Monastère Double

Now that's what I call a BINGO beer!  Monastère Double scored a full house on my beer scoring sheet - that's a huge 50/50 covering appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and overall.

It is a beautiful mahogany brown colour with a tight tan head that retains a thin layer.  The aroma is to die for with notes of malt, caramel, treacle toffee and tangy Belgian hops.  It gets better with the taste as my tongue was hit with an explosion of sweet treacle, roasted malt, tangy hops, raisins and a hint of chocolate.  There's even a slight liquorice finish to add to the complex flavour profile.

With a full body and medium but firm carbonation, this is an outstanding double.  It is faultless and even better that it came in a 500ml can to prolong the experience.  This was a bargain from B&M and I really hope Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by United Dutch Breweries, EU
6.4% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 5/5

Find out more at Monastère 

Corsendonk Pater Dubbel

 

Pater is a dark brown, mahogany tinged Belgian dubbel with an amazingly tight and frothy cream head.  It looks absolutely splendid and I couldn't wait to dive in for a sniff and a sip.

The aroma is so deliciously malty with a hint of tangy hops, as you would expect from a Belgian beer, along with notes of boozy fruit, like you get in a Christmas cake.  It also has a slightly soapy floral fragrance that was a bit strange and prevented it from scoring full marks for aroma.

It redeemed itself in the taste though.  It's very malty with notes of dark fruit, liquorice and treacle followed by a slightly dry, bitter coffee finish.  It really does have a lovely sweet/bitter balance.  It's very well carbonated and full bodied, giving a full tongue-tingling experience and resulting in one or two bubbly burps.

This is a lovely Belgian dubbel with a sweetness that reminded me of treacle pudding and Ale Be Seeing You again.

Brewed by Corsendonk Brewery, Belgium

6.5% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4.25/5

Find out more at Corsendonk Brewery

Corsendonk Summum Roodbruin

Corsendonk Summum Roodbruin is a dark mahogany brown coloured Belgian Dubbel with an amazingly tight beige head that doesn't budge, lasting and lacing until the final drop.  The head is amazingly robust, leaving thick lacing on the glass.  

There's a light aroma of malt, fruit, treacle and tangy hops along with a slightly metallic hint.  There's nothing light about the flavour with a big hit of roasted malt, dark fruit, sour hops and treacle.  As it's a Belgian dubbel with an ABV of 8.1% ABV it's no surprise that there's a slight hint of alcohol in the taste but there's nothing harsh or raw about it; it's more of a warming taste of alcohol as if the beer has been brewed in bourbon casks.  As it develops, I could taste more caramel and even a hint of liquorice giving it a bitter/sweet finish.

Medium bodied with good carbonation, it has an abundance of prickly malty bubbles with a sour fruit centre that burst in your mouth.  It's a real lip smacking beer with sweet caramel lingering on the lips and slightly sour dark fruit and malt on the tongue.

You can tell it's a strong ale as you're drinking it but without any raw alcohol taste it goes down far too easily.  A very easy to drink Belgian ale, it's perhaps not the best dubbel I've ever had but at £6.99 for a pack of 4 from Lidl it's definitely good value.  My four have now all magically disappeared but I'll be keeping an eye out for these hitting the shelves again and Ale Be Seeing You.

Brewed by Corsendonk Brewery, Belgium
8.1% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4.25/5

Find out more at Corsendonk Brewery