De Dolle Arabier

Brewed by De Dolle Brouwers
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Diksmuide, Belgium

Terrific appearance. An attracting hazy golden with a gigantic white head displaying splendid lacing. The head leaves a trace after every sip and just stays there, mountainous, rocky, all over the glass. Sediments move at the bottom of the glass. Appealing yeasty sweet aroma. Honeyish malt is the base on which dances an above average hop character for a belgian beer, citrusy, lemony, sprucey. Notes of bread, farmhouse, apple and pepper+cloves. I expected this to be the least interesting De Dolle, but how wrong I was, this one is fabulous, complex, yeasty, balanced, refreshing and almost a session beer. Palate is dry up front, hoppy with a generous bitter finish, but all kinds of things happening in between. There’s a subdued fruitiness in the likes of grapefruit, apple, orange or apricot and complex complementing spices. Refreshing mild tart profile. Great creamy and velvety mouthfeel with above average carbonation. I just played a few hours of tennis and this is a superb "sunny day welcome". The complex toasty almost pilsnerish malt just seduces me. All the ingredients in this beer makes themselves heard and known. Oh plentiful harvest, how I want to live to drink your offerings again... Thank you for enlighting me Sham.
Resample: I see the light now. It’s a real crime to have this rated so low. There are only a handful of comparable beers in this style and there are no other style than a hoppy golden belgian to give me that much pleasure. This is a better balanced and more stable Orval. Every bottle is world-class, so is every sip. Medicinal, floral, gracious, elegant hoppiness, funky yeast. A session belgian strong.

This one is a killer, like all the De dolle brouwers beers...

I drink bottles of this Belgium beer and I am drinking a trappist beer. But no! Is not trappist. But should be trappist with such clean yeast tasting. Why are there not more people drinking this beer and saying it is good on this ratebeer? Hop in flavor and smelling, with not much sugar. Also like "gueuze" beer and with fruity.

Pours a clear and effervescent orange amber, topped by a fluffy white pillow of foam. Then I stir up the yeast and dump that in, making the beer a hazy peach color, and the foam closer to a light tan. Great head retention - there’s still a small round mound of foam when I get to the bottom of the glass - and good lacing throughout. Strong dry malty aroma, with some herbal alcohol (and subsequently yeast) in there too. Tart flavor initially, with a dry malt base that is also more than a bit acidic, and also fruity and herbal. Spicy hop bitterness comes into play in the finish, along with some of the yeast flavor. The tart acidity lingers a long time in the aftertaste - delightful. Medium body, well carbonated, quite smooth.

In short: Crazy blonde Belgian Ale. Cannot summarize…
How: Many bottles of various age and on tap at Brewery (poured by brewer!!!)
The look: Cloudy dark blonde body with a long lasting large white head. Most bottles give so much head that the pour is usually problematic
In long: Very yeasty, very sweeet and very hoppy beer. With the Arabier you crank everything to 11. Honeyed caramel, bready, biscuit malts, light but complex fruity notes. Top-notch mouthfeel. Something wild in there, this is not a funky beer by any means but there’s something lively in the beer, the feeling I get from my favourite Saisons. By Belgian standards the hops are over-the-top. A ton of them and they also come with a rather spicy (pepper mainly) flavour. Very sharp and bitter finish. These days the only thing as bitter as a Belgian Arabier is a Lebanon Arab.

Bottle. 2003 I presume. Yellowish green tinges on the side. Orange/gold and sparkly. Huge white foamy head. Tons of lacing. Do I even need to say bottle conditioned? Big yeasty herbal aroma with big orange notes. Some light anise and honey notes. After the carbonation dies down a wonderful citrus flavor comes out (lemon mainly, but has some sweeter lemon like flavors, to be honest, reminds me a bit of starfruit). It’s like a citrus hops backbone with malt making appearances. Only slightly sweet, and just a wonderful example of belgian yeast done right. As it warmed, became peachy, extra orangey and slightly syrupy. Strong and warming and like usual from this brewery, I immediately want more. Medium full body. It’s just so well done and so not overdone. I need to do a side by side with this and Dulle Teve.

This was like a belgian stron IPA. Soo hoppy. Giant rocky head. Nose of cracked pepper, lemon zest and a touch of candy sugar. The flavour as an overly hoppy golden ale full of cracked pepper. G-rat

5 for appearance thanks to the 3-inch merengue head: it is impenetrable, permanent; adamant. I can’t even get in to smell this stuff. The head is seriously one full inch above the rim of the goblet. There....smells and finishes like a tasty sour (verhaage vichtenaar comes to mind). Sour cherries, star anise, sweet pepper, vanilla bean. Rich and smooth on the palate, finishing in a burst of hushed bubbles on the back of the tongue. Me likes it. UPDATE: Fifteen minutes after the pour, there remain dime-sized chunks of lacing under the rim, and a rootbeer float foam island hovering in the middle.