Abbaye de St Landelin La Divine

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Single, swing-top from the LCBO at 8.5% ABV. Best before 15.06.14 on front label. Pours a golden, light amber colour with a white cap that has good retention and lots of dirty lacing. Belgian Ale yeast nose with the hints of wheat, bananas, spices, apples and a little alcohol. The yeast is milder, but present in the taste, with hints of fruits (mostly apples) and spices. Medium-bodied with a slight oily mouthfeel and no burning. Goes down quite well. For those who like strong Belgian Ales with bananas, apples and spices that are not cloudy. I am actually liking this one more and more as it goes down.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750ml bottle
8.5% ABV
LCBO Outlet #511 (Toronto, Ontario, Canada – King / Spadina
May 11, 2013
$8.30
The beer pours a copper-tinged gold with a this white cap. Aroma is light fruits, sweet malt, must and yeast. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation. Flavour is very musty with yeast, tart fruits, and some burnt wood. Quite enjoyable.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

There are a lot of tripel type qualities in this beer. The yeasty and musky aroma goes well with the dark gold colour. The flavour has hints of light fruit, wood, yeast, and musk. Decent, but would never be a regular for me.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottled, from Alko. Golden colour, mediumsized white head. Aroma is fruits, earth, mild metal as well as some slight malts. Flavour is fruits, yeast, some spices and also quite earthy notes. Mild alcohol in the finish. As it gets warmer it gets melted rubber in the aroma, as well as the mild metallicness gets quite much stronger. Flavour stays quite the same when warming up.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A bright rose colored beer with a gigantic frothy textured, white head rising above. Some hang time. And a lot of film on side of glass, a ringlet and light cap atop the body. Yeasty and sweet malt in the nose. The body is medium with a light creaminess. Just right. Just as in the nose the flavors match with an added fruitiness. Really quite good.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Bottle: Poured a clear golden color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of dry malt with some traces of DMS. Taste is also dominated by notes of DMS with some lightly sweet caramel malt notes. No spices or ester form the yeast are really noticeable and DMS is a bit too omnipresent. Medium body with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Aroma is sweet-like with some mustiness with some lemon citrus and crisp straw with some strong funky overtones as well as some yeastiness and sweet malt accentuation. Appearance is a golden-ornage in color when held tot the light with a huge head on top that is bleach-white in color and diminishes to creamy lacing that sticks to the glass. Mouthfeel is light to medium in body with nice complex characters coming through as well as some good balance with a pallette that is wet-like and refreshing. Flavor is of yeasty funk as well as sweet malt and some slight caramelization with an aftertaste that is smooth and crisp and pretty raw and has a finish that is clean and refreshing but a tad astringent. Overall, good example of style and very different when compared to La Goudale which is a sweeter and more refined example of this notable style; recommended...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Best by date May 2009; Sampled July 2008
A brisk pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a fat two-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head. The beer is a clear, lightly red tinged copper hue as it sits on my desk but shows a brilliantly clear, bright gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is sweet with a mix of light pear and sweet malt notes. Grassy grain aromas produce a touch of dried hay, some saltine cracker notes and a touch of biscuit like grain. Mixed in with the noticeable grassiness is a light herbal character that shows that this has a touch of hop character to it. The aroma is about what I would expect from a Bière de Garde.

Lightly sweet up front, but picks up even more sweetness as it rolls across the tongue. This is definitely malt focused for the most part with sweet grain notes, grassy grain flavors, and crushed malt notes of biscuits and light toffee all noticeable. The light-medium carbonation combines with a light hop note to produce a peppery, bitter bite that is noticeable from beginning to end of each sip. This has a fullness to it that envelopes the palate in its velvety texture. Not overly heavy, but it is not a quaffing brew either. This almost has a mint flavor to it that is very light and really only noticeable as it starts to warm up.

This didn’t start out very impressive, but it has certainly developed into a tasty, enjoyable beer as I have been quaffing this. It hits the style pretty well and while it doesn’t cover any new ground, it is well integrated and works nicely. It manages to become more than the sum of its individual components.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