Arend Dubbel
Brouwerij De Ryck

Copenhagen 4/4 2021. 33 cl bottle from Beerdealer web-shop. Simple brown label with thin vertical stripes and a coat of arms with a pale eagle's head.

Pours murky dark amber with a small white head. Settles as a thin, patchy layer of foam unable to cover the surface of the beer. No lacing.

Aroma is moderately intense with a sweet, malty odor with a touch of yeasty fumes. Sweet caramel. Touch of toffee and brown sugar. Sour cheese and damp cellar.

Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is medium intense with a medium sweetness followed by a moderate sourish bitterness. Aftertaste is sweet. Lingers for a bit. Finish is sweet caramel.

Pretty light weight, harmless, pleasant Dubbel.

De Belgiuminabox. En copa Grimbergen. Estudiandl. Una dubbel normalita, sin nada especial pero tampoco nada malo. Pasa sin pena ni gloria

 

Bottle-conditioned
L- Pours a deep chestnut/red. Very slight haze (poured carefully). 1Cm pale tan head, holds well.
S- Quite puddingy (as in hot baked/rich puddings) with a little spice.
T- Very dubbel in it's spice notes but also some quite prominent sour-apple.
F- Yes it has the body of 6.5%, but the 'sour-apple' facet gives it some refreshing bite. Well carbonated in the mouth. A lack of malty richness, leaves this on the dry/sour side, unexpected from a beer with this rich colour/style.
O- It's certainly different, but it doesn't all tie together for me.
Tall slim 330ml bottle. BB: Sep 2020.

Pours a hazy light-brown color with a medium top of beige head that dissolves rather quickly.
Aroma is caramel,tofee, plums,figs,dates and spices.
The flavour is sweet and fruity at first with strong notes of malts and caramel in the back. The finish has some slight bitter and sour notes and the aftertaste has a good lenght. The flavour is not bad , but is kind of flat and unballanced. Mouthfeel is smooth and silky, with maybe a little to high carbonation and a medium body
A good and decent enough dubbel, but not exiting enough to be among the best.

 

 

 

 

Foam on two fingers, beige, it is not too long. Fruity, cherry, plum, intense caramel and something else. The taste is dry fruits, plums, cherries, caramel softer than in the aroma.
Minimally saturated acidity. Alcohol completely imperceptible, super, worth repeating.

 

 

 

330 ml bottle bought in Brussels, and finally getting around to consuming at home. On to the beer:

I expect a dubbel to look along the lines of this beer; brown colored, maybe a hue or two lighter than that, a few spots where visible bubbles are spotted running to the top, and a small head which is semi-creamy and wraps around the edges of the glass. The nose is a little sweet and has a pronounced fruitiness to it. A little bit of Tootsie Roll aroma playing alongside white grapes and a whisper of esters.

First impression in the mouth, this beer has a bite of carbonation which hits. The bite clears the palate and slowly the flavors emerge. Snappy grape is the obvious one of the group. A bit dry is the malt with some cocoa shavings, as it acts more like a backdrop for the yeast to hit onto. Throughout, the beer has uplifting carbonation, cleans the palate without cleaning your insides. A kiss of the alcohol is felt for a brief moment before hibernating again.

Solid Belgian dubbel out of De Ryck. Certainly, there are many others which I prefer, though Arend Dubbel can get the job done in a competent manner.

 

 

This Dubbel has little foam, a caramel color and is clean. The smell is malty with alittle "mustiness" to it but that is the style I would guess. The taste is malty, with a tiny bit of bitterness to it but it finishes strong with nice flavor. It has a feel of a dubbel but not heavy at all, and it is a beer that can be ordered more than once. All in all avery nice beer.

Not sure why this is retired as I had it on tap in Belgium in August, 2010.

Pours a clear, light brown. Quick dying head but it still manages to leave some streaky lace on the glass.

The aroma is very sweet: mostly brown sugars and maple syrup.

The sweetness on the tongue is not as strong as the smell suggests--it's not coy, but there's a strong maple syrup presence. There is no hop presence that I can detect. The alcohol, however, is quite evident, which is odd given the abv of 6.5%--it tastes far stronger than this. The carbonation is high and the relatively low body makes this a thin beer. It seems like the brewery added sucrose or some other adjunct.

Pours brown with virtually no head. Sweet and light tasting, had at cellar temperature. Better a tad cooler. A tad thin, though acceptable Belgian. Some chocolate malt. Toffee caramel. Light spice, malt ball with a tad licorice, roast, nutty. Better than an average American brown. Not a bad one for dessert.

A brown beer with a thin head that is a little creamy.

Smell of caramel that smells like coloring agent. There is a distinct sweet tartness that reminds me of tart cherries. The yeast gives the typical de Ryck smells that is fruity and a bit sour.

Taste is slightly sweet and has a light caramel and woody taste. Some tart cherries, that I always seem to relate to sour and caramel. The sour is just a little present. Together with the sweetness it makes a strange combination that I am not particulary fond of. Body is quite thin and aftertaste is dry and lingering sweet and tart.