Brasserie L’abbaye Du Val-Dieu Winter Ale

Posted on by Evan

I have never heard of Brasserie L’abby Du Val-Dieu in Aubel, Belgium. This is their Winter Ale, which is 7% ABV. This beer is categorized as a strong golden Ale. I have not had any beers from Val-Dieu before, so this is my first. This ale pours a deep yellow color with a one-finger white foam head. This beer has strong, fruity, sweet, and spicy aromas. You’ll find strong flavors and spicy notes around some light fruit. This has a medium mouthfeel. It finishes a bit strong, fruity, and sweet, with a strong aftertaste of some alcohol. This is good and very typical of a Belgian beer. If you blinded this and gave it to me, I would say it was a Belgian-strong, and I give this an A-. It is almost a good Duvel, probably the best, Belgian strong golden Ale. But I would pass on this one. It’s a good beer, and I will be on the lookout for more beers from Val-Dieu. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Brouwerij Van Steenberge Gilden Draak Classic

Posted on by Evan

Another beer from the Brouwerij Van Steenberge mixed six-pack. This time we have Gulden Drake Classic. It comes in a t 10.5% ABV. This Belgian ale has a high fermentation, a secondary fermentation, and three times more malt than a lager. Gulden Draak is a Belgian dark strong ale. This ale pours a deep or dark red with a four-finger beige fluffy head. The aroma is malty, strong, and sweet. The flavor is strong, smooth, sweet, and malty. The flavor will not overpower your taste buds. The mouthfeel is full. Then this ale finishes smooth and malty with a nice touch of sweetness. Then it all comes to a malty sweet aftertaste that lingers. Gulden Drake was delicious and had good flavors. I give this beer an A+. It is as good as a Chimay. I highly recommend Gulden Draak. This ale doesn’t drink like it has an ABV of 10.5%, but you know it’s stronger than most. This ale would pair well with good soft/semi-soft cheeses, light hor oeuvre meats, or delicious French fries. Please stay safe, always be kind to everyone, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Brouwerij Van Steenberge Piraat Belgian Ale

Posted on by Evan

Piraate Belgian Ale, a Belgian Strong Golden Ale (similar to Duvel), is another from Brouwerij Van Steenberge mixed six-pack. Piraate translates to Pirate. This beer comes in at 10.5% ABV. This ale pours a deep orange/golden color with a fluffy three-and-a-half-finger white head. The aroma is strong, sweet, boozy, and malty. The flavor is also strong and boozy. It is also fruity, sweet, and malty. The mouthfeel is full but just slightly full. Then this ale finishes with strong, malted, boozy, and sweetness. Then the aftertaste of fruity malts comes in and lingers for a few seconds, then fades away before you take your next delicious sip. This ale is good, and it gets an A. The first two from this pack I had were better even though they are different beer styles, and it is just as good as Duvel Beer. It doesn’t taste like 10.5% ABV, but it does taste strong. It has a good flavor balance. Piraat is a delicious beer that I highly recommend. Please stay safe, always be kind to everyone, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers! 

Bières de Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)

Posted on by Evan

Bière de Chimie Grande Réserve, 9% ABV from Bailuex Belgium is a Trappist Ale, which means that this dark Strong ale is brewed by Belgian monks. This ale pours a deep brown color with dark ruby edges and a three-finger think-off white head that is very slow to dissipate. The aromas are of dark fruit, raisins, there is a sweetness. This beer has a sweet dark fruit flavor with raisins, and with a strong flavor overall. The mouthfeel is full with a bit of stickiness and finishes with a touch of sweetness and some light dark fruit. The fruit flavor does carry into the aftertaste with a bit more pronounced alcoholic note. This ière de Chimie Grande Réserveis always great tasting and it gets an A from me I highly recommend pick up this beer, you will not regret what you did, Please stay safe and enjoy responsibly! Cheers! 

Throwback Thursday: Duvel Belgian Golden Ale

Posted on by Evan

Originally posted on December 23rd, 2013

Belgium is one of the best and oldest beer brewing countries in the world and produces some of the world’s best beers and most popular styles. One brewery in particular is Duvel Moortagt, which as been brewing since 1871 and has made a family brewery. This Is Duvel, Belgian Golden Ale (bottle Conditioned) 8.5% ABV. It comes in 11.2 ounce short stubby bottle. Duvel pours a bright golden color with a three finger bright white foamy, rocky head that sticks around for a quit while and leaves behind some thick amazing looking lacing. I found plenty of light streaming through the glass with decent amounts of carbonation. The aroma on Duvel is bright with a pineapple scent and nice hints of grainy, grassy notes. I also found a boozy aroma but none to heavy. The taste on this is big, with a nice light pineapple and a faint grassy note. Towards the back of the mouth I found it to be slightly boozier and stronger than the start with hints of carbonation. The mouth feel is medium with a boozy texture and finishes crisp and slightly boozy. The after taste on Duvel is nice faintly sweet, strong, and boozy with hints of hoppy yet grassy textures. Overall Duvel is a great beer so I would give this an A+. This is a great example of bottle conditioned Belgian golden ale. Duvel goes well with any season, and occasion. I found this beer to be very popular with concerning beer drinkers. I recommend that you try this and share it with you friends; you’ll look like a real beer connoisseur. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Throwback Thursday: Unibroue Don De Dieu

