Westmalle Dubbel

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Malle, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass

Dark brown, near black with a huge bubbly light tan head. Aroma- tart berry, toffee, roses, honey, chocolate, vanilla.Taste is rich and sweet with roast malt, biscuit and a cocoa bitter finish. Medium thin body with mouth coating effervescent carbonation.

330mL Bottle. Rated blind. Fifth out of a set of 12 Abbey Dubbels. Aroma is a sharp, hoppy, carameled malt sugar. Nice and complex. Solid and unique. Pours a deep coppery-brown, quite-hazy, with a lacy, rocky head in flesh. Flavor is bright and complex, with brown sugar, fruitcake, brandy, nicely caramelized malts (heavy on the CaraMunich) and then a bristling, surprisingly noticeable fresh Noble hop character. This is good. Of the five I’ve had so far, this is the most stylistically unique, but the most delicious and most quality brew. Nice balance of sugars, alcohol, and malt complexity. I think I revel in this one the most, because the browned sugar complex is very deep and satisfying. GUESS: Rochefort or Urthel

This pours a beautiful brown/ruby with a quickly populating, huge, persistent off-white head; it took me about five minutes to pour the whole bottle! The nose is rich with sweet, dark malts, some deep fruits with hints of chocolate and slight flowery hops. There is a slight bitterness at first in the mouth, quickly turning to sweet, deep fruits and toffee with lingering sweetness and chocolate. This is an excellent beer: deep, complex, and delicious. Truly memorable.

33cl bottle, Amsterdam. Technically this was the 122nd beer of my Euro trip, but the 100th on my Top Deck coach tour, so why not celebrate in style. Deep amber body, beige head which is a bit foamy and inconsistant for a Trappist. Rich vinous aroma; sherry, toffee, biscuit and chocolate, plum, raisins and rum, woody funk. Big velvety body, creamy carbonation. Very complex body; rich caramalised malts, dried and dark fruits, spice and a unique slightly funky woodiness on a very lingering finish. Excellent dubbel, though it probably doesn’t stand up to some of its close rivals IMO.

Nice fruity, caramel sugars aromas with a hint of spice. Lovely bier in a glass. Good flavor profile, not as complex as I had hoped for. Estery, banana, bready, malty, & sweetish. Nice mouthfeel, to style. Overall very good, but not quite worth the money, unlike their tripel.

Westmalle Dubbel pours nicely with a light density beige head that soon dissipates. The aroma is a lightly malted with an almost cindery note to it. You can certainly taste the yeast amongst the contributors to the somewhat undesirable bitterness. I will add however that I see mine was bottled aug 18 2005. I can’t speak to how this ale might age. I do notice what I would refer to as a “house” flavor similar to their triple, so it may simply be that I do not prefer Westmalle brews.

Aroma of prunes, swedish julmust and yeast. Appearance is dark brown with hints of red. The head is big and light brown. Taste of malt, prunes, fermented fruit and yeast. Overall a very good dubbel the style is however not very spectacular.

UPDATED: NOV 21, 2010 opaque brown, thick beige head, full body, high co2.
§spicy co2 T1, sweet-caramel-malt fruity T2, malt T3, hoppier Tf, too syrupy.