Gulden Draak

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Ertvelde, Belgium

33cl bottle, dark reddish/brown colour, light brown creamy head, caramel, chocolate and raisins aroma, various fruits (pear, plum) and yeast notes, chocolate sweet flavor, full body, finish with dark fruits and some alcohol, balanced, a surprise

Colore ambrato scuro, opaco, schiuma abbondante e beige. Dolce aroma di malto, abbastanza forte, con alcune caramello esentori di chiodi digarofano. Gusto dolce e ben bilanciato,una buona nota piccante del luppolo si unisce a metà e nel finale , e successivamente anche un nota di caramello abilanciare quelle del luppolo.L’alcool è ben nascosto nonostante sia una 10.5°.Ottima

330mL bottle from Bevmo in Mission Valley (San Diego, CA). Pours a very deep ruby color, bordering on brown. About two fingers of off-white frothy head with excellent retention. Aroma of sweet overripe fruit (plum and cherry) and yeast. Taste is quite sweet but not cloying. Complex flavors of brown sugar, ripe dark fruit, spice, and a little yeast. Indeed, this beer is very thick bordering on syrupy. Good carbonation. Only a hint of alcohol. Altogether a lovely quad -- or is it technically a tripel according to the commercial description?

Mahogany red in color... Thick beige foamy head... Aroma is sweet and yeasty... Flavor is of candi sugar yet very citrusy... Alcohol content definitely noticeable on the finish... Pretty nice beer.

Very dark beer, red/brown in color the head was descent and was tan in color. A very strong sweet alcohol smell fills the nose, what I found to be to over powering for my taste, yeast, dark fruit and what I think is black liqurish finishes of the aroma. Yeast, dark fruit and coffee are what I taste most along with rich malts, I can’t taste the alcohol but this beer has a very sharp flavor. There is a different perfumy taste in the beer and leaves a bitter after taste. The flavor is very strong and not unpleasant but I’m just not a fan this brew, it’s just to sharp tasting.

***update Oct 14/08*** K, so this time around this beer is from the same batch that I did the original review on. BBF 12/04/08... AAAAAAA F’N FRUIT FLY landed in my chalice! You little bastard! You will not take any of this beer from me! I just stirred in the fruit fly! It’s aaaaall mine! mwaahahahahahahaha!!!!!&# The cigar aroma is still present but probably a little more distant and mellow but it is the dominant smell. The cigar aroma is equivalent of one found in an earthy, tobacco laced Merlot. Still sweet with burnt sugar (mellowed). The flavour is amazingly smooth with zero alcohol, excellent mild spice blend, orangish with the same raisins and prunes, caramel malts. Amazing carbonation. Incredibly smooth, slight spicy and burnt sugar after taste. This beer is to die for. Old rating was 4.4. I find it hard not to give this all 10’s. Another bottle awaits and I will put it straight up against a 2-2.5yr old Rochefort 10 and see who truly is the champ.

Great beer. First time I had this was on Canada Day 2005 in Ottawa...priced at $10 a bottle, I had no idea what I was getting into and it knocked me on my ass - I’d never had anything like this before...definetly a sipper! I almost fell off my chair (I followed it with a St. Bernardus 10 & 12 - no idea what this was at the time) and displayed wonderful slurred vocabulary. Tried to find the toilet, ended up locked out outside somehow, so I thank that basement bar in the Byward Market for the 30$ of free 10% Belguim beer. I digress..... Nice very reddish/brown/orange. Really thick cream coloured head...man, it was solid. Awsome sticky lacing and ample carbonation. Aroma was very complex and changed as the tasting went along. It’s too bad that I shared this bottle with a bastard with no common beer sence...COUGHcirrhosisCOUGH. The warm aroma had lots of interesting smells (spent near to 10 minutes doing this) like dark fruit (raisin, prune), weak aromatic tobacco, excellent malts and hops (weak), what I thought was nutmeg but wasn’t and a slight earthy note. Where’s the 10.5%?...barely detectable in the taste and smell. Taste was unreal - more cooked raisins and prunes, thick intense slight sweet malts, great zippy spicy yeast, caramel and sugar (burnt??) and a hint of cherry (maybe). Mouthfeel was soft and sweet. The alcohol almost shows up and then vanishes. No trace...amazing. Slighty bitter and a dry tongue despite the waterfall of drool. Heavily bodied. Simply awsome. All around intense drinking experience and highly recommended to go out of your way to get it.

Poured into a Trappist glass. Lacy head with the aromas of spice and malts. Initial taste of plums and ended with a bitter sweet malty taste. Creamy body. Very good beer.

Relatively thin brown pour for a quad. A short lived off-white head produced minimal lacing. The aroma was raisin, malt, yeast and spice. The flavor was spicy with a bit of raisin and yeast and some alcohol. Overall the body was pretty thin. Not the most exciting beer for the style.