Val-Dieu Blond | Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu
Brewed by:
Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu
Belgium
val-dieu.com
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 6.00%
Availability: Year-round
Notes / Commercial Description:
No notes at this time.
Added by Bierman9 on 03-04-2002
View: Beers | Place Reviews | Events
Ratings: 200 | Reviews: 114
3.81/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
4.36/5 rDev +12.7%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
I've now had this twice. Nice flavor for a Blonde. First impressions are yeasty, musty, but finishes lemony with a hint of bitterness. Gets better as you drink more. An effective fizz and creaminess finish at the back in the end. Recommended.
243 characters
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
I've now had this twice. Nice flavor for a Blonde. First impressions are yeasty, musty, but finishes lemony with a hint of bitterness. Gets better as you drink more. An effective fizz and creaminess finish at the back in the end. Recommended.
243 characters
3.63/5 rDev -6.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
4.5/5 rDev +16.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
4.34/5 rDev +12.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
4.25/5 rDev +9.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
3.68/5 rDev -4.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75
3.76/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Hazy light yellow colour with a steady head of foam that keeps the surface covered the entire session. Nice gentle smell of light fruits like tangerine and peach, together with some hints of pine and malt. The taste is a balanced combination of light fruits from the esters, toast from the malts and resin and lemon zest from the hops. The tard tends too dominate a bit too much near the end though. The mouth feel is smooth, albeit a bit watery from time to time. Typical for this particular style: once again, a good belgian pale ale, once again, not a beer I'll have fond memories about. This category has a lot of fine beers, but lacks real standouts.
655 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Hazy light yellow colour with a steady head of foam that keeps the surface covered the entire session. Nice gentle smell of light fruits like tangerine and peach, together with some hints of pine and malt. The taste is a balanced combination of light fruits from the esters, toast from the malts and resin and lemon zest from the hops. The tard tends too dominate a bit too much near the end though. The mouth feel is smooth, albeit a bit watery from time to time. Typical for this particular style: once again, a good belgian pale ale, once again, not a beer I'll have fond memories about. This category has a lot of fine beers, but lacks real standouts.
655 characters
3.93/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Other than the Trappists, Abbaye du Val-Dieu is the only abbey to have a working brewery (per MJ.)
These Cistercians also too a liking to MJ and he to them.
Perhaps I Had this Blonde four times and usually in a mini-tulip from Val-Dieu. (I have two of these glasses from a sampler pack and very much like to use them both side by side to compare ales.)
MJ's "Great beers of Belgium" called this Blonde "crisp and clean, with an interplay of nutty maltiness, hoppy bitterness and earthy yeasty (faintly lemony?) acidity."
523 characters
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Other than the Trappists, Abbaye du Val-Dieu is the only abbey to have a working brewery (per MJ.)
These Cistercians also too a liking to MJ and he to them.
Perhaps I Had this Blonde four times and usually in a mini-tulip from Val-Dieu. (I have two of these glasses from a sampler pack and very much like to use them both side by side to compare ales.)
MJ's "Great beers of Belgium" called this Blonde "crisp and clean, with an interplay of nutty maltiness, hoppy bitterness and earthy yeasty (faintly lemony?) acidity."
523 characters
3.85/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
4.51/5 rDev +16.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
3.21/5 rDev -17.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
Bottle 330 ml | Best before end of 05-10-2017 | Bar code 5 413977 000013
Served in original Val-Dieu chalice
Appearance: Light yellow, Hazy [8 EBC] | 20 mm white foam head (middle density, not stable) | Almost no bubbles
Smell: Malt, Spicy a bit
Taste: Watery, Slightly bitter aftertaste, Not carbonated [Bitterness 18 IBU]
Mouthfeel: Light, watery
Overall: I would recommend to drink it well chilled with deep sips
416 characters
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
Bottle 330 ml | Best before end of 05-10-2017 | Bar code 5 413977 000013
Served in original Val-Dieu chalice
Appearance: Light yellow, Hazy [8 EBC] | 20 mm white foam head (middle density, not stable) | Almost no bubbles
Smell: Malt, Spicy a bit
Taste: Watery, Slightly bitter aftertaste, Not carbonated [Bitterness 18 IBU]
Mouthfeel: Light, watery
Overall: I would recommend to drink it well chilled with deep sips
416 characters
4.62/5 rDev +19.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
look: 5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
4.35/5 rDev +12.4%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
11.2 oz. stubby brown bottle poured into tulip
L: pale yellow, mostly clear with just a slight haziness, big head of white foam, about 2 inches and some of the coolest sticking you'll ever see; thousands of bubbles are churning in the glass, it's like nothing I've ever seen, and it's pushing up a constant 1/8- to 1/4-inch head of white foam that's lacing all the way down -- a perfect show
S: musty sweet fruit ... very Belgian, almost abbey ale sweet but a little lemon peel underneath; the earthy/musty aroma isn't quite on a farmhouse/brett level, not really that tart, but it does give the nose a nice complexity; hint of ginger; biggest thing is the musty earth aroma that subdues the sweetness ... it doesn't pop or explode but it's still incredibly nice, restrained and elegant
T: light malt sweetness and fruity; a pinch of clove, ginger ... not overly spicy but enough to detect; slight peach; as it warms, takes on a bigger clove taste, very tripel-like
F: creamy ... all that activity keeps a constant little head on top and it makes for a very soft but medium-weight feel ... a bit like a hefeweizen
O: really good brew, one I wouldn't mind revisiting from time to time; it's much sweeter than some others in its class with no major brettanomyces character that I can tell, but there is a little spicy flavor here and there, mostly a tripel-like clove.
1,376 characters
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
11.2 oz. stubby brown bottle poured into tulip
L: pale yellow, mostly clear with just a slight haziness, big head of white foam, about 2 inches and some of the coolest sticking you'll ever see; thousands of bubbles are churning in the glass, it's like nothing I've ever seen, and it's pushing up a constant 1/8- to 1/4-inch head of white foam that's lacing all the way down -- a perfect show
S: musty sweet fruit ... very Belgian, almost abbey ale sweet but a little lemon peel underneath; the earthy/musty aroma isn't quite on a farmhouse/brett level, not really that tart, but it does give the nose a nice complexity; hint of ginger; biggest thing is the musty earth aroma that subdues the sweetness ... it doesn't pop or explode but it's still incredibly nice, restrained and elegant
T: light malt sweetness and fruity; a pinch of clove, ginger ... not overly spicy but enough to detect; slight peach; as it warms, takes on a bigger clove taste, very tripel-like
F: creamy ... all that activity keeps a constant little head on top and it makes for a very soft but medium-weight feel ... a bit like a hefeweizen
O: really good brew, one I wouldn't mind revisiting from time to time; it's much sweeter than some others in its class with no major brettanomyces character that I can tell, but there is a little spicy flavor here and there, mostly a tripel-like clove.
1,376 characters
Val-Dieu Blond from Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu
3.87
out of 5
based on 200 ratings.
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25