The Session #2: Dubbels

The day is finally upon us, The Session #2 has arrived. The first session was a blast as the theme was "Not your Father's Stout". For those new to the discussion The Session is a virtual Beer Tasting held the first Friday of the month. All the beer bloggers, the world over, do tasting, write up and the host posts every one's tasting in a round up a couple of days later. This month the host is Alan over at A Good Beer Blog, the theme is Dubbels. My foray into this months discussion is Ommegang's Abbey Ale.
The Style: The Dubbel style has its roots in Trappist brewing, although many American Craft brewers are making Abbey ale, which for the most part are Dubbels. These beers are of moderate strength around 8%, but always less that the more robust Trippels. These beers are dark, malty, spicy, with low hops.
The Brewery: Ommegang is based in Cooperstown, New York, was founded in 1997 and is renown for creating some of the best Belgian Ales in the States. Simply put they are Belgian ales. They use traditional Belgian style malts, spices, and brewing methods to create a small collection of reportedly amazing Belgian Beers. Among other things they also promote the greatness that is Beer with Food, something I am passionate about.
The Beer: I searched a long time before selecting a Dubbel that I wanted to taste. At first I was going to go for a Belgian Beer, but most of those I have been lucky to taste, either here, or when I was in Brussels last year. So I decided to search for something new, something I had never tasted. Lucky me then that Ommegang brewery has just started distribution to my fair city! I had heard nothing but raves about this brewery so when I saw their Ommegang Ale on the shelf of my local Spec's I knew this was THE BEER!
The beer came in a large bottle with the words 'Bottle Conditioned' printed on the front of the colorful label. The beer weighed in at a nice 8.5% and poured a deep amber with just small streaks of red flashing through when held up to the light. There was a nice thick, dense quarter inche taupe head capping this amber nectar. The nose was fruity, musty, raisins. The mouth showed good carbonation, smooth, with notes of coffee, dark chewy raisins, concentrated dark grape flavors, leaving a crisp long finish. A bit of espresso bitterness showed itself right at the finish. As the beer warmed the dark fruit flavors showed up even more prevalently, expressing itself in what I would call a thick beer. I really enjoyed this beer and am glad that Ommegang has made its way down here. Can't wait to try their other beers. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.
Now go over to A Good Beer blog and check out the other Dubbel Posts.