Unibroue 17

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

Pours a murky brown with ample sustanable tan head and good lacing. Caramel, malt, candi sugar aroma with a hint of dark fruit. honey, anis, raisin, belgian yeast and a bit of alcohol warming in the finish. Medium thin body, with fair carbonation and a velvet mouthfeel. Pretty tasty.

Bottle. Dark light cloudy red brown with a golden brown cream and plentiful pearling carbonation. Light wooden vineous aroma with plenty of citric play. Plums in port carry from the aroma to the flavor - christmas cake set ablaze with rum, vanilla and pipe tobacco, wood and anis retronasal. Slightly overcarbonated in my oppinion, but nevertheless fuulbodied and with a creamy mouthfeel. Bloody great beer.

Deep dark brown beer with a creamy tan head and mahogany/garnet highlights. Aroma is quite nice. Rich plums and toasted wheat malt. A kiss of prunes and sweet dried cherries and pears. There is a pungent sort of phenolic smokiness. Lots of clove and allspice and also some bandaid as well. This is definitely one of the richest and fruitiest of the Unibroues and the yeast tastes quite different here than it did in any of the other anniversary beers. there is a definite wheaty/weizenbocky quality to this brew, especially as it starts to warm up. Smoky and wheaty with lots of molasses and fruity/rummy spiciness. Very vineous and rich tasting. As it warms you start to get a bit of cocoa and raisins. I’d like to try it again with a year or so on it, but it’s still pretty solid. Further warming really brings it together though, a light minty/herbal quality picks up and integrates very nicely with all of the other spicy/malty elements.

This dark brown ale poured with a fluffy beige head and a fruit and malt aroma. The flavor is a very tasty blend of caramel malt, molasses and spices, with a slightly medicinal bitter finish.

This is a nice beer that has a lot going on. It starts with a large frothy head in a Belgium-style glass. There is quite a bit of visible sediment in the bottle. The beer itself is very smooth drinking, with flavors of dark.fruits and spices.

75cl bottle courtesy of sandman2222. Pours a dark brown, almost black color with a thick, frothy tan head that recedes quickly but still provides lacing on the glass. Aroma is aged oak, malt, raisin, dark ripe fruit, barley. There is a slightly musty nature about it. Has a very creamy mouthfeel and notes of floral spice, sweet maltiness, hints of molasses. There is a note of sugar at the tip of the tongue but a slight sour finish. Notes of oak and wood emerge as the finish unfolds and lingers. We also had the chance to sample bottles of Unibroue 15 and 16 with this bottle of 17. The 15 presented as very sweet with an overpowering phenol taste compared to the 17. The 16 presented as the perfect balance of sweetness, maltiness, and alcohol content. Color varied widely with the 15 the lightest (a yellow honey color) and the 16 presesting as a dark amber-caramel color. Overall, the 16 was our favorite of the three on this tasting.

THOUGHTS: A wonderful beer. One of Uni’s better beers. This one might be really nice with some aging. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a nearly opaque, medium to dark brown with hints of orange and a huge, creamy, off-white head that slowly diminished and left good lacing. The aroma was moderate yeast, dark fruit, spices, maybe some port wine, slight alcohol and very light chocolate malt as it warmed. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, light to moderately acidic, and a little sour; while the finish was moderately sweet, lightly acidic and bitter, and sour with an average duration. There was dark fruit, then dark, sour fruit, spices and a little yeast. Maybe some brandy too and slight chocolate as it warmed. The medium to full body was syrupy up front then dry with rather fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent and alcoholic finish.

Picked up at Whole Foods Vienna. Tasted while on conference in Tysons Corner / Vienna VA. Tasted in hermetically sealed hotel plastic glasses. Sampled from a 750ml bottle. Aroma has an aged cheese scent, possibly of Parmesan or the like. Large sustained strong brownish white head. Flavor is intense and very sweet. Candy floss like, belgian candied sugar, some maple, slightly sour / bitter finish. Overall very intense and does not lay well with the ’other’ children in the park. Shame on you 17! shame!