Leffe Radieuse

Brewed by InBev Belgium
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Leuven, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Surprising a decent beer, in my eyes, from Leffe. Fruit, thick and decently hoppy. Comes out nice in the aroma, palate and taste.

330ml Bottle: Pours copper, clear, reasonable off-white foamed and bubbly head. Aroma is sweet, candied sugar, peaches, subtle sour and vegetal note. First thing I noted after sipping it is it’s extremely watery, light to sip, which I found a bit unexpected. Tastes like peach candy, really sort of one-dimensional for a Belgian Strong. I know others are proclaiming this over the Brune and Blonde but I ain’t having it, those are reasonable beers and this is watery peach candy. Slight bit of non-descript hopping, disappointing.

Bottle from a small grocer in Rome. Quite satisfying big-flavoured strong Belgian ale. Poured a bottle-brown colour with a short but lasting head. The nose is heavily alcoholic but with plenty of fruit and a hint of toast! Full-bodied and almost port-like in intensity. Ripe cherries and spices on the tongue, with hints of whisky and then a rummy bitter finish. Complex and satisfying.

UPDATED: DEC 26, 2009 330mL bottle from a Leffe gift pack I got for Christmas. Poured into sweet branded glass it came with. Nice copperish red, with a small white head. The aroma is very pleasant, nice floral quality to it with some candi sugar and fruity esters (peach, cherry, etc.). Flavour starts out quite malty, then just sweet from the candi sugar, then the esters come in and are rounded out by some minerally bitterness and slight bite from the booze (that is not cloying). On the whole seems reminiscent of a candy apple. This is the best Leffe beer I’ve ever had, and I enjoyed the others I’ve had despite being technically macro’s. Glad to have another bottle, not overly complex but mildly subtle and very pleasant drinking on Christmas day.

330mL bottle. Pours a clear amber brown with a slightly off-white head, leaving a fair amount of lacing. Yeasty aroma with berries and a bit of spice behind it. Some roasty flavours early on, more fruity when it’s warmed up a bit, fairly sweet, mildly sour, the alcohol is apparent but not excessively so at lower temperatures. Medium bodied, could be a little less heavily carbonated, sour finish giving way to bitterness.

330 ml bottle from LCBO gift pack. Pours light copper, with hint of red. Big creamy head, leaves lots of lacing. Aroma is spicy, sugary. Taste is light malt, super sweet, residual of spice, almost Christmasy. Nice beer!

Amber with a dense head. Lots of dried fruits in the aroma, yeast and some caramel. The fruits follows the flavour also, but everything is sort of drowned out by the cloying sugar that tend to dominate too much.

330ml bottle. Clear red amber with a lasting head. Caramel sweet malts. Medium body. Quite enjoyable.