Dubbel or Nothing
Monkless Belgian Ales - The Brasserie

Draft at Monkless in Bend. Poured a dark amber color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sticky lacing. It smelled of earthy notes, caramel, toffee and spices. Great malty taste with spices, caramel and toffee.

 

Poured from 500mL corked & caged bottle into my BeerAdvocate teku.

Appearance: body is a murky pale-brown hue with like three fingers of frothy tan foam atop. Bottle conditioning is a hell of a thing!

Smell: sweet malt with a rather bready, nutty aroma. There's also a little dash of fruitiness to the works, presumably from a Belgian yeast strain. I like it.

Taste: bready, toasty, biscuity malt, with rather a lot of sweetness. A caramelly treat, although I think I could do with a bit less of the biscuity character.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a big carbonation and a large and lively creaminess.

Overall: well made and within style guidelines, I just don't care as much for the biscuit-malt-forward examples of the dubbel. So not a bad beer, but not really suited to my taste.

draught
IBU: 23
Sustaining, creamy, ivory head. Medium caramel, with a bit of a reddish auburn tint to it. A bit of a sweet, medium toast malt and a little spiced caramel character, to the smell. Moderate level of a bold and somewhat sharp herbal character to the taste. A light amount of a non-sweet toasted caramel flavor, rounds out the taste.

500ml bottle. Dark brown, murky, patchy head. Aroma is a bouquet of raisins, brown sugar, plums, wood. Taste stays on target, sweet, pit fruit, yeasty, oak. Spot on.

Poured into the Orval chalice. Handsome clear auburn color with plenty of foam to start, leaving a wispy mustache. Very spritzy and lively on the tongue. An interesting contrast with the nutty and sweet yeasty malt flavors. Tastes of brown sugar and raisins, but with the drying trend and not overly sweet. It's that candy flavor, though, and a funny green herbal taste that is less than pleasing. This would require the right occasion for tippling. From the 50 ml bottle.

Bought from Woodman's Kenosha and poured into one of my many St. Feullien tulips. (Note: samplers with the brewer's tulips have a positive marketing impact on me.)

I'm sharing another theory of mine with the brewing blogsosphere: North American crafters do not excel in the dubbel because they have yet to discover the subtleties of the Dubbel's yeast. Only 3 of the 10 top-rated dubbels on BA are North American. None of the North Americans are in the same league as the masters from Belgium. Two factors lead to my conclusion. First, the controlled use of brewers' sugar is a skill that usually takes more than a generation to learn and pass down. Second and more important, the yeast is key and it only generates the subtleties of a great dubbel after years of practice.

Whether you agree with my theory or not, the price/quality ratio of Maudite and Ommegang's (the North Americans in the Top 10 rated dubbels) are considerably better values than Monkless has produced. There is no need to cork and cage Monkless' rendition; these high-end techniques do not hide how this dubbel needs to improve.

Being a Belgo-phile, I want to like Monkless. But even with tasting only four of their brews, their marketing still exceeds their grasp of the monk's tradition and, in particular, their cultivation and maintenance of yeast.

That said, Dubbel or Nothing has good foam, but it does not last or swirl (signs that the dubbel is still very much alive and working on the malt to taste like fruit.) Smells produce little above average. Tastes are more balanced in that they do not become too sweet; but also not distinct. In my mouth, the high bubbles suit this Dubbel best for the table... but it will not enrich a simple meal. That insight is what monk brewing gave us.

 

 

 

2021-03-12
Sample glass at the brewery.

Pours a deep amber, slight haze, small fine head. Smell is licorice and dates, moderately sweet.

Taste is dates and toast, bready dark fruit.

Mouthfeel is medium, light and airy. Overall, pretty good.

500ml corked and caged bottle from Lifesource Natural Grocers in Salem OR $7.99 A ferocious pour no matter how careful i am..3/4 glass full of creme coloured thick bubbly head..below the monster head its a nice chestnut brown beer. aroma is fruity..sultanas, plums, banana and a little earthy...Also getting a bit of ginger and toast. Taste is much the same except for a wee bit of chocolate and a large dose of candy sugar,.. Mouth feel is fine..could use more carbonation to cleanse the sweetness. Not the best attempt at the style..a bit of a let down to be honest

a fine dubbel for an american brewer, which is to say the yeast is unexciting and samey, not old worldy and particularly unique to the brewery, but a well executed beer that checks all the boxes, its just the least dynamic and compelling beer we had in here, the most forgettable, even though its pretty good. a shade lighter in color than some, and the head settles fast. the aroma here is sweet and dark fruity, with things like raisin and date, fruit sugar character from the grain, some molasses and maple notes, dried apple too maybe, familiar belgian yeast esters. the flavor and mouthfeel of this are surprisingly full for the slightly lighter color, palate coating even, perhaps a little more residual sugar than it needs, but its pleasant. more of the dried fruit, rum, toffee, plum, caramel, definitely get some added dark candy sugar here, subtle wood and earthiness somehow too, and a slow fading finish thats less intense on the belgian yeast tones than it smells like it should be. smooth and drinkable, a little lighter on carbonation than i like in these, but a nicely proportioned beer overall. i found almost all the others we had here to be a little bit more dynamic, but there isnt a bad beer in here as far as i am concerned...

edit: on tap many years later it still seems a little less refined to me than their best, subtle cocoa and tobacco depth, red wine fruitiness, and a lot of belgian yeast character, but also kind of heavy to me, without as much life in terms of carbonation as the best of them, and frankly not a standout in their lineup, but im glad these guys exist and are selling in idaho now, more belgian beer the better! bonus points because my mom liked it and she loves good belgian beer. leaving scores as they were, think i got this one right the first time around...

Poured into a Gulden Draak tulip. Pours a slightly hazy reddish orange with a fine, two finger ivory head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of caramel malt, mild citrus, brown bread, lightly spicy. Flavor is dry candi malt, brown bread, light caramel, vague citrus and hints of stone fruit; finishes with dry dark bread and rye notes. Medium bodied with sharp, active carbonation. A pleasant, obviously Belgian inspired ale, but not really a dubbel to my palate, more like a Belgian dark ale, similar to some of the Belgians Unibroue makes for Trader Joe's, but more dry. I like the dark bready notes, but a bit drier than I expected from the name. I like Monkless, but this one was not my favorite from them. Perhaps with a name change….

 

 

Another find on Tavour. This truly tastes like a Belgium.

Pour: Rich red-brown with a slighty off-white head standing 5 inches tall no matter how slow and delicately I poured. Pillowly light in texture which never faded.

Smell: Mild with malt and slight citrus undertone.

Taste: Malt dominates. Reminds me of Chimay. Clean, crisp, simple but good.

Overall a very drinkable beer. Nothing wild, but classically good.