Silly La Divine

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

Sampled on 12/26/2008. This Belgian Strong Ale pours a slightly cloudy orange gold color from a 33cl bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head, with nice retention and good lacing. The aroma is sweet malts, bread, orange and some spices. A medium bodied Belgian Strong Ale. The malts are fruity and sweet, with some cookie and a whole lot of orange and orange peel. The hops are earthy. A really sweet and malty beer. Some spice and hops to balance the sweetness but not much. Lively carbonation. Kind of sweet and malty and very one-dimensional. Hides the 9% alcohol well. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is sweet.

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

Bottled at Monks Café, Stockholm. Pours out in a hazy amber colour with a rich creamy white foam. Herbal yeast, dried oranges, nectarines and mild pepper in the aroma. Full yeasty and sweet flavour of canned oranges, apricots, mandarin, spicy yeast and alcohol. Full-bodied with a lively carbonation. Long fruity and almost cloyingly sweet finish of canned apricots and over-riped oranges with notes of raw yeast and alcohol. Unrefined.

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

Bottle courtesy of Fonefan: Poured a hazy deep amber color ale with a nice large foamy head with good retention but no lacing. Aroma of sweet malt with some bready yeast notes. Taste is mix between some sweet Belgian malt with some notes of flight fruit (peach) and a bready finish. Full body with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Nothing spectacular but very drinkable and refreshing.

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

Bottled. Amber colour, mediumsized creamy white head. Aroma is citrusfruits along with toffee and some sweet sugary notes. Flavour is caramel malty, hoppy, toffeish with underlying notes of metallicness. Alcohol also gives a big sting in the flavour.

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

Hmmm. Well, I don't know about this one.

It's technically well-made, true. I really found no major faults with this one. Looked fine, smelled fine, tasted okay, and so on.

So what's the catch? It's just that this really had zero personality IMHO. A beer that's well made is all well and good, but it still needs to have some sort of zip to the whole package. Something to make somehow distinguishable from the hundreds of other Belgian-style Tripels out there, from both sides of the Atlantic.

Drinkable enough, but also immediately forgettable.

Maybe The Devil has the right idea. If Heaven is this Divine -- and this boring, then send me Down South where's it a bit warmer! ;)

Music: Insomnium's "Above The Weeping World"
//TB

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

Poured almost completly clouded. A chalky amber, colour of a gem. Standard head. Nose a little underwhelming to be called "divine". Some yeast and spices, gentle and appetizing. Very underwhelming though. A cold water, refreshing mouthfeel. Some caramel, toffee flavour. Very hard to get a read on things. The beer is very void of flavour, hardly any taste. Really not much showcased here. Not bad, but not really anything...

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

Outstanding new discovery at the Sharp Edge Creekhouse yet again! The fluffy cloud like 1/2 inch head melts slowly into a ring of small lace around the rim of the glass. A bright clear copper colored body with little to zero carbonation is very inviting. The scent of buttered popcorn from a movie theater is very strong (I am not kidding). The tastes are nice and smooth on the buds, with a subtle malty creaminess, and that buttery like thing going on in the finish. Unmistakable and in a class by itself.

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

33 cl bottle, bought at Selfridge’s, London. Deep amber colour, hazy. Large head. Aroma and flavour are rather alcoholic, with caramel, brown sugar, oak and hints of barnyard. Sweetness is reasonably balanced by the hoppy bitterness, which also has some not-so-desirable metallic edges. Mouthfeel is warming and a bit peppery. An unusual beer, well worth sampling, but DIVINE?? I don’t think so - go for the Trappists in stead, they have better connections "upstairs".

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

Once again it was Lucky Baldwins that provided me with this fine beverage. A light orange, maybe a dirty yellow even. Fucked up taste, in a good way though, very sourdough with some grapefruit along for the ride. The aftertaste was going mach 3 cause it was there for a millisecond and then gone.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Cloudy copper color with medium sized head. Aromas of apples, caramel and strong alcohol. Taste of acid, candy and roasted barley. Fizzy carbonated mouthfeel.