Gulden Draak

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

Bottle. Pours dark brown, dark golden with a ruby shade and a small beige head. Immediate candy like scent. Aroma’s of sweet fruit, candy, wine & (burnt) sugar. Predominantly sweet flavors, bit of bitterness in the nose. Quite a complex tasting experience after all. The palate packs a bunch of punch, one in the mouth, one in the stomach and one in the head.

I was really drunk by the time I came around to this one. But I remember the color being great and the taste was, at the time and under the conditions, amazing.

This is one of those Belgiums which reminds me so much of OTHER Belgiums. I love Belgium beer, but many all remind me of one of the first ones I tried (Delirium Tremens and Nocturnum). This one is somewhere in that vicinity, which is both good and bad. Great tasting, but I’d like to find some more Belgium beers that have their own distinct flavor instead of variations on a beer I already know and love. Price is similar to Delirium, but I do like the 10.5% alcohol level better than 8.5%, so perhaps I’ll be revisiting this one again regardless.

Sweet malt and esters overwhelm the aroma with a slight phenolic in the background. The ruby golden colour of this beer maintained a caramel head. On tasting the beer it had a big brown sugar, almost ’worty’ taste. The alcohol was prevalent with buttery notes that arise after it warms past cellar temperature. It was cloying to the pallet which higher levels of carbonation would have helped.

The pour is a nice golden brown, with plenty of head. The nose is complex, and even greater so with a little bit of breathing. It caramel, dried fruits and many spices to be extremely well balanced triple. The favor, like the aroma is complex and quite great, hints of dried fruit, belgian candy sugar, yeast. The overall experience hides it’s alcohol content better that the legendary Scaldis brand, and is a true pleasure to drink. Will be drinking this again, and maybe quite often.

33cl bottle, 10.5% a/v Last bottle of my belgian ale gift pack from LCBO. Pours a very dark burgundy/brown colour with an intense haze and a large tan head. The aroma is incredibly complex, mixing toffee, fruit, licorice, yeast, and spice. For a 10.5% alcohol beer, your nose cant detect it whatsoever. The taste is very sweet and fruity. Almost like grape juice, with caramel, some slight notes of roasted malt, which then transforms into a very mellow, mildly alcoholic finish. The palate is very full, leaving your tongue looking for flavours below the flavours as there are so many tastes within this beer that every sip is diffrent. This is a VERY good beer, and I may buy the gift pack again just for this one.

From probably the most bizarre yet interesting looking bottle I’ve seen yet, it pours a dark burgundy, with a huge tan head. The aroma is different, toffee, some sort of dried fruit, fig and/or prune, yeast, cotton candy, generally very sweet, no hint of the alcohol. The flavour is much the same, with a bitter sweet finish, followed by hops, then more lingering malts. Not much hint of the ABV, I can tell it’s strong, but there’s not much of a burn, nor alcoholic taste. The mouth-feel is of course heavier, but not huge. Over-all I’m actually impressed with this one, it seems like a strange, somewhat mysterious little brew. There was actually something under the bottle cap that looked like rust, either that or there was a small explosion when I popped off the cap, but either way I get the impression my sample might be ever so slightly aged, which seems to have turned out well. The final and most impressive beer of my Belgian Ale pack from the LCBO.

Mahogany color with huge (3 finger) rocky, tan head. Good lacing. Aroma is winey...sour...carbonation is pronounced. Flavor is sweet...some candy...hint of caramel. Carbonation is a tad distracting. Subtle fruit I can’t pin point...prunes? Finishes clean. Over all, very enjoyable.