Gulden Draak

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

pours dark brown, a little amber. excellent triple ale. great malt taste and sweet aroma. bottle is beautiful. expensive but good.

33 cl bottle. Sweet, a bit grainy. A fine sourness that balances a bit, but it comes across as a tit too toffee sweet. Vinous, warming.

on tap at sharp edge. pours a dark brown with a thinnish tan head. huge nose with dark fruits and spices knocking around. great taste with plum and other dark and bitter fruits mixed with a tasty (coriander?) spice. slightly heavier than medium bodied with a fair carbonation that finished with a tiny tingle of bitterness mixed with a tinier tingle of sweetness. a very tasty beer that got more complex and fruitier as it warmed.

Pours a cloudy brown that has a big touch of amber to it. Minimal head. Nose is slight with a lean towards marshmallows. Touch of citrus. Flavor is very well balanced with a strong sweet tone that stays constant. Strong and steady. After a while you get a slight alcohol tone that has stayed masked consistently as you drink. Tons of things rolling over your tongue on this one. Caramel is another. Mouthfeel is a bit too high on the carbonation, which drops the drinkability just a touch. Overall damn good. Worth trying. Worth trying again.

I opened my bottle of Gulden Draak with some lofty expectations. For one, I paid five-dollars for the damn thing. Two, I love Belgian strong ales anyways. Three, this particular beer was highly recommended (top ten) by a friend of mine. And, four, the totally awesome bottle just had to be an indication of a totally awesome taste. Despite the cost of Gulden Draak, I was very generous, splitting the 11.2 ounces three ways. I was surprised to find that this golden dragon wasn’t golden at all, but a deep mahogany. The head was a caramely brown, but I didn’t think it was as intense as some other Belgians I’ve had. Upon my first sip, I remained incredulous--a little maltier than expected, a little too much alcohol taste, not as fruity as I wanted. Upon my second sip, I thought it was a little sweeter, with a little more of that chocolate/toffee taste that I just missed on the initial quaff. By the third sip, I realized, "Wow. This is a top fifteen beer." It began to warm up a little and developed the additional oak and wine sensations. I didn’t say a damn thing when one of the glasses holding a third of the bottle was handed back to me, and, by the time I had polished everything off, Gulden Draak had moved from a top fifteen to a top ten. This beer is worth the hype and monetary hit, complex and substantial.

Malty, Caramel, strong sweet coffee, yeasty, Bottle conditioned, Excellent, my #2 all time favourite beer.

Date: December 14, 1997
Mode: Bottle
Source: Sam’s, Chicago
Appearance: dark brown, frothy white head
Aroma: rich malt aroma with a hint of floral hops
Flavor: rich spicy malt flavor, light bitterness, hint of warmth

Date: January 16, 2003
Appearance: muddy brown with a fine tan head
Aroma: sweet malt aroma like chocolate cover raisons
Flavor: rich malt with the flavor of dates, hint of spicyness, touch of chocolate, no sense of alcohol

Date: November 14, 2004
Mode: draft
Source: summits
rich, fruity, stays true to the bottle

Date: May 17, 2005
Mode: draft
Source: brick
picking up some bitterness, still lots of rich fruit with a bit of sweetness, perfect creamy body

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Score: ***4

The score was calculated based upon the notes and an old scoring system.

At once I noticed a strong sweet taste. Almost like a wine. Gut a little too sweet for general drinking but nice Ale for a change. I let it become room temp and it was still nice and smooth. and sweet.