Unibroue 16

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

25.4 oz bottle. Cloudy cider with a thin ivory head. Yeasty honey with light floral. Prickly carb with candied lemon peel and apricot. Melt-away toffee leaves hints of almonds. Smooth, pink grapefruit drying. Fun to drink; an easy 10%.

The color is a rich amber with a good head. The taste is sweet caramel with some fruitiness. The malt in this beer is quite present. It is very similar to Maudite but a higher alcohol %. It is very good but I prefer Maudite.

Had this beer on 8/20/2007. Aroma is a sweet roasted malt scent. Color is a hazy orange/brown with good carbonation and tight tan head. Taste is rich and slightly sour. Starting with a full body it goes down rich with a smooth foamy feel. Finish comes in with bold malt flavor that rolls into a true Belgian yeast taste then a nice sour taste. On the end is a good bitter bite chased down by a warm alcohol feel. This is an intense and well balanced beer. The only down fall is the alcohol is very noticeable on the end.

(Bottle) Pours light copper amber. Sweet, sugary, malty, yeasty and perfume like aroma with tones of overripe dark fruits, fresher fruit like pears, oranges and banana, clove, vanilla, mint, white pepper, mile nutmeg and other spices, mild caramel, almond/almond paste, honey, toast, herbs, light coriander and flowers. Extremely complex, layer upon layer nose. Malty and sweet flavour with tones fruits, berries, grapes and spices. Light bitter, some light acid notes and a lingering tone of fruits, tart berries and spices in the aftertaste. Champagne-ish, fizzy carbonation. Syrupy and lightly raw mouthfeel. Too young and alcohol-ish. The fantastic aroma and the elegant vinous flavour is the upside of this beer but the too notable raw sugary sweetness is a problem.

This beer was defintily in its prime. Pours an orange brown color with a nice fluffy white head on top. Nose is of fruit, sugar, and some nice spices. Also huge brown sugar notes. Taste is about the same as it smells. Nice sweet, spicy, peppery finish. Great beer.

750 Bottle enjoyed 5.28.09. Pours a murky dull orange amber with a tall thick foamy off-white frothy head. Strong aroma of sweet oxidized malt and fruity Unibroue yeast, toasty and soapy. Flavor is sweet and rich but aged nicely, quite nutty, caramel, faintly spicy. Medium/full bodied with sharp tightly packed medium sized soda carbonation.

750ml corked bottle. BB December 2009, apparently? Served with a light chill. Nice loud uncorking. Presented with a picture perfect thick, creamy, lasting beige head, sitting proudly atop a lively, murky tawny body. Some obvious oxidised malt aromas come through straightup, musty wood and spice, dried apricot and peel, raisins, which are luckily bolstered by underlying toffee richness, dark fruits and sherry undertones. Highly active yet soft carbonation lending a velvet-like creaminess to the body. Good chewy, mouthfilling texture, great length with a drying finish. Plenty of typical Unibroue yeast character on the body; pepper, cinnamon and clove spice, banana and apple fruitiness, but there’s the added bonus of a nice rich caramel malt body and dark/dried fruit undertones that drive the palate of this beer away from most of the other beers from this brewery, might be due to its age. Hint of vinous vanilla, oaky spice and sherry linger on a dry, somewhat warming finish. Bitterness relatively low. Well up there as far as Unibroue beers go i’d say. At first whiff, I was skeptical about how aging would benefit this beer, but it certainly has the body to pull it off, and has added complexity because of it.

Bottle courtesy of BeerAndBlues Pours a lighter caramel color with a creamy off white head. Aroma of bready malts, caramel, spices, fruits. Flavor is bread, caramel, malt, spices, belgian yeasts, cloves, candi sugar, rasins. Nice mouthfeel and lots of carbonation. Good stuff.