Grottenbier Bruin

Brewed by St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Watou, Belgium

Bottle from Stirchley Wines and Spiritts, Birmingham. Brown, with a fast clearing head. Brown sugar aroma. Sweet, nutty chocolate flavour. Thinnish mouthfeel, but a little milky too. Some sweet liqueur to finish. Overridingly smooth, but not very dramatic.

On draft at of all places Cafe Amsterdam, Anchorage, Alaska. Dark black with a monster rocky head. Big nutmeg aroma and rich spicy flavors, wood chips, nutmeg and maybe a sprig of cinammon. Awesome.

Found this randomly up in st andrews when the open was on. Aroma is excellent quite like a double, more than i expected. Taste is similar but has a sourness to it which makes it quite refreshing. Would like to have this fellow again.

Pretty old bottle at Kulminator - still brewed at the original De Smedt plant Muddy dark brown; medium tan-cream head. Grapes & old wine, nutty and flowery aromas. Rosewater, bitter cardboard, wood; sweet and tart at the same time, biscuit but also dark cake and malts. Bit thin texture, probably a bit oxydized, strangely ending filling in. Stands up quite good - which is logical for a cave-aged beer. May have lost a bit of its original complexity, but not much.
Younger beer, St. Bernard Very fruity and yeasty. Bit of Cola aroma. Dark fruit & mushrooms. Very fruity flavour, ending on burnt/roasted notes, that gradually dwindly leaving more plain sweetness. Still more complex than most beers in this style.

Beer #6 at Croydon Draught Belgian Beer Festival. Another beer that I thought I’d rated before but hadn’t. This is an Abbey Dubbel? Hmm. It has a really enticing rich dark ruby colour, coupled with a well formed and persistent beige head. I didn’t really get much in the way of aroma but I have to admit that sitting outside was bringing on my hay fever. The flavour was quite odd, but intriguing. As Kook remarks, there were definite herbal and medicinal notes. There was also some fruit - reminded me of cherryade - but some woody, musty accents too. Interesting, but didn’t blow me away.

Deep dark ruby brown with short tan head. Strange herbal nutty aroma with some medicinal notes. Medium bodied, sweet malts with a herby floral finish. Very interesting.

Brownish ruby red colour with a big frothy off-white head. THe nose is Belgian-like with a good amount of yeast and a little banana. The body is a little spritzy with yeast predominantly in the middle. Fruity and okay, definitely not beer of the year though, Michael Jackson, what were you thinking?

Sweet floral malt aroma with cinamon spice. Cloudy brown colour with good head and lacing that dissapears quickly. Sweet malt flavour. Fizzy palate.