2nd Anniversary Dubbel
Black Gold Brewery

473 mL can from the brewery; coded 102922 and served barely chilled.

Pours a deep brownish-bronze colour with brick red highlights; a deliberately rough pour produces more than two inches of foamy, khaki-tinted head that seeps away within five minutes or so. It leaves a modest smattering of spidery lace as it drops down to a frothy collar and otherwise sparse surface - looks about right for the style. The aroma is malt-forward, with caramelized sugars and honey coming through alongside notes of raisin bran, milk chocolate, date and fruitcake; the alcohol is discernible, but only a minor presence.

Tastes fine: there's some candi sugar sweetness, hints of honey and toasted malts, with a fair bit of dark fruit flavour as well, specifically raisin & date. A little bit of a fruit cake vibe going on, with banana bread, yeastiness and clove spiciness developing at the finish; yeasty aftertaste with slight booziness and quickly-fading dark fruit esters. Medium in body, with low carbonation and a smooth, slick mouthfeel that seems thin for the style. This makes it rather easy to toss back, but subtracts from the enjoyment of what is supposed to be a richer, more fulfilling experience.

Final Grade: 3.55, a decent B grade. If there's one Belgian beer style that I've (apparently) avoided lately, it's gotta be dubbels - I've ticked exactly two new dubbels in the last five years, most recently in 2020. In all fairness, the abbey styles have already been perfected by a handful of Belgian breweries, they're notoriously difficult to reproduce, and they don't seem terribly popular with modern craft beer consumers anyhow... so there cannot be much of an incentive for Ontario brewers to make them. Black Gold's 2nd Anniversary Dubbel is not a bad attempt, but their portfolio isn't going to suffer if they never brew another batch.