingling spices, alcohol vapours, restrained hops, peppery finish, with oily mouthfeel. FVery classy bird. Bought from Bieropholie. Chalice used.

Is it the Arabic beer or the beer in Arabic?. Either way, from the mad brewers of Esen, anything is possible. This was a gem and against the recommendations of this brewer, saying fresh is best, I trialled an old sample. Poured into a chalice at around 10 °C. An enormous fluffy white head raced me to the top of the glass and lifted an ½" from the brim. It was steadfast, atop an opaque, orangey bronze body, and left the most meticulous lacing down the sides. Lovely to look at!!!. An unexpected aroma of mixed muesli cereal with hints of banana, guava and pineapple wafted from the glass; yeasty with a trailing hint of peppery spice. Quite grainy and dry in the mouth; full in body and reasonably smooth. Very light hint of toffee and vanilla upfront adding a degree of sweetness to the grainy and yeasty mid-palate, like wheat ears and rolled oats?. The finish was the highlight, long and unforgivingly smooth with lingering notes of burnt sugar, caramel and smoky, burnt grain that settles with a spice that was truly enticing. It went down with ease, so scarily quaffable I could down a dozen in a session and wonder the next day of where my pennies went. Lovely. One to try again. (33cL, age unknown, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)

Gigantic fluffy head atop a translucent golden pour. Aroma is a lightly intoxicating synthesis of lemonade and pear. Maintains a high level of fizz. Flavor subtly evokes a fruit medley and a hint of roasted cocoa with a mildly bitter finish.

Pours extremely murky with heavy sediment. Would guess apple cider if I didn’t know. Long-lasting large bubbles. Musty sweet with dried fruit elements. There’s definitely some smokiness to the brew that is interesting. Slight bitter finish.

Always a pleasure to sample a De Dolle because they seem incapable of making a mediocre beer. This poured a deep gold with a huge fluffy head that nearly overspilled the glass. When it sagged, it left great dollops of lace like the sea foam on a stormy beach. The aroma was as big as the head, raising thick, fruity alcoholic fumes: tangy grapefruit, summer flowers, that distincitve De Dolle yeast, souring white wine, bubblegum... Delicious. Smooth, rounded mouthfeel, well carbonated. Surprisingly smoky and oaky on the tongue initially - not at all what the aroma promised, and reminiscent of some Belgian Scotch ales. However, the smoke gives way to lots of juicy soft fruit before a tart, puckering finish and a peppery kick from the 7% abv. This is a very fine beer. In an ideal world, Belgium would be a small state somewhere in Australia and I’d move there. (33cl bottle, IBS Perth, bb 6/05)