La Trappe Dubbel

Brewed by De Koningshoeven (Bavaria - Netherlands)
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Berkel-Enschot, Netherlands

Serve in Trappist glass

UPDATED: SEP 27, 2009 Dark ruby, beige lacing head. Nose is peppery spices, little fruits, cellar, cheese and vegetables. Flavor is a tad sweeter with spices and slight liquorice. Ashy and syrupy finish, some dark malts. Light palate for the style. It’s ok, but lacking in every aspect.

*Aged (bbe 01-2009) bottle has sweet madeira fruitiness, little cheese and butter. Candi sugar shows quite a lot, but nothing disturbing, no nasties. Still pretty mild, and still just ok.

11.2 oz bottle poured into trappist glass- poured 15% transparent when held to a light source, brownish black color, high-medium carbonation. Off tan head bubbled away rather quickly. Aroma of figs, darkened malt, caramel, and chocolate. HIts the mouth with a medium body, very dry from start to finish, the heavier smells come through sharply on the palate, sweetness and a sharp varnish like taste come in on the finish. Very complex, but that takes away from the overall taste in my opinion- too many things going on leads to chaos and distracts from actually enjoying a brew.

33 cl bottle from Berlin: Gushed out of the bottle when I opened it. Pours cola brown with a thick fading beige head. Big caramel, varnish, dark fruit aroma. Taste is pretty dry considering. I thought it would have been sweeter. Big alcohol, varnish, caramel, raisins, figs. Good beer.

25/05 0.33 l bottle from belgianshop.com. Had nice murky copper brown body with medium sized, long living brownish head. Quite ugly aroma, some roasted malts combined with note of saltiness, but not nearly as much as in Wit from same brewery. Flavor a bit better, sweetish caramel, however notes of that salt spoil the entirety. Also, it’s pretty thin bodied, finishing very simple and short as mixture of sweetness and saltiness. Different dubbel for sure, but still don’t like it as not quite well made.

Bottle shared with and courtesy of heavy (thanks!)
The Blond and the Trippel have been available in Croatia for years now but their dark cousins have always been mysteriously absent (the Dubbel might have once been imported but it definitely hasn’t been imported recently). So, it was interesting to try those two. This one poured a nice red brown body with a thick off white head that went away slowly. The nose was pretty straightforward but somehow not easy to define. a maltiness that falls somewhere between caramel croquant and orange and some salt. The taste was somewhat simple and lighter than expected but well put together. A sweet breadiness and maltiness, caramel, some salt a but herbal something too... ugh.. my notes are becoming unreadable. All in all, I didn’t mind it much.

Bottle: dark red color with tan head. Slight aroma of brown sugar, carmel and molasses. Wonderful smooth malty taste with thick but subtle sweetness of carmel and brown sugar. I love beers like these.

Pours a clear amber-brown with a foamy tan head that recedes slowly and leaves some nice lacing. Very light aroma of malt, yeast and fruit, but with some weird metallic thing going on. Fortunately, that did not come through at all in the flavor. Lots of malty sweetness with friuty overtones and a bitterness at the end. Pretty good stuff.

Bottle: Floral, compex body and taste. Matly with a nice background sweetness. Bready and doughlike.