Inoven (3737) reviewed Dubbel from De Achelse Kluis 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Fles gekocht bij de brouwerij en thuis gedronken.
Robijnrood bier, flink schuimend bij inschenken.
Aroma is kruidig en fruitig.
Smaak is eveneens kruidig.
De bittere kruidigheid blijft lekker hangen.
Inoven (3737) reviewed Achel 8° Blond (2023) from De Achelse Kluis 7 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Fles gekocht bij de brouwerij.
Bleekgeel helder bier met matig schuim dat snel wegtrekt.
Aroma van citrusvruchten en hop.
Smaak is plat, licht hoppig en fruitig.
Nasmaak is bitter.
Inoven (3737) reviewed Tripel from De Achelse Kluis 7 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Fles gekocht bij de abdij en thuis gedronken.
Goudgeel helder bier met mooie witte schuimkraag.
Aroma is kruidig en fruitig.
Smaak is fris kruidig en fruitig met een hint van honing.
Nasmaak is licht bitter en iets rokerig.
BodyByDuff (214) reviewed Bruin 8 from De Achelse Kluis 7 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle, 2017 vintage. Caramel malt aroma with notes of chocolate, toffee, Candi sugar and Belgian yeast. Pours cloudy caramel colored with a large tan head that has excellent retention and lacing. Starts with rich caramel, chocolate and spicy Belgian yeast flavors as well as having a rich, full body and smooth mouthfeel. Finishes quite smooth with toffee and Candi sugar flavors. Still quite good after 8-ish years.
kurtthomsen (3611) ticked Achel Wit from De Achelse Kluis 8 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Tripel from De Achelse Kluis 8 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
The new embodiment of the old Achel 8 Blond, the Limburg trappist tripel which ceased to be a trappist beer since two years ago, the last trappist monk left for Westmalle and the abbey - including its brewery - was sold to a private investor. This investor promised to keep the site alive and maintain the brewery it became known for since the late nineties, vowing to leave the recipes unaltered - but it seems rather hard to believe that in new hands, the recipes and brewing methods are still exactly the same and the only change that was made, is the addition of a few new beers (see the Passeur entries). In any case I already found last week that the Dubbel version, corresponding with the old Achel 8 Bruin, was not entirely the same anymore, though still very close; I expect to find the same here, but let us see. Snow white, foamy, pillowy, fluffy, uneven-bubbled but dense and irregularly cobweb-lacing head towering over an initially crystal clear, warm metallic 'old golden' robe with almost 'champenoise' strings of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles sustaining the head; turns misty and more ochre-tinged with sediment. Aroma - after that stingy, sourish, sharp carbon dioxide has faded - of wet cereals, chamomile and other field flowers, apple peel, green banana, coriander seed, added iron (unambiguously confirmed by the 'hand test'!), dried clover, cooked turnip, young 'graanjenever', hint cava, grass, wet brown cardboard, vague hint at toasted peanut. Moderately fruity, restrainedly sweet onset, hinting at apple peel, unripe banana and unripe apricot, with lots of stingy, even numbing overcarbonation; a vague - but natural - sourish undertone is accentuated by this carbon dioxide overdose. Smooth, lean body, cereally and sleek, even a bit grainy with less residual sugars than is custom in a tripel; unfortunately the iron effect, added as a head stabilising agent, becomes apparent in sheer flavour early on and will not go away till the end. Pleasant floral and somewhat herbal hop bitterness in the end, lingering a bit, with clove-, thyme- and especially coriander-like traces of spiciness in its wake, while 'jenever'-ish alcohol warms the tail without becoming overly obtrusive. Well, I guess I have to draw the same conclusion here as with the Dubbel: the new owner of the Achelse Kluis site may claim that the recipes have remained untouched, he remains a businessman well versed in selling things to customers - but he is not fooling me with his lies. In this case, the difference with the old trappist version is even more clear than in the case of the Dubbel, so clear in fact that I do not even have to consult my old ratings of the original one: I had it plenty of times when it was still around and kept sufficient memory of it to know that it did not contain any added iron like this one, was rounder and more 'moelleux', with more sweet yellow fruitiness, and even looked a tad more apricot-hued than this follow-up. The great question "to alias or not to alias", to paraphrase Hamlet, is easily answered here: let us simply ignore the new owner's sales pitch and observe the fact that not only does the beer look and taste different from before, it also sports a new name and label - clearly it is not the same thing. By no means bad, do not get me wrong, but is only now that I realise how much I will miss the old Achel trappists.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Dubbel from De Achelse Kluis 8 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