Posted on by Evan

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The Unibroue brewery does an outstanding job on brewing great beers, and this one is right with all they’re others. This is a triple wheat ale in the Belgian style brewed with spices, and is a strong one at 9% abv, and is refermented in yeast. This big wheaty brew pours a very cloudy orange almost a brownish color with a thick pillowy white head. It’s a beautiful beer to look at. I see this I and wow I want to have it. There is plenty of wheaty scent to this along with a scent of alcohol. Very nice wheat and orange scents to this. There is also a nice clove spice note, along with a  very faint orangey-banana as well. Again all very nice overall scent to this. Now the taste is more of a heavy wheat, do to the fact that it is a triple wheat. So this is not as drinkable as others. Don has a nice orange spice note that is most pleasing to your pallet. But I would call this refreshingly nice and good to drink. Don De Dieu has a nice heavy spiced wheat aftertaste that is slightly less than the start, but this finishes nicely. I love the triple wheat aspect of this beer, and Unibroue did that very well. I will even go a step farther and say that the bottle this wonderful wheat came in was nice with it gold foil around the neck and over the bottle cap was a nice classy touch, and Unibroue always has just interesting pictures their labels which I do find a bit neat. I like the Unibroue brewery and Don De Dieu a lot, even though it sits heavy in your stomach. It has all the right flavors done just right. That’s the way you do a big triple wheat beer. Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Rogue Ales Santa’s Private Reserve Dark Belgian Ale with Cherries and Raspberries

Posted on by Evan

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Thanksgiving is over so everything is going into Christmas/holiday mode. Same is true for beer. I saw this Christmas beer, Rogue Ales Santa’s Private Reserve 2017, 7.8% ABV on the shelve at my local Harris Teeter grocery store and thought I’ll give a try. Santa’s Private Reserve is a Dark Belgian Ale with Cherries and Raspberries brewed with Premium 2 Row, Munich, Weyermann Carabelge, Weyermann Caramunich III, Weyermann Special W & Midnight Wheat Malts; Willamette Hops; Belgian Candi Sugar, Red Raspberries, Cherries, Imperial Gnome Yeast, and Free Range Coastal Water. Santa’s Private Reserve pours a deep brown color with caramel edges with a two finger beige head that fades into a little tight halo giving off aromas of sweet dark fruits (cherries and raspberries) and a sweet flavor of nice ripe cherries and fresh raspberries with a little bit of a strong alcoholic note that finishes nice and sweet with touch of a bittersweet strong note with dark fruity aftertaste and a fuller mouthfeel that is somewhat chewy. Rogue Ales Santa’s Private Reserve 2017 is an interesting take on a dark Belgian Ale, a beer that is an A- with good drinkability and a nice sweetness that does not overpower your taste buds nor is too strong. This isn’t as full flavor as say a Chimay Blue, but it’s close to it and that is why I recommend Santa’s Private Reserve and will be having this again. Happy Holidays! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!        

 

 

Throwback Thursday: Epic Brewing Brainless on Peaches

Posted on by Evan

Originally posted on June 13, 2012.

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You don’t have to be brainless to like this! Here we have a beer from Epic Brewings Exponential Series, this is Brainless on Peaches 10.7% abv. This is a Belgian style ale that is brewed with peaches and on French oak barrels. This is special because they only brew enough for 1,800 one pint six fluid ounce bottle. Lucky me! Well this pours a glassy golden color with a bright thin head. There is plenty of peach scents to this beer. There is a nice small faint scent of grain but I was really looking hard for that, but I found that but it smells just like a true Belgian ale, just with lots of peaches. The taste is nice and peachy with a strong alcoholic flavor. The aftertaste is sweet grainy and yes peachy, and still strong. I found this overall surprisingly good. I thought it would be dark and bitter, with a faint hint of a peach. But I was wrong, so wrong. This was tasty indeed. I was surprised. See not all barrel aged bee is what you think, dark bitter, heavy strong, yeah I know this one was but it was the good kind of strong, and some tend to be thick and not so good with taste but I give Epic Brewing Brainless on Peaches an A. I will be more open-minded toward barrel aged beer since having this tasty fellow. Now go forth and have one of these and tell me it’s not good, bet you can’t! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!  

Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 Aged with French Oak

Posted on by Evan

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For some time now I have been looking for this Unibroue Grande Réserve 17, 10.0% ABV. This is a dark ale aged in French Oak and bottled refermented. This Ale was originally brewed in 2007 to celebrate the brewery’s 17th anniversary, and it was such a success that they kept brewing it. This particular bottled was bottled in 2015 making it two years old.  I picked this Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 up at Whole Foods. Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 pours a deep brown dark color with a two-finger beige head with nice retention giving off sweet brandy/wine notes with touches of nice toffee and slight caramel on the nose, leading into a taste of slightly alcoholic sweet brandy with notes of toffee, raisin, and caramel. This beer drink smoother than it should for a 10.0% beer. Which might be a little dangerous. Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 has slight boozy semi-sweet finish with some toffee and an aftertaste of slight semi-sweet alcohol brand notes. The mouth feel is full. Overall this Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 is good for a big beer, it is a definite A. Miss slightly on the boozy finish but only just. I highly recommend Unibroue Grande Réserve 17 and I will be going back to this lovely beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!