Brune
Dageraad Brewing

As I survey the other Poo-Bah reviews, I sense that Dageraad is improving on this recipe. This is praise as many micros give up on the style because it takes too much time (often decades) to emulate the Belgian masters. The big obstacle is usually the Belgian yeast. And Dageraad is almost there with the complete package.

This Brune starts with a pretty active yeast that both kicks up a healthy foam and a few protein swirls. Smells are are mostly figs. Tastes follow closely although it has a nice tang in the finish. Medium-mouthed.

But the real story for me is Dageraad Brewing (which is named after an area in Antwerp that, let's say, celebrates life.) I will hold back on the superlatives until I drink one of their pales. But I am totally impressed by their website. Read their story. As well-written and heart-felt as anything I've found in my intense scouring of micro-brewdom. Dageraad's dedication to the Belgian brewing tradition is as intense as any as I've found in North America (and I seek it out as priority.) The depth and breadth of that passion I will review when I find one a Dageraad pale. A votre sante'. Op uw gezondheid !

Poured at fridge temp. Pours an opaque brown with an inch of head. Nose is figs, toffee, huge bready malts, yeast, and raisins.

The taste is excellent. Sweet malts, caramel, oak, pine hops, figs, Belgian yeast, slight maple, and a strong floral/earthy note.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and ends with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Dageraad Brewing 'Brune' @ 7.5% , served from a 650 ml bottle
A-pour is a cola brown from the bottle to a dark amber in the glass with a medium size light tan head leaving a spotty lace along the goblet
S-hints of caramel
T-sweet start , dark fruits dominate , slight spicy finish
MF-ok carbonation , feels full bodied
Ov-no wow factor
prost LampertLand

Hazy orange-brown color. Poured a very tall head that collapsed into peaks and valleys within a minute and then to a low head after a few more minutes. High flow of fine bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Left small dots of lace.

Very malty smell with a very light horseblanket. Some sweet, dark dried fruit. Some yeast comes through. Overall much like a Christmas pudding with some yeasty funk. Swirling the glass kicked up a bit more horseblanket and a sweet toffee.

Strong Christmas pudding heavy malt flavor. Somewhat sweet for a beer, not so sweet compared to an actual pudding. Some dark dried fruit showed up. There is a light-medium bitter that builds up after warming in my mouth for a while. I couldn't taste any hop flavors, so it is like the bitters are coming from the dark roasted malt. The aftertaste is a strong burst of bitters and yet more malt and then it seems to get sweeter. Some over-ripe banana showed up closer to the end.

Tongue tingling as it grew to a thick foam that never quite made it to a creamy texture. The bubbles eventually grew to be rather coarse. Heavy body. My tongue was still tingling long into the aftertaste.

Normally this style would be one of my go-to beers, but something in the flavor was a bit off-putting. The malt was a bit too intense to be really enjoyable. The bitters also seemed out of place.

As an experiment I used this to make a radler using Sanpellegrino Pompelmo in a 1:1 ratio. This was excellent. Much heavier than a standard radler, but very refreshing. The result was both stronger and more balanced bitter and sweet, but the malt was thinned out. The fresh grapefruit made a nice blend with the darker fruit in the beer.

L: Slightly cloudy; big firm head that lingers with light lacing.,
S: Sweet and figgy,. slightly metallic undertones (glass bottle tho)
T: Syrupy and rich,. wisps of figs and dates,. ABV of 7.,5 doesn't bite
F Big carbonation, takes a little time to settle it down.,
O: I will draw from this well again.,
Nicely complex ; and the use of Belgian yeast and Euro hops makes it close close close to a real Belgian., Impressive

OVERALL: A new world take on a classic Belgian dubbel, with honey and, ripe bananas flavours balanced by a bitter toffee aftertaste.

Appearance: Hazy light brown colours and a cloudy beige head with a medium hold.
Aroma honey/sweet figs and ripe banana with a slight phenolic note thanks to the Trappist yeast.
Taste: banana, caramel, hot and slightly medicinal phenols familiar to many Belgian ale.
Mouthfeel light but viscous body with high carbonation, a bit of alcohol heat.
Finish lingering heat with a bitter toffee aftertaste.

Serving Style: 650ml bottle

 

 

650 ml bottle from Brewery Creek Liquor Store.

A: Hazy brown with beige head.
S: Figgy and sweet.
T: Cooked figs, brown sugar, overripe banana.
F: Overly fizzy.

 

Decent brune. Nice appearance, rich, fairly sweet, with a slight hint of figs in the underlying dark fruit flavour. Could even be a little more punchy with the figs. Found it to be slightly too carbonated to be a nice slow sipper.

650ml bottle - referred to as a 'Belgian Abbey-style Dubbel' by the brewery, and made with mission figs, which is something that I suppose I'll have to freaking look up - oh, so religious zealot figs, got it.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick amber colour, with a near-teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and yet fizzy beige head, which leaves a bit of sudsy hanging land-bridge lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, dark generic orchard fruit (figs? meh), bruised banana, free-range brown sugar, an earthy Belgian yeastiness, and some plain weedy, leafy, and gently perfumed floral hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a lesser biscuity toffee thing, some muddled domestic and Middle Eastern dark fruitiness (overripe bananas and Fig Newtons - RIP, who knew? - mostly), candi sugar, a retreating Low Countries yeasty character, and more underdeveloped leafy, weedy, and floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is rather aggressive in its poking and prodding frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, with a nice airy creaminess not at all shy from the get-go. It finishes well off-dry, the big caramel malt and attendant fruity notes keeping this one barely between the ditches, as such.

Overall, Dageraad once again more or less nails the Belgian style that they are trying to emulate - dubbels always kind of confound me, in what they're really supposed to be all about, but here, it's a pleasantly robust malt, subtle fruit ingress (including the guest blessed figs), all sort of balanced by yeast, wan hops, and a yet-unseen 15-proof booziness. I guess it all works, especially on Christmas Eve.