La Trappe Dubbel

Bottle. Thanks to Pailhead for this! Can’t believe I haven’t rated this yet. It hasn’t been available in my area in at least 2 years, so that may be the reason, but I’ve had this more times than I can count "back in the day". Pours a muddled reddish brown with a small tan head. Nose is malty and sweet with lots of raisins, figs, and perhaps cherries. Light cocoaa and hints of caramel. Taste is rich and chewy. Big sweet maltiness, caramel, more dark fruits (raisins, figs and maybe prunes), hints of cocoa and light hints of alcohol. Body is moderately carbonated with some smoothness at times. Finishes much the way it began - dark fruits, sweet malts, cocoa, light alcohol notes. Nice stuff and seemingly much like I recall from days past!

A Mes rate: Aroma is almost overwhelmingly of seafood and particularly mussels. Comes through in the flavour too. Soap suds and a little too bland in the mouthfeel. Iron filings in the flavour and a hint of sweetness at the finish. Nothing special at all and not a patch on their quad (or their blond for that matter). There are MUCH better dubbels.

Corked crock bottle. Deep clear red with a small head, aroma is sweet and mulled.Taste is ever so slightly...yes plasticy? It could be the bottle though, i bought 2 and the 1st one opened (this is the 2nd) was as flat as a witches tit, so it got poured.

Corked bottle. Pours a brown color with a thin off white head. Nose is yeasty, brown sugar, caramel, bready, and light alcohol. Taste is smooth, some light cinnamon, dark fruits and a nice touch of alcohol.

Bottle (330ml). At Ciro’s - bottle probably 2 years old. Poured flat light active brown with a huge flock of white floaties and a thin off-white head. Aroma very yeasty, brown sugar / caramel malt, plenty of spices (cloves, nutmeg, pepper), raisins and prunes, alcohol - overall very sweet rich malty but a touch sour to my nose. Taste is on the light side but very smooth, sweet roast candy malts, ripe apple, plum, apricot, spices (cloves, cinnamon, coriander), hardly any hop or alcohol bitterness - lovely, the yeasties don’t detract at all. Mouthfeel very lively, a bit sticky-sweet. Apart from the visual detraction of the yeasties, a solid abbey dubbel.

Beer No 28 on the Wilsons’ Road Trip 2005. 500ml ceramic crock from Waitrose, Bath. Reddish brown, fair persistant head. Malty caramel spice aroma, not terribly complex. Thick mouthfeel, a little sweet for my taste. Chocolatey roasty sweet finish. Second pour reveals some cloudiness - appears more bottle conditioned than the tripel I sampled. Fairly standard dubbel - obviously professionally produced, but just not as complex as the ’real’ trappists.

Beautiful clean amber with a thin whitish head that leaves some lace. A heady mix of malt and a hint of spice hit s the nose, while the palate gets a complex array of flavours, with a rather sweet malt character dominating, and some fruit appearing at the end. A cracking brew. Morrison Hawick.

One of the 5 beers in the world still brewn in a monastery. Very good aroma. Perfect example of a good dubbel beer.