Duvel
Time to break out the old Delerium Tremens glass because this is a special one! It’s the legendary, widely available (in beer friendly areas) Duvel. This Belgian Strong Ale roles in at 8.1% ABV. It gets this high alcohol content from triple fermentation, twice in the brewery and once in the bottle. It’s ingredients are different, while it is an ale and uses a “special” ale yeast, they introduce pilsner malts, which are more common to a lager-syle of brewing. The result is just great.
It pours from its heavy, funny shaped bottle with a TON of head. Thick, foamy and pure white, it takes up about half of my glass and it doesn’t go away. The body of the beer is a pure yellow and shows strong carbonation.
With big head comes big aroma. At first this one hits your nose with sweet, sweet malts, backed by heavy spices. After my first sip and I started to notice that the aroma had a whole lot of lemons hiding there in the back.
Then there’s the flavour. Up front slaps you with sweetness. It’s borderline sugary - and not that dirty refined sugar. The good stuff! The taste then evolves with strong yeast resulting in a basement-like taste, that I’m crazy about. The backend shows a bunch of bitter with a surprising amount of hops and is somewhat undefined compared to the rest of the taste profile. After this one warms up the yeasty, “basement” tastes really takeover, which I could see as something that the brewers would want to hide. Although I love it, the average palate might not be as - intrigued as I am. This brew is medium bodied, having its high “champagne-like” carbonation bite at your cheeks and tongue.
Overall, the flavour blends beautifully. The sweetness is balanced by the yeast which is enhanced by the hops. A great accomplishment considering how widely distributed this beer is!
