dEcaussinnes Ultra Blonde

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pours an appealing hazy straw yellow with a VERY thick and fluffy white head. (Beware when opening a bottle - it fizzes like nobody's business!) Aroma is strong, rich, fruity, slightly yeasty and a little bit sweet. Mouth-filling flavor is mainly fruity with malty and yeasty tones, just a touch of bitterness and a whisper of butterscotch. Texture is milk-smooth, fizzy and a little edgy. This is worth finding!

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

Sampled on 11/24/2008. This Belgian Strong Ale pours a slightly cloudy light amber color from a 330ml bottle. Large sized white foamy head, with decent lacing. The aroma is fruity and sweet, with a touch of banana and clove. There is also a very slight hint of hops. A medium bodied BSA. The malts are fruity and sweet, without being cloying. The hops are slightly floral. Nice carbonation. I think this is an older bottle; there was quite a bit of dead yeast in the bottom of the bottle. If so aging has not hurt this beer at all. It has a nice balance to the malts, sweet and kind of bready without being too cloying. Very nice sipping beer, the 8% alcohol is nice hidden. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

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

Best By Date of December 2010; Sampled February 2008
The beer pours with a frothy, initially four-finger thick, fluffy, pale tan colored head that leaves some patchy lacing and produces a slight structure as it slowly recedes. The beer has an orange-tinged, light amber hue to it and when held up to the light shows a ton of mad carbonation as well as a lightly hazed, orange tinged, gold color. The aroma is a mix of light spiciness, sweet candy and bread notes. Aromas of candied orange peel, sugar syrup, yeasty bread dough, toasted grain, touches of butterscotch, vanilla cream, a touch of clove, maybe a hint of pepper and some grassy grain are all noticeable. The aroma is interesting, It has a log going on, but I am not sure if it is firing on all cylinders.

Sweet tasting and well carbonated, the beer foams up as soon as it hits my mouth and clearly needs to be freed of the excess carbonation. After a quick, vigorous swirl of my glass the beer is still carbonated, but at a much more pleasant level. The beer is still fairly sweet, which accentuates a soft vanilla note, a slight citrus tinged candy character and a sticky, sweet grain character. A touch of dry, dusty grain character and a light soda cracker note in the finish couples with a slight hop bitterness, a light carbonic pepper bite and a bit of phenolic, sharp spice notes; none of these is really able to balance the sweetness though.

This is definitely a bit too sweet (the sweet grain note dominates the flavor profile), it could be dried out significantly and still have a oft sweetness to it. The sweetness gets in the way of the other flavors here, both the malt and fermentation character seem to struggle to be noticed at times.

Purchased: Stuffed Sandwich, San Gabriel CA

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Bottle: Poured a bright golden color ale with a huge foamy head with good retention and great lacing. Aroma of big Belgian malt with some light sweetness. Taste is dominated by the semi-sweet Belgian malt with a nice lightly hoppy dry finish. Body is quite full with some great carbonation and no alcohol was discernable. Overall, this was better then expected with a great refreshing factor.

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

Hazy orange colour with mediumsized white head. Aroma is syrup, fruits, caramel malts and some spices. Flavour is citrus along with yeast and citrus fruits. Not as alcoholic as the other ultra's as for the flavour.

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

Gold body with a large foamy head that has good lasting power. A bit of hop bite, slight bit of well-aged cheddar. Dry malt backbone with moderate hop bitterness.

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

A thick rocky white head from the bottle pour has a nice leave of lace once it melts into the bright hazy off orange body. The liquid itself displays considerable yeast sediment in the glass. Dull citrus aromas (pears? rotten apples?) arise from the chalice, with a hefty dose of perfumey yeast. Those citrus aromas become tasting notes on the buds, making this Belgian milder than most of it's ilk, but still is very alcoholic and spicy. A susdsy, juicy, but bitter aftertaste wraps this one up. Pretty good, but I prefer Piraat.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

cloudy orange colour with a big creamy dense head, nice lacing, bready and yeasty, very creamy mouthfeel, light to medium body, sweet, the finish is slightly acidic with an heavy alcohol kick - good but easy