De Dolle Dulle Teve 10º (Mad Bitch)

Slightly-aged 750ml bottle from my own cellar, high fill level (important). Head is initially huge, frothy, rocky, white, fully lasting. Body is hazy medium yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately yeasty (cobwebs), moderately hoppy (herbs, flowers), moderately malty (cookie, toasted grain/bread), with notes of candied pineapple, honey, mango, white pepper, and alcohol. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. I’m tellin’ ya, this is a special beer, and it’s taken awhile to figure that out. But man, all it takes is a well-aged sample like this to open your eyes. This is the second one I’ve had that’s been this amazingly integrated. One or two years is all it needs (wouldn’t go much further). I’ve had low-fill bottles that were oxidized from the same batch that went down the drain, but that’s easy to see before you even open ’em. This is why I hoarded over a case of the damned things a year ago...I knew from a past experience that this thing goes from a dry, accurate, benchmark tripel to a mind-blowing ester-bomb in time. Words can’t express this beer when it’s in this shape (though it’s not really a tripel anymore), and I dare say most of my cellar is like this now...that’s an almost scary thought. A perfect beer IMHO, though certainly not every single time of course...but honestly, most of the samples I’ve had in the last year or so have been this flawless, so...fuck it. 5.0. Kris Herteleer is quite possibly the best brewer in the world IMHO.

33 cl bottle. Deep golden and slightly earthy with a thick creamy white head. Sticky lace with very spicy/yeasty aromas. Mango, papaya, lime and lemon top notes, more tropical fruit and even some pineapple. A touch of warming follows all of these bringing with it intense spices of cardamon, clove, and ginger. Creamy texture with a lovely wheaty body and spiciness up front. Fresh tropical fruit mingling with warm baking spices. Ginger, clove, black pepper mingle with a soft spearmint flavour on the back. Sweet Belgian malt bring the yeast and fruitiness together. Warming intensifies the spice and softens the fruit. Waves and waves of alternating sweet spice, tropical fruit and tart acidity just make this a world class example of the brewer’s art. Amazing beer.

From a bomber. The only date I could find on the label was 1998, but that may have just been the date of the artwork on the bottle. Pours copper with a huge white fluffy head and some excellent lacing that sticks around. Some floaties can been seen in the glass. The first smells present reminded me of a good gueuze. Smells of straw, barnyard, cane sugar, and yogurt. Tastes of grapes, citrus and other fruits with a vegetal finish and an excellent tingly mouthfeel. This one is definitely a keeper.

Golden orange beer, slightly hazy. A huge fluffy white head. Aroma is a delight, beginning yeasty and leathery and developing sour and sweet fruity notes over the next half hour. Fruit, pear and some banana, as well as alcohol, dominate the taste, but there are notes of citric sourness, spice and nuttiness that blend imperceptibly into a bitter finish. A wonderful tripel, to be slowly sipped and savoured. Minor complaint: the hallmark De Dolle label, ugly and amateurish, but this is obviously not reflected in the rating.

After buying the bottle today, I poured it into a Leffe glass this evening. As I prefer not to refrigerate Belgian beers, the bottle spewed a little after I opened it. Despite a high amount of foam in the beginning, the Leffe glass permitted it to completely disappear within a minute or so. The flavor is an amazing combination of sweet spiceyness that lowers the perceived alcoholic strength. Let’s say it’s like a Turkish Delight beer! For the US government...just call it a Mad Female Dog. Fantastic beer for our future pub in Taiwan! LEKKER!!!

750ml: Banana peach. Unfiltered. Mountainous white head sprays the glass with intricate lace. Invigoratingly estery nose with notes of dessert apples, honeycomb, doughy yeast, melon, and black pepper. Delightfully musty, as well. Carbonation expands then condenses into a soft cream. First sip is soothingly yeasty and heavily estery with peppery alcohol and herbal hops. Notably flowery, bitter, and peppery throughout the brew with long honeyed pale malt notes to balance the esters and herbal aspects. Finishes with a blend of table grapes, salt, and doughy malts with a lingering grassy character. Exuberantly ripe and balanced in every aspect. Understated, yet extraordinarily complex. A real gem of the world.

no one ever bought a de dolle product for the beauty of the label--they’re typically about as attractive as those swollen red- bottomed baboons that even the nature channel is embarassed to show with a zoom lens. this ’mad bitch’ label has all the artful grace of a prison tattoo. but mien gott in himmel, in every other respect this beer is as lovely as a glimpse of perfect cleavage. dulle teve has it’s own built-in bottle-bottom bilge of heavy particulate matter, it’s lazy swirls of rising yeast look like the smoke stacks of a sleepy alpen village. it pours a perfect horned owl’s eye yellow, as resolutely yellow as egg yolk. the head was a sand blasted bone white mousse, i could paw out a gob of it and wad it up like a piece of paper-mache’-- it contained both pearly bubbles and firm beautifully sheeting creamy froth-- you can put your hand on the bottle and almost feel the champagne turbulence of exuberant effervescence inside. as a tripel lover, i can tell my beer loving bretheren than this product is everything you love about tripels times approximately 1.4. aroma is champagne, apples and mildewed cork, cotton tablecloths drenched in white wine, and gurgling with pear brandy and yeast. a gorgeous mixture of heavy cream and tropical fruits, a very soft feel, full body, elegantly sweet, with a natural symmetry of bitterness and strength. rudely named, the "mad bitch" is in fact a million times more meg ryan than madonna, nothing coarse or vulgar here-- it’s sweetness and gentle grace that i’d want to bring home to meet mom, it’s a porch swing romance, a girl next door that knocks you off your feet.

33cl bottle, vintage unknown
Consumed at Bier Circus, Brussels, May 2006
Cloudy, deliciously glowing with a light amber murkiness. Has a firm, well-supported white head. Nose of gummy sour fruity, a sharp scent of alcohol, some pineapple and bubblegum. Well-carbonated, very light on the tongue but with a thick body. Full of a fight between sweet and sour fruits. One of the best tripels I’ve had.

Rating updated to 4.7 based on 4-5 year old bottles... the dry cobweb character of these aged bottles is nearly-perfect.