I spent a holiday in the beautiful province of Limburg back in August 2019 and visited the Achelse Kluis abbey again that time to sample their beers from tap - but on the same evening, upon returning to Sint-Truiden and enjoying a wonderful evening at Gebrande Winning, got talking there with a representative of the brewery, who informally told me that the brewery was soon going to be a laymen brewery, as it was already clear at the time that the last trappist monks were about to leave the monastery. Lo and behold, exactly one year the last of them left for Westmalle - so that by definition, their operations ceased to be trappist operations. The brewery was sold to a private investor who so far is determined to keep the name Achel alive as a beer brand, managing to get it officially recognized as a brand of 'authentic abbey beers' - and unusual ones at that, because even though physically not much has changed, they are brewed within the walls of the abbey... Claiming not to have touched the recipes upon the time of his purchase of the brewery, I was eager to check for myself if indeed the renewed Achel Dubbel and Tripel are still the same as the Achel 8 Bruin and Achel 8 Blond I have enjoyed so many times in the past couple of decades. This one produces only a thin and loose, pale greyish off-white, open, tiny-bubbled, fizzing head during pouring - not being very stable, but I recall from twenty-odd years ago that this was not the case with Achel 8 Bruin either; initially clear, burgundy-bronze robe with copper-reddish glow, darker and misty with sediment. Aroma of wet pure caramel, dried apricot, dark candi sugar, prune, brown bread pulp, ruby port, candied fig, old raisins, 'kramiek', vague hazelnut, touch of cinnamon faraway in the background, clove. Sweet onset though not in a cloying way, candied fig, dark raisin, medlar, dried peach and some baked banana, moderate in carbonation with smooth, slick body, actually on the thin side for this ABV. Caramelly maltiness fills the middle with a brown-bready core and a thinly hazelnutty edge, but the whole remains remarkably light-bodied and it is easy to determine that most of it consists of candi sugar, which also leaves its somewhat spicy, sweet trail behind. Soft floral hops in the finish add mild bitterishness but the caramelly and candi-sugary sweetness remain the dominant factors; vague clove-like phenols appear retronasally as in any typically Belgian dubbel or quad, while the 'tail' is warmed by port- and eau de vie-like alcohol. Straightforward, sweet and easygoing, yet 'natural' oldskool Belgian dubbel: is that not what Achel 8 Bruin used to be? Too bad I did not stock one away to compare, but merely from memory the differences with its trappist predecessor seem limited: this beer may have lost its crown due to a simple change in who makes it, it inherently still reminds me of the earliest days in my beer tasting career, delving into the then-available trappist diversity and having the original Achel on many occasions. Granted, this one does not have the gravitas, body and complexity of its elders (like Westvleteren 8 or Rochefort 8), but it does convey a very genuine feeling - I personally think that its trappist pedigree, having come to a halt five years ago, helps it to hold up strongly amidst its new brethren, the other 'recognized' abbey beers. Compare this with e.g. Leffe Brune or even Tongerlo Dubbel - I rest my case. Purely from memory, I would say this new 'abbey version' of a former trappist beer seems a thinner, sweeter and more one-dimensional than its own forefather, but I still got some distant Achel vibes - I visited the place three times in total during my 'formative years' as a beer taster and keep fond memories of it, so I admit I may be biased here...
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
On tap at Trollekelder, Ghent, Belgium. A darkish golden coloured pour with a healthy white head on top. Sweet, Belgian bready, yeasty, honey, spice taste/aroma. Pleasant enough but expected a little more from this brewery.
jamaty (3407) reviewed Tripel from De Achelse Kluis 8 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Dorada, turbia, de escasa espuma efervescente y poco persistente. Aroma ligeramente ácido y especiado. En boca presenta la carbonatación típica de la mayoría de ales belgas, que le da buen frescor y la hace ligera en boca, disimulando mucho el alcohol. Sabor bastante equilibrado, de tono principalmente dulce, floral, miel. Amargor moderado, algo de astringencia, y postgusto más amargo donde al final aparece el calor propio de su elevada graduación.