North Coast Cru dOr (Whole Foods)

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle: Poured a dark copper color with a nice amount of head. The aroma was a sweet, sugary, yeasty, loaf of bread. The flavor was surprisingly tasty. Slightly fruity with hints of sugary bananas with nice belgian finish. Overall, an excellent beer. Just wish that Whole Foods sold beer in this state.

Ruby-brown pour, thin beige head with no retention or lacing. Aroma of brown sugar, tree fruit, and yeast. Flavours of caramel, roasted malt, and candy sugar with a long, reasonably dry finish. Mouthfeel is quite rich with moderate carbonation. Really nice.

Pours a wonderful Ivory head. Has the aroma of bananas and cashews. This is a wonderful balanced Belgian ale with the yeast of the old world. Truly a Trappist in act.

Easy drinking and tasty. Belgian raisins, brown sugar, butter, some hop. Sweet flavors, but not actually that sweet. Well carbonated, pretty. $8.00 4 pack - great choice for cheaper but still substantial belgian.

Deep and dark burgundy. Really rich malts, with elements of roast, toast and toffee. Earthy yeast, with light banana esters. Spicy hops (clove, herbs) with a balancing bitterness level. Sweet and sour complement each other nicely. Toasted brown sugar lingers on the tongue, along with a bitter grassiness. Quite tasty and rather enjoyable to drink.

Clear brown from the top, side shows some garnet, decent off-white head. Nice realms of fruit, dried fruit, and caramel, gently lifted to my nose, with notes that are more heartily grape and cherry in the tasting. The alcohol is nicely subdued, not at all hot, just lilting, with a slight bitterness at the end, but all nicely malty. The overwhelming problem I had was the weakness of the body underneath the froth of the carbonation. Still, extremely drinkable and likeable.

HUGE estery aroma. Fruity for sure - catching some banana and ?? in there. Leaning a bit to the sweet side, but all together an extermely well made beer.

Bottle. Pours cloudy brown. Fizzy, off-white head. Yeasty aroma, raisin, plum. Flavor is similar, with spice, caramel. Nice beer.

Wow. I am genuinely surprised by this one. Immensely fruity beer both in the nose and on the palate. Their description of the beer is contrary to what I poured into my glass. It poured out a deep teak or dark amber color and looked nothing like a tripel. As far as I could tell no pale malt was used to make this thing at all...so I don’t know why they would call it a tripel...At first I wasn’t sure what to categorize it as. Either a Belgian strong or a Dubbel. I decided on Dubbel because it lacked the complexity of a Strong and had the sweetness and maly goodness of a dubbel. I’m a little sad that this guy isnt bottle conditioned because it would make for an amazing beer in the future.It is not all that attractive. Slightly watery and somewhat see-through, it lacks the elegance that New Belgium’s Abbey or the Westmalle dubbel might pour with. Head dies quickly. Beautiful teak. Nose is multi-layered. Bubblegum and slight alcohol. Raisiny sweetness. Rum and a slight prune. Lovely smelling ale. Alcohol prominent but welcome on the tongue. Very flat and dry at first. There is a calming bitterness that pervades and pulses behind the resiny sweetness. Finishes dry and tangy. Very malty. Hops dance in the shadows. Great beer. G

UPDATED: NOV 7, 2005 (Bottle) Pours a dark burgundy body with a small off-white head. Aroma of spicy yeast, dark fruits (raisins, dates), brown sugar, and Christmas spices. Flavor of malt, plum, raisins, and spices. Enjoyable!