North Coast Brother Thelonious

Bottle. Nice head with good duration. Color is amber. Aroma and taste are dark fruits, spices, malt, caramel and alcohol.

Consumed at 50 degrees. Pours with decent white head and smells of molasses. Sweet flavor, but not complex. Doesn’t have the body to match the smell and style. Decent beer.

wonderful stronger interpretation of the classic dubbel. aroma is of wonderful yeast mingled with prunes and pit fruits. appearance is very dark and barely pitched red when light is applied. flavor is nutty, with sizzling hops and some yeast, though not as much as is found in the nose. palate lingers just enough to be pleasant. overall this is a great belgian ale, the wonderful dubbel has been amped up and all for the better!

750ml bottle. Pours reddish-brown with a large, foamy beige head. Aroma is sweet, spicy malt, with some yeast and alcohol and bit of wood. Flavor is peppery caramel malt with miscellaneous fruits, a bit of woody bitterness, background hops, and lingering malt. Kind of an odd Belgian-style beer, with a bit of doppelbock character and not much yeast character. If you’re not rating to style, though, I happen to rather like it--- I think the spiciness and doppelbock-like dark/sweet maltiness complement each other nicely.

On tap at The Red in Santa Cruz. Pours a clear deep reddish amber color with a beige head that leaves some decent lacing. Aroma is peppery alcohol, red and dark fruits, and a hint of mesquite. Light and fruity with not enough body or depth for the style. Astringent and thinnish. A textbook example of a poor American imitation of a Belgian beer.

Pours a dark reddish color with a frothy brown, long lasting and nicely lacing head. Aroma of cookies and bread. Flavor of caramell and raisins with a well balanced bitterness with a faint hoppiness. Body is full and texture is smooth, almost creamy. A new favourite.

Bottle from 3 Sons. Pours a cloudy Raw sienna, Modest head but hold wells. You can almost see the yeast come alive. Great sweet sour aroma of fully ripened fruit, Carbonation gives it a salty peppery start, turns Sweet quickly with bubble gum, cherries, with a unique musty finish.

750 pours burnt red brown with a yellow hued head and short lasting lace. The aroma is yeasty, caramel, and fruit. The flavor is caramel, some fruit, some spice, and some yeasty goodness. The palate is substantial and lively. Overall, a really good BSA. Alcohol well hidden.