Invercargill Dubbel Happy

Brewed by Invercargill Brewery
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Invercargill, New Zealand

Serve in Trappist glass

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Fruity and spicy nose, cloves, allspice, and some chocolate. Brown/ruby hybrid in the glass which looks a bit meh, but redeemed appearance-wise by the tightly constructed creamy head. A bit less belgian than one would expect to taste, some sweetness and a little one dimensional but showing a nice Kiwi/Belgian combo for my money - with a wee bit more weight this could be a wee stunner in the making. Very smart and drinkable and worth a sip or three

Pours black with ruby highlights and a large, quickly fading, sudsy head. Nose shows chocolate, cloves, sultanas and grassy, earthy hops. Pretty nice. Similar roasty flavours, but not so much sweet malt and sultana characters. Way too aggressive carbonation. Stupidly high. Body feels watery.

Dark red brown pour medium head and carbonation mild aromayeast aniseed earthyness dark fruit port like aroma plums flavour dry fruits yeast plums aniseed raisin mild brown sugar and bitter fruity tastes are very strong good on palate finish alcohol yeast fruts bitter sweet okay ale

Bottle. Very dark brown with a small, dense beige head. Mild but complex aroma of chocolate, plums, doughy yeast, milk. Taste has milky chocolate, dried fruits, grassy bitterness, pudding spices. Odd beer - quite like a milk stout. The yeast in the aroma didn’t really show up in the mouth either in feel or taste when cold, but was there as it began to warm. Dry finish with allspice.

Bottle. Dark ruby brown pour with a creamy tan head that lasts a while. Aroma has notes of chocolate, cherries, dark fruits, spice and earth. Flavour is very similar to the aroma but a little less fruity. Mouthfeel is light and quite dry with soft carbonation and a lingering spicy, dry finish. Nice enough interpretation of dubbel, a little different maybe but still pleasant.

Rich dark brown, good head retention. Arora off light spices and dark fruits. Mid rich palate, hints of chocolate and dark fruits. Not the dominantferment flavours that you would expectut drinkable none the same.

Bottle at Bar Edward, just before heading around the back to a very special wedding reception. Great lead in to a great night.

Very light on the nose, quite sweet in the belgian style. Bits of banana and butterscotch, but could be more pronounced. Lovely dark brown colour, though the head disappears quicker than I’d expect for the style. Has a bit of umami roundness, but not quite sitting on the sweet night I’d like for a dubble style. Texture isn’t great, too oily and slick for my liking. Overall, an okay all. In fact quite good for a New Zealand brewed in the Belgian style. But, like all kiwi belgian styles, they just can’t get there and over-compensate in other directions; this one by being too sweet for the style.

330 ml bottle Aroma: strong bread yeast; Appearance: Dark brown, medium thick cafe au lait head with fine lacing; Taste: sweetish, a smidgen sour nothing really distinctive; Palate: medium bodied, thinnish texture, softly carbonated, quick finish; Overall: Nothing special here, would not recognise it as a dubbel anything.

Grainy, malty nose. Almost savoury. Chocolate/cocoa. Lovely yeast aroma. Solid flavours. Quite spicy - mingles nice with the chocolatey grain. Robust, warming, alcoholic. Perfect on this rubbish night in Dunedin.