Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Beautifully chestnut brown colour, hazy and crowned with beige head. Slightly bubble-gum/banana estery nose. Balanced sweetness and soft maltiness turning into a dry, hoppy finish. These Trappist monks know their stuff, but it's not as good as, say Westvleteren. But then - what is?
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Re-rate from bottle, half a year old. Hazy yellow, huge rocky foam. Fresh citric and funky aroma. Medium mellow dry body, sparkly. Fruity start - fresh banana, orangepeel, light apple and pear, dry funky bits, a hint leather retronasal. Fresh and pleasant. Age-old rating: 8 4 8 4 13 Too much alcohol practically destroys the flavor, but try to make a half and half with with a Westmalle dubbel!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
Rerate of slightly aged version: Bready/woody aromas, raisiny esters. Reddish, cappucino head. Taste is spicy, estery, toffee and raisins. Somewhat weaker old than in a fresh version, especially the bananalike flavors and aromas are gone. The body is not as deep as it could be, finish is actually a bit weak.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
New rating: cloudy golden, large fizzy head that dissipated somewhat rapidly. Very nice aroma, mildly yeasty and spicy with phenols - a tad of banana, some clove. Light malts are clear in the nose. Flavor is nicely sweet, with pepper and phenols, palate is wonderfully light. This seemed a fresh sample, as I could definitely detect some grassy and herbal flavoring hops skirting the edges of this. The complexity added by the hops was astounding. The finish was semi-dry, with hops and only a kiss of alcohol, which was overall very well masked.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
re-rate pending. Default numbers used. I will write good notes next time this crosses my desk, I swear!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5
Oh my God, nearly a perfect beer. Its a perfect balance of fruity malt flavors and a firm and pleasant hop base. Lightly dry. The malt/hop balance is as noticeable in the aroma as it is in the flavor. Dark ruby-red tinted brown. Years later, an update, and how interesting how things have stayed the same: my main note from the new fresh tasting is that this beer is exquisitely balanced. The sweetish almost nutty malt flavors mingle with a lightly hopped dry finish, all the while swimming with the lightest phenols (banana) and no alcohol presence whatsoever. Maybe its not distinctive, but its a great beer that does not draw attention to itself. I'm lowering my numbers from 4.8 only because I think the original score was a tad too high, not because my opinion of it has dropped.