Westmalle Dubbel

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

Serve in Trappist glass

Bottle. White head. Brown body. Aroma of choccolate and caramel. Flavor smooth and pleasant choccolate hops.

I don’t know how this beer avoided me for so long. Here we have a trappist of near my favorite style. Commonly available and at my grasp no less than three dozen times. Finally we meet! What a pretty head it has! An elevated outer crust, an even mantle then a bulbous core erupting with activity caused from the trappist logo below. The source of this shows up as a blood ruby color up to the light and without it looks nearly backstrap molasses black. All this goodness persists and clings to my glass like a baby does its blanket. Upon getting up close and personal, I find it has a complex smell covering things such as bananas, yeast, raisin, toasted sesame seeds and a pimento note as well. Avoiding beating around the bush, I just decided to grab it and drink it. Lots of zesty carbonation, light alcohol burn, some hop bitterness and acidic yeast bite. Quite a punch! I think I offended it. Either way, it’s balanced, full bodied, not too sweet. I’ll give it time to vent and breath a little more... Ok, back to the beer. Lots of caramel and the everpresent yeast and fruity esters. The tail reveals more of the alcohol along with a metallic twinge and a far off maltiness. Well Westmalle Dubbel, it was a pleasure. Down the hatch!

UPDATED: NOV 10, 2006 November 2006. Bottle from LCBO. Dark brown body with a good sized khaki head, and moderate lacing. Sweet malty aroma, with notes of raisins and dark fruit with a solid alcoholic kicker to finish it off. Sweet malty flavour has notes of caramel , muted raisins and caramel, and very mild ambiguous fruit. Alcohol is warming but not particularly prominent. Medium to full bodied palate is smooth but not heavy. Personally a touch more weight would be nice, but not necessary. (3+) Quite pleasant. 7/4/ 8/3+/18 - 3.9 <P> November 2004. Ruby brown body with an average tan head. Sweet malty aroma, some dark sugars (brown sugar, candi sugar?). Sweet malty flavour with pleasant touch of sugars again, some vague notes of chocolate. Very nice but seemed simplistic, may need to try this one again though given that it was precided in the evening by an Old Crustacean. Nice palate, I enjoyed this one a lot. 6/3/8/4/18 - 3.9

This poured a deep brown color with a beautiful, foamy light brown head. The aroma is sour with some spiciness and hints of lighter fruits. It has a full-bodied malty flavor with a touch of banana. Very carbonated. Has a not unpleasant sour finish. Tasty.

UPDATED: AUG 18, 2006 Amber brown, somewhat hazy color, great lasting offwhite head. Fruity aroma, peach, raisins, plum and some sourish notes. Some yeast. Fruity flavor from raisins and plums, nice hops and a good mouthfeel. Old rating: 6/4/6/4/13

Murky red / brown colour with light brown head. Aroma is malty with caramel and nuts. Flavor is not as powerfull as I had wanted. It has some malts, but it is not as complex as other dubbel’s. Finish is acidic.

18th February 2008
A 1970s bottle sourced from a collector in Belgium. Cloudy brown beer, still carbonated! Sharp and sour with a dry bitter finish. Nice but a bit too dry.

Bottle 330ml Aroma: front clean, medium green wet hops. Middle rich brown malts.End-vineus clean well refined alcohol. (8-) Appearance; medium fine haze, brown with some ruby saturation. Medium, average top. Slightly sticky oily texture, medium-full bodied, carbonation, medium dry. Bitter green middle Finish slightly woody with accented plums. Neat warming double Belgian. Surprisingly smooth if you consider sample age and above average carbonation. Older sample can be only better.