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RATINGS: 876   WEIGHTED AVG: 3.61   EST. CALORIES: 210   ABV: 7%
COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Winner of four World Beer Cup medals and eight medals at the Great American Beer Fest, Abbey Belgian Ale is the Mark Spitz of New Belgium’s lineup - but it didn’t start out that way. When Jeff and Kim first sampled the beer at the Lyons Folks Fest, reviews were mixed at best. One of founder Jeff’s first two Belgian style homebrews (along with Fat Tire), Abbey is a Belgian dubbel (or double) brewed with six different malts and an authentic Belgian yeast strain. Abbey is bottle-conditioned, weighs in at 7.0% alcohol by volume, and pairs well with chocolate (or boldly served by itself) for dessert.


3.8
   AROMA 7/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 16/20
Pawola22 (1993) - Chicago, Illinois, USA - MAY 17, 2009
12oz bottle. Pours a murky brownish copper body with bits of yeast particulate floating around. Inch thick, dense and foamy, light tan head that dissipates slowly and remains pretty heavily laced. Aroma is sweet Belgian candies with a nice fruity Belgian yeast strain. Quite malty and fruity with lots of dark fruits, cherries, and bananas as well as a nice, subtle spicing. Good amount of chocolate and caramel in there too. Flavor is similar in complexity, but not as sweet. More towards the chocolate malts and drier spicing. The spicing stays subdued and soft, but is more noticeable along with a bit of roasted malts. Caramels and darker fruits as well before a dry, yeasty, spicy finish with a long chocolate spice aftertaste. Palate is medium bodied with a soft carbonation. Overall, a nice example of a dubbel. More chocolatey than most with a nice balance of spices that are lighter than most. I’m a fan of this. Complex assortment of malts (which still has a bit of that biscuity NB taste, but not nearly as much as usual...which is nice...because I tend to like their biscuit malt taste, but not in excess), fruits, and yeast that give it a more dessert-like dubbel taste which puts it right up my alley.

3.1
   AROMA 6/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 6/10   PALATE 3/5   OVERALL 13/20
MeisterBrew (138) - Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA - MAY 17, 2009
Draught. Poured a clear reddish brown. Aroma of sweet fruit, spice, and a yeasty backside. Taste is somewhat like the aroma... but has a slight bitter finish. Meh...

4.3
   AROMA 8/10   APPEARANCE 5/5   TASTE 9/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 17/20
GG (1980) - NorCal, California, USA - MAY 15, 2009
I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of NB’s triple a few days ago. I’ve had their dubbel a few times, but it’s been 3-4 years since I had it. I decided to rate a few NB’s while watching my Celts play and this was the 4th of my 5 beers this afternoon. Yeah, it’s great watching b-ball and getting drunk. LOL. So the beer pours out really stunning nut-brown/cherrywood color with a 2" thick beige, creamy head. Sticky lacing left behind is really nice. Aroma has a multi pronged attack. First it’s sweet roasted malts, then dried Christmas-type fruitcake fruits show up, then it switches gears to show off the nice yeast profile. Very perfumy. Mouthfeel is slightly hot with alcohol, medium bodied but solid. Flavors are just bounding my tastebuds every-which-way. A toffee wrapped banana, peppery and cloves, and the explosion of dark pitted fruits is quite enjoyable. Perhaps the residual sweetness plays on my sweet-tooth. A finely crafted beer that I enjoyed back then and it still holds it’s own today. Kudos to NB.

3.8
   AROMA 7/10   APPEARANCE 4/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 3/5   OVERALL 16/20
fallingleaves (19) - Colorado, USA - MAY 15, 2009
Rusted amber colour, with have inch white head, ubiquitous aroma of pear, after tones of bananas can be distinctly identified. Medium body with smooth taste of banana, prefer a bit more complexity but certainly one of New Belgium’s best.

3.8
   AROMA 7/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 16/20
bluemooner (422) - Isanti, Minnesota, USA - MAY 13, 2009
Pours a clear mahogany hue with a medium, off-white head. Aroma of yeast, malts, light bananas and pears. Tastes of malts, nuts, yeast, light chocolate, apples, pears, bananas, and caramel. Rather complex flavors which makes it kind of fun to drink.

2.7
   AROMA 5/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 5/10   PALATE 3/5   OVERALL 11/20
jb43 (1648) - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA - MAY 11, 2009
(bottle from B&B liqour in colorado springs.) Pours a dark amber color. Medium off white head. Light fruit aroma. Sweet malt flavor. Avg duration. Smooth finish, but slightly astringent. Medium body. Thin texture. Minimal lacing. Moderate carbonation.

4.1
   AROMA 9/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 17/20
dirt55 (198) - Washington, USA - MAY 9, 2009
bottled, pours clear dark ruby with small white head, amazingly sweet candy/fig/raisin nose with no real hop presence noted, sweet malt with notes of dark fruits with lingering light hops on palate, amazingly delicious

3.5
   AROMA 7/10   APPEARANCE 3/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 13/20
MrChopin (2065) - Baltimore, Maryland, USA - MAY 9, 2009
Transparent ruby with a bubbly white head, gone quickly. Nose is incredibly sweet, lots of bubblegum and caramel, some fruit and nut to dry out the sweetness a bit. Flavor is similarly sweet, the bubblegum as gummy as I’ve had, but the malt helps balance the flavor, upping it from the flavor. Rather juicy, some banana and clove in the finish. The flavor is rather refined, but I’m not as large of the gum as some.


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Rating Notecard:
Beer: New Belgium Abbey Rating Avg: 3.61 No. of Ratings: 876
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