Roman Dobbelen Bruinen

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

Large corked bottle, with gold foil on top of the neck. Popped off the bottle cap, and noticed that the cork was more than a little moist -- in fact, it was down-right saturated, with hints of pressure escaping, in the form of tiny bubbles. I figured that the cork was on it's last legs, and only the bottle cap kept things under control, but still, a little unsettling.

My cork puller made quick work with the saturated cork, which came out with a very impressive pop. Nice smoke, too. Made the mistake of pouring this into my Chimay glass to the rim; a mistake only in the fact that the head of foam kept on slowly rising, like so many fine European beers tend to do. So, it took a while for the foam to settle down a bit. Oh well -- good things come to those that wait.

And a very good thing this turned out to be. A classical body of amber/brown beneath an extremely dense layer of foam. So much dense Belgian lace that it made the back half of my Chimay glass turn opaque with foam.

A very nice and (surprisingly) refreshing aroma -- no sopping-wet horse blankets or moldy truffles here, boy-o. Just the complex maltiness of the beer coming through, in a very statesman-like manner. Hints of chocolate and/or raisins later on, FWIW.

A very nice interplay in the flavors from the very first sip. Malty, yes. Complex biscuit-like prescence, yes, that too. More hints of chocolate? Yes, indeed. But this beer has so much more going for it too, "behind the scenes", so to speak.

And that's the main reason why I'm so taken with this beer. Not for the aspects that I can pick out -- but for the flavor elements that remain a bit mysterious. Kinda like a avant garde/art film that doesn't quite explain everything in the plot line (and lets your imagination fill in the details), this beer has just enough mysterious elements to make it quite challenging.

An elusive beer, if I ever I've tasted one. And one that I expect to explore again -- and yet never quite figure out.

What I don't need to figure out, though, is the fact that this is a great beer, and on my short list of favorite Belgian Dubbels. Highly Recommended.
//TB