New Belgium Abbey

Bottle. Brownish beer with a good beige head. Understated maly sweetness, spice, and bubblegum in the aroma. Nice rich malt with banana and spice and yeast in the flavor. Wish there was just a little more richness to it. Fruit (grape and plum) with a bit of earthiness. Complex, but just lacking a bit to put it at the next level.

i’m not comfortable with the guy on the label. he’s got a doughy face, a spacy countenance, a conniving sort-of simpering and puckered smirk-- which, along with those effeminate doe eyes suggests he’s having unsavory and salacious thoughts. it just isn’t an appealing image to depict a beer. i turned him toward the wall and instead appreciated the clear ruddy pour of ambergris and maple, the crown of ivory foam and lace as sinuous as the iron filigrees of a new orleans french quarter balcony. aroma is deep-fried banana in a graham cracker crust, and enough woody alcohol to bring to mind glues and solvents of industrial strength. it’s akin to a thin banana-flavored barley wine, i tasted sweet caramel banana bread pudding with a watery orange tea-rum sauce. the heavy malts have the guttural accent of a doppel bock. i sensed a steamy cigar humidor, and then plum-chocolate candies melting in a tupperware bowl. the hops burst on the scene and blurted out a couterpoint of bitterness. it’s big and covers a lot of topics in a loud voice, it’s just not that convincing. bananas just aren’t that compelling to me, no matter how they’re served.

bottle. pours a deep brown with a thick beige head. yeasty dirty spice smell that i like. creamy mouthfeel that has a banana dried apple flavor with some spice. there is an egg flavor in this that is ruining this beer for me.

Bottled. Lovely beer, and a lovely bottle, too. Pours a very big cream colored head that slowly settles into a coppry body. Smell has enough Belgian sugar for everyone. The usual Belgian yeast esters of coriander, and a slight hint of banana toward the finish. There’s also a hint of horseblanket that becomes apparent the further down the glass you go.

A really unispired version of the style. This palate and extract tasting dark fruits. Another huge dissapointment from the cult in Fort Collins.

Bottle: Lasting light beige head on a fairly clear coppery brown body. Immediate nose is clove spice, then follows with hints of roast and woodiness and perfumey floral hop. Lightly solventy alcohol remeniscent of hairspray as it warms. Moderate grape/raisiny aroma as it warms as well. Malt is lightly nutty and bready. Flavor is well balanced, light alcohol fruitiness and flavor, hints of plums; malt character seems to be toasty. Finish is well balanced but seems to be slightly toward bitterness. Aftertaste is lightly burnt coffee and slightly hop flavored. Hints of yeasty clove, but it’s very light. Medium body, higher carbonation, smooth m/f, and well hidden alcohol. A good beer, but IMHO, I would not really consider this a dubbel. I like the complexities, but I’ve had a few dubbels, and it seems a lot different from the one’s I’d consider "true" dubbels.

Poured ruby brown with a thin tan head...smells like some sort of candy that I can’t quite place, something with grapes in it perhaps...tastes quite overly sweet...sugary with nutty overtones...got some earth fruits, definately grape...disappointing...

Bottle: Poured a hazy red brown colored beer with a medium head with average retention. I noticed lots of sediment floating in my glass. Aroma is quite sweet with a nice malty tone underneath. At first, I was surprised with the sweetness of this beer, which hides some of the floral malt used in this beer. The end is quietly bitter but lack some roastiness. Something is missing here, not the best dubbel I had…