Unibroue 15

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Pours a burnt gold, very cloudy with a thick white head. Kind of a spicy aroma, almost like a saison, some orange and cinnamon stand out. Taste has that Unibroue yeast, but has some spiciness to it. Quite sweet, some nice brown sugar and caramel seem to compliment each other nicely. Finish is really smooth, but the alcohol is prevalant and can taste it quite easily. Pretty nice.

Aroma: slightly funky, apples, honey, spicy yeast, citrusy, caramel, wheat, really nice, pineapple, fresh tomatoes, slightly of fresh plums, aniseed. Estery. Appearance: unfiltered, fruity golden (pretty warm). White head that quickly sets after fizzing for a short while (in a thin, sparkling manner). Flavour: forestlike, fruity, pleasant balance between bitter and sweet, vinous, very nice. Slightly liquoricelike and fruity sweetness. Malty & full-bodied for such a pale beer, actually it’s surprisingly full-bodied irrespectively... Perhaps a lingering malic acid taste. Alcoholic and white pepper aftertaste. Palate: although highly carbonated this beer is very smooth and rich, milky and vinous. Sweet snacks have a huge effect on the flavour of this beer. Yoghurtcovered strawberries made it taste fleshy and metallic in a nice way but I settled with gingerbread.

A sweet, dry Belgian full of Belgian fruitiness. The clear golden body was topped with a creamy white head. Heavy aroma of caramel, raisin, plum and apple. Lighter sense of flowers. The flavor is moderately bitter and acidic and lightly bitter. Lively carbonation in a medium body. Very nice.

750ml bottle, caged and corked. Nice ’pop’ of the cork. Poured a slightly hazy medium orange color. The head was two fingers high and white. It reduced over a minute or two to a thin lasting film. Fruit dominated the aroma including apricot, pear, and apple. However, baking spices and pale malt were certainly not insignificant in the nose. Medium bodied and sweet. A bit sticky in the mouth with moderate carbonation. Apricot, clove, hay, subdued apple, and white pepper flavors.

bottle. Cloudy light orange pour with an assertive white head. The aroma is sweet of bananas, cloves, a little nutmeg. Remindes me of a tripel. Body is smooth and sweet with subtle banana, mild spices all around, maybe a little honey. Nice, well balanced all around. It’s like their La Fin Du Monde with slightly larger cahones.

Beer pours a hazy light yellow-gold color with a large, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting head.
The aroma is malty with moderate notes of toasted grain and bread; hoppy with moderate notes of herb; yeasty with moderate-to-heavy notes with dough and light notes of cellar and horseblanket. The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter and lightly acidic with a short, lightly sweet finish. The body is light, the texture is watery-to-velvety and the carbonation is average.

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.

750mL bottle: Dated: Jan 6/2006. Pours a light amber translucent color, very fizzy, very fine bubbles. Smallish head, somewhat diminsiahing, very fine bubbles. Very sugary, fruity aroma, grapes, some pineapple, floraly. Very sweet, flowery taste, grapes, some of that pineapple taste, but only some. Very fizzy mouthfeel, warming, very sweet. Cellering longer might do this better.