St. Bernardus Prior 8

Draught at the Trappist. Dark, opaque brown with a smallish head that leaves a lasting slick of foam. Aroma of yeast, brown sugar and dried fruit. The flavor has dark, caramelized sugars and dried fruits, with some licorice and solid yeastiness. Plenty of body, but not too sweet or bitter. Just balanced and drinkable. This is a really well done beer, but nothing jumps out and grabs you, with kinda relegates it to the solid-but-not-exceptional crowd. The again, I’ll definitely have to give a bottle a try; you never know with these Belgians.

[Bottle] Pours a murky brown with some floaties. A huge, rocky beige head of fine bubbles that goes away pretty quickly. Aroma is mostly raisins, caramel, and belgian yeast. Flavor follows pretty well, with a little bit of alcohol towards the end. Also has a little bit of tartness that hangs around the edges of your tongue. Very light in the mouth and quite drinkable.

Bottle, Thanks NachlamSie! Pours mahogany brown, but appears darker because of all the floaties. Aroma is intriguing, sweet fruity notes backed by some raisin and a healthy caramel malt backbone. Flavor is very similar, lots of nice fruits and yeasty notes. A pretty nice array of spices fill it out. The finish is lingering fruits, and is almost dry but still a bit creamy and full. Very nice.

Small bottle split with Muenster. Pours a cloudy, murky dried blood color with a persistent off-white head. The nose is rich with esters with hints of clove, coriander, with an interesting malt profile for a Belgian strong. I get caramel and biscuits in the mix, cookie dough. Wow. This is really well balanced with a very approachable palate. Fruits like apples and pears are present along with some zesty spices and a juicy finish with hints at dark bread. Adequately complex, refined, and well crafted, while being surprisingly thirst quenching. I like it.

Dark brown with a low head. Yeasty and fruity aroma that can also be traced in the flavours, that are full of plums, prunes, liquorice, alcohol and brown sugar.

33cl, from De Hopduvel Gent, complex brew, more easy to drink than the Abt, balanced, cloudy, good head, good brew

Bottle. Poured a dark brown color with a moderate white head that produced good lacing. Smelled very predominately of sweet fruit and raisins. The taste was about the same with added noted of banana. Dominated by the malt. Very good beer, although I preferred their Trippel to this brew. Better than Chimay which has much more hype to it.

Taste 7/8 (Bottle 8/11/11) Looks: Dark brown, thin white head, with yeasty pattern. Aroma:Nice creamy yeast, grain, dark fruit (plum?). Taste: Rich and full. Covers tongue well. Crisp tang round out finish. Berry, malt/ grain, creamy. Really nice.