7.5/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 9
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pale orange coloured, slightly hazy. Pours very lively with big airy head. Flowery yeasty aroma. Sugary, sweetish nose, funky mouthfeel, alcohol-peppery bitterish finish. Leaves a lingering candy sugar flavour in your mouth. Good? No doubt! World classic? Maybe not.
Tried
from Can
on 24 Mar 2002
at 17:01
8.3/10
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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?
Tried
on 20 Mar 2002
at 16:37
7.8/10
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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!
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Jun 2001
at 08:34
7.9/10
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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.
Tried
on 26 Jun 2001
at 08:31
8.8/10
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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.
Tried
on 09 Mar 2001
at 20:17
5.2/10
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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!
Tried
on 17 Nov 2000
at 22:41
9.1/10
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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.
Tried
on 07 Jun 2000
at 18:26