Unibroue 15

Formerly brewed at Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chambly, Canada

Dark gold with a lasting frothy, white head. Aroma is comprised of citrus and spices. A little bit dusty and dry. Some fruits. Yeasty and sharp. Flavor is fairly hoppy. Spices are abundant as well. Coriander doesn’t hide, and bitterness rears it’s head. It is a bit hot. A snatch bready or yeasty. The palate is a bit chalky and dry. The finish lingers on for quite some time with yeast, spices and hops. Interesting blend of flavors and quite pleasing.

Cloudy golden marks the look, and it’s blessed with a big, bubbling bone-white froth atop... Aroma: hoppy, ...lightly citric, sweet’n’sour...but, rather non-descript...yeah... Taste: hmmmm, but it’s hot, and alcoholic..."only" 10%? Big, fat booze oozing out...light fruit enjoys the stage of the palate, but that blistering booze blasts past all that. Fullish body, long, lingering fruity finish, huge alky-hol...I’m finding a Unibroue beer that’s fine, but that I’m just not crazy about. ...this is weird...ah, well, life does go on... Very crazy...any other beer, or brewer, I’d be nuts on it, but there’s a certain sublimity missing, and that disappoints significantly....

Pours hazy orange-gold with a large, dense white head. Big yeasty and fruity aroma, the fruits being peach, pear, banana, and lemon. There’s a candy-sweet malt background. The flavor is very yeasty, so much so that the yeast overpowers anything else that may be there. Only on the finish do you get a hint of orange and a little bit of hop bitterness. Alcohol is present throughout, but doesn’t push you around. The overly-carbonated mouthfeel doesn’t help bring the flavors to light.

"Poured a cloudy golden color with good head and okay lacing. Aroma was very hefe like lots of bananas and cloves. Flavor was much the same but could pick out the Unibroue yeast. Very hefe like."

From a caged corked 750 ml. distinctive Unibroue brown bottle with a bottling date along side of the bottle, Jan/06/06, and a 05/06 date on the cork. Sampled at cellar temperature in a chalice. Made a good appearance, poured a cloudy tarnished orange with a foamy, fizzy bubbly topped white head that slowly settled into a thin foamy, fizzy lacing, the usual good Unibroue carbonation, some would say over carbonated. The first scent is that Unibroue yeastiness that you smell a mile away, a light spiciness with a submerged tropical fruitiness and sweet pale maltiness. A crisp, dry and carbonated smooth light bodied mouth feel, above average drinkability. Dry tasting overall, a crisp sweet pale maltiness, a light citric fruity, lemons and oranges, a spicy alcohol warmth that is gentle in the palate, a soft hop bitterness and a dry yeasty, fruity and sweet malty finish with a subtle alcohol warmth lingering in the palate. I can see why some reviewers compare this to La Fin Du Monde (the end of the world), it is a bit of a lesser version. I have put two bottles in my cellar, some people would call it a dark, dry corner of my basement, I hope it improves with age, I’ll just have to wait and see.

Okay so lets begin with the fact tha this is only a 6 month old bottle. Aroma struck me as Hefeweizen, but as others have noted, has that signature "Unibroue" yeast aroma. In sum the aroma was yeasty and doughy with maybe a very small hint of citrus. The pour itself was a bright, cloudy apricot with a big white foam head that eventually collapsed into a nice layer that left a decent lacing. The mouth feel was light with a small, lively carbonation. Taste was a beginning of a thin round of yeaty dough that quickly gives way to a prevailing sugary orange citrus. It’s loaded with bananas with a sweetness rich enough to lead to hints of brown sugar. The finish goes back to doughy without much of an aftertaste. The fruitiness and sweetness develops in intensity and complexity as it warms; which isn’t much of a suprise. Look, this stuff is good, but for a fiftheenth anniversary, I would expect something a little more inspired. THAT BEING SAID, I’m going to go get about 4 more of these things and drink ’em at 6 month intervals.

Poured a hazy / cloudy pale yellow color with a pretty generous initial head that laced ok. This aroma and flavor was like a hefe on steroids more than anything Belgian (minus the Unibroue yeast, which I think I can pick up on now). Lots and lots of bananas, light citrus, lots and lots of spices, some cloves, some pepper, and who knows what else. Mouthfeel was light and refreshing, but the flavor got a bit annoying / strong after a while.

Attractive orangey-gold. Big, fluffy, sudsy head, white as snow, collapsed under its own weight within a few seconds, leaving minimal lace and a thin floating layer of froth. I smelled malt, cloves, yeast, apricots, alcohol and a bit of banana. Taste is spicy and peppery, dominated by clove, with undercurrents of figs and citrus, malt, candy sugar, and vanilla. Good effervescence on the palate, not too thick, clean and refreshing. (Despite the 10% ABV, this is not a heavy-handed beer.) Finishes dry with but a whisp of grapefruit hops bittering the aftertaste.