Tickle Brain
Burton Bridge Brewery

 

L- Very dark ruby chestnut, clear (it's bottle conditioned, handle with care). 1Cm fine tan head holding unusually reeeallly well [ps. and does even 1/2hr later, right to the bottom of the glass].
S- Quite rich roasted fruits smell. Or like the cooked fruit smell from say a baked apple and blackberry crumble.
T- Woah, considering the mild smell it has a lot more flavour than expected. Dense, puddingy, quite deep/toasty/dark. The 7.5% comes through very clearly to me, that pungent alcohol tang. Into a slightly dry finish with hints of sour cherries. I also get the previous comments making connections with Begian dubbels. Wonderful taste this one.
M- It's a pretty full-on feel for 'just' 7.5%. Put another way, I've had plenty of similar ABVs, even a notch higher, with materially less bang than this. Furthermore I note zero that's out of place, it's going down a treat.
O- I like it, and will buy it again, though it's of the style I sup slowly as it's pretty full-on. Ideally a winter-warmer fireside supping beer for me. ...It's been a blustery pollen-laden day in London and my allergies/congestion are up, otherwise I would have expected to get much more of the Smell given the rest of it's profile. Nice beer, shame about my nose.
Bought from BeerOfEurope. 500ml bottle, same lable as shown above, except it is clearly marked as 7.5%ABV, and no longer 8.6% as above. BB: Dec-2019.

Brown color with a thick huge beige head with eternal retention.
Slightly sour aroma with notes of horse sweat, raisins and crystalized fruits. Weird.
Sour taste with notes of caramels, oak, cloves, raisins, candi sugar, earthy hops, strawberries, ginger, green and red apples, some banana, cinnamon, sulfur; all on a vinous base. Dry aftertaste with a mild bitterness.
Medium body with effervescent carbonation. Alcohol of 7.5% is not felt.
This felt contaminated once I was expecting a Belgian Dubbel. It is mixing flavors of a Dubbel with a Flanders red ale sour notes. But looks like it is that way. Impressive complexity, though.

 

Cloudy copper red colour with a fast fading foamy off-white head and heavily carbonated. Lots of sweet sugary fruits on the nose, strawberries, apricot, and a cleary bready malt. Sweet fruits up front followed by a much heavier toffee caramel, and a slightly bitter alcohol finish with a peppery taste. It's heavy in the body with lots of carbonation and slightly oily texture. A nice beer, great take on the classic Belgian Dubbel.

According to BA this is in the style of a Dubbel and i can kind of see it but think Dubbel blended with a Lambic. It does show strong sour grape and apple notes with strong malt characteristics and some faint grassy hops. Not bad in all and the colour of cola orange is kind of cool.

The mouhfeel is quite refreshing and you dont taste the alcohol so kudos for that. Drinkability is pretty high overall

A - Slightly hazy dark copper colour with a 3cm dark beige head that hangs around for a fair while.
S - Caramel and dark fruit notes, quite a bit of spice.
T - Sweetish maltiness, bit of caramel again with quite a dominant spice character.
M - Medium bodied with a medium to high carbonation.
D - A decent beer but nothing to get too excited about. Worth a try if you see it.

500 ml bottle, bought in Scarborough. Bottle conditioned. ABV is 8.0%. Copper coloured beer, large off-white head. Lovely aroma, vinous and fruity, also oaky and spicy notes. The flavour is VERY oaky and spicy, fairly sweet, with a fruity finish. Salty and bitter aftertaste. Powerful stuff!

Bottle courtesy of Hogtownharry: Poured a medium reddish color ale with a big foamy head with great retention and excellent lacing. Aroma of malt with a hint of sweetness is weaker then expected but still enjoyable. Taste is comprised of medium caramel malt with some weak candi sugar and an interesting yeasty finish. Body is probably thinner then it should be with some great carbonation. I always thought that Burton beers had something Belgian about them so it is great to have the opportunity to drink this beer but it still seems something is missing for it to be a great dubel.

A: Brown-orange; slightly off-white, fluffy head; not much retention, leaves some lace.

S: Sulfur, fusil alcohols, phenolic, plums & raisins and a slight aroma of British fruity esters. There's a lot going on here.

T: Dark prune (a little burnt), dark caramel, spicy phenols, sulfur. It's rough. More-so as it warms.

M: Moderate to full body, somewhat cream, moderate carbonation.

D: Strong & flavourful, though the flavours aren't really that good. I found this tough to drink (and I generally LOVE dubbels).

Thanks for the rare treat Len!

A bottle-conditioned beer at 8.0%abv., coming in a long-neck 500ml brown bottle. BB DEC 06, served cool in a large tulip-shaped wine glass.

A: dark ruby to chestnut-brown hue; a beige beer head comes thick and frothy, with superb retention and leaving uneven sheets of lacing; carbonation is lively, with very fine and tiny bubbles ascending gently from the bottom of the glass. Elegant.
S: a deep scent of sweet dark fruits dominates the nose, a bit like rum-soaked raisins, backed by perfumy fruits: ripe apples and overly-ripened melon... quite alcoholic the fruitiness is, almost rotten and nearly-fermented?! Yeastiness and brown-sugary maltiness stay at the back, and yeah there's a solid backbone of fruity hops too, though it's easily outweighed by other stronger aromas.
T: deeply black-sugary and toffeeish malts hit the palate upfront, along with a slightly sharp yeasty and alcoholic edge; turning bitter-sweet, with a sour edge of ripe dark-fruits and a bitter herbal+woody taste lingering towards the end. Surprisingly clean and dryish finish without an undesirable sugary touch, only a slightly warming touch of alc. creeps down the throat.
M&D: the carbonation is ideal for a Dubbel-style beer, though I think this beer is more in line with heavy-weight and malty English Strong Ale (e.g. Fuller's 1845) and also reminiscent of some strong old ales. All in all, this full-bodied and complex beer is well worth a try. I was lucky to pick it up at the Sussex Beer Festival 06 early last month~~

Murky russet brown with cinnamon edges and a rocky, voluptuous dirty khaki head. Sweetish cookie dough malt nose, with allspice, cloves, yeast, brown sugar, and earthy yeast. Taste is moderately sweet cookie malt base. Spicy fruit notes come out amidst oaky, charred alcohol esters. Sharp bitterness cuts in with yeast. Warming, slightly medicinal finish. Not bad Anglo-Belgian concoction. Full-bodied, sticky to creamy feel. Interesting and maybe the first English interpretation of a Belgian I've had.

Very boozy aroma.
Nut brown chestnut color. Its the yeast. Little head.
Yeast, licorice, lots of carmel. Fruit, apople with core,bananna, almond, allspice.
Thin mouthfeel
Lace in glass.
Woody
An interesting, fun whimsical variation on a dubbel, drink up lads