So over the past week I've had a bunch of different belgian beers, so I thought I'd give some ratings on what are some decently common and decently respected belgian beers.
First was St Bernardus 12/abt
Pours dark red, almost purple with a medium off white head. Aroma is a bit yeasty, dark fruits, vanilla, some bread. Flavor is caramely, dark fruits, alcohol. Nice warmth to it. Very smooth, a bit velvty on the palate. Not as good as I was expecting, but still quite nice. Flavor and aroma could be bigger.
Overall 4.5/5
Next up were the Westmalle Abbey Dubbel/ Tripel
I thought the double was overall a solid amount better than the tripel, and that the tripel was a bit boring for me. I'm usually not a big fan of the breadiness associated with tripels, so if you're into tripels you may really like it. My notes on the beers were as follows
Dubbel
Pours dark brown with a slightly tan head. Aroma is chocalate, some caramel, dark fruits, brown sugar, yeast. Flavor is dark fruits, toffee, yeast, sourness. Finish if bitter and sour, decently short. Mouthfeel is a bit thin.
Overall 3.5/5
Tripel
Pours golden-orange with a medium white head that last the whole beer. Aroma is yeast, bit of sourness, bread, apples. Flavor is sourness with pears, apples, breadiness. The sourness doesn’t really combine well with the other flavors, especially the breadiness.
Overall 3/5
Next up was a brew from ommegang, the rare vos. I thought it was really interesting, in many ways a cross between american and belgian styles. It had the yeastiness of most belgians and the candy sugar taste, but a nice hoppy back to it. My tasting notes were:
Amber color with a medium head. Aroma is belgian yeast, citric hops, fruit. Flavor is a bit of caramel malt with strong belgian yeast notes, bit of clove. Finish is dominated by citric hops. Very bitter for a belgian ale. Mouthfeel and finish are very nice.
Overall 4/5
Finally was the grandaddy of them all, Westvleteren 12. This is the one that has been ranked number one beer in the world the last few years by ratebeer and beeradvocate. Although the beer is ridiculously hyped due to the difficulty in finding it, I can say that it is jsut as good as people say it is.
Pours dark brown, almost black with a medium tan head that dissapated a bit quickly, but left a nice small head throughout the glass. Aroma is dark fruits, yeast, honey,raisins bit of floral notes. Flavor is strongly dark fruit, bit of coffee, raisins and honey, with some alcohol notes and and yeast and citrus in the finish. FInish is nice and long, mouthfeel is thick and very nice, almost velvety. Alcohol adds a nice warmth to the beer
Overall 5/5