Southampton Abbot 12

Pours deep amber into a Trappist glass. Tan micro head with excellent retention lasts throughout the session. Sweet caramel and date aromas. Slightly sour from front to back with caramel and dried fruits.

Bottle, courtesy Duff, at HogTown Harry tasting, September 2007. Hazy copper colour with fluffy white head. Fruity and yeasty aroma. Flavour is massively fruity - juicy, jammy and figgy. Also a touch of liquorice I thought. Tasty but maybe a bit too sweet for my palate. I didn’t find it as sickly as the others though. No noticeable alcohol burn. Nonetheless, I was still slightly disappointed if only because I had very high expectations that weren’t quite met. Almost but not quite.

750ml bottle, 2003 vintage. Rich, fruity aroma, full of complexity, with red grape, plum, raisin, richly toffeeish and very lightly chocolatey sweetness, a depth of roasty, darkly sugary malts, some faint berry and floral touches. Dark red-brown color, the tan head is slight and fading. Flavor profile is richly malty, sweet and estery, with notes of milky chocolate, date, fig, carob, plum and red grape. Very nice interplay. Smooth, decadent mouthfeel, low in effervescence with a lusciously full body. Alcohol presence is surprisingly minimized. Really good, came together quite nicely after 4 years in the cellar.

fluffy bubbly head, beautiful dark amber color. sweet raisin, caramel, and sugar. roasted finish which turn to fruit notes. A bit too syrupy.

Pour is brownish with a tiny white head. Aroma of yeast, candi sugar, sweet fruit and caramel. Taste is sweet fruits and candi sugar. Full body and dry. Nice carbonation.

Bottle shared by Indra at theisti’s tasting on 10/12. Pours a deep reddish brown with virtually no head and decent legs. At first glance it reminded me of flat root beer. On the nose, it is a bold malty blending of plum, red grape/wine and dry vinous tannins. Medium-bodied and slick with a finish that is fairly quick and lightly dry with just a whisper of hop bitterness. The flavor is of brown sugar and dark fruit. Sweet and round finishing just slightly dry. This is a tasty beer, but it just didn’t pack the wow-factor of a St. Bernardus or Rochefort 12.

750ml bottle provided by Indra at my tasting on 10/12. Pour is dark garnet red with no head, which clings to side of the glass. Aroma is caramel sweet malt, big full body. Taste is raisins, Belgian yeast and a really nice full matl body.

750ml bottle-pours a foamy to rocky light tan head and amber with brown color. Aroma is medium malt, medium fruit-some vinuous, yeast, grassy, some spicy/earthy hops, alcohol. A fair amount going on. Taste is initially lots of sweet caramel/candy brown sugar-medium/dark malt. Then the spices/pepper-hops comes through with a fair amount of effervescence on the tongue, yeast. Very sweet, on the edge of syrupy. Sipping. Comes across as a Belgian Dunkel. Thanks jwc215 for sharing.