Stift Engelszell: Benno (Austria: Dubbel: 6.9% ABV)
Visual: Reddened brown, with a just slightly hazy body. Thin off white dash of a head and no real visible carbonation.
Nose: Brown sugar. Slight cherries. Wet oak.
Body: Brown bread. Charred bitterness. Brown sugar. Liquorice. Vanilla custard. Light fruity esters. Crushed Blackpool rock sweets. Dried banana. Slight palma violets.
Finish: Liquorice. Clean sheen on the tongue. Light nut oils. Slight hop oils. Dried banana. Palma violets.
Conclusion: This, well, reasonable. I’m probably judging it too harshly as I am comparing to the classic six (now five, with the moving of Achel to not official Trappist approved thingy) Trappist breweries. Each one of them was a mind blowing experience when I first encountered them as younger me (Ok, Le Trappe less so in general but still had some stand out bangers). This is good, enjoyable, decent range but … and maybe I am just blasé in my old age, but I cant imaging this blowing young me’s mind in the way, say, Westmalle dubbel did.
Ok, let’s put all that aside and view it as a beer in itself.
There is a recognisable dubbel style here, brown sugar is present and, in the aroma, at least, cherry notes. It is lighter than most Belgian takes – not in the super smooth way that USA takes it, just more restrained in general. While not my favorite take, it does have some plus points in that it lets subtle nuttiness and hop oils come out where they would normally otherwise be overwhelmed, but overall it makes for a less intense and less interesting beer for me.
There is a lot of the familiar Belgian style beer notes, even subtle fruity esters and some remaining raw sugar notes, but being more restrained it often feels quite bready and with that just robust rather than rewarding and I need to get more than that from a beer that is nearly 7% abv. I expect big rewards from the flavor if I am drinking the extra alcohol
Decent, just not exciting.
Background: I freaking love Trappist beers, they are one of the beer, well not styles, beer … collections? that when I encountered in the early 20s blew my mind on what beer could be. Back when I first got into them there were six breweries allowed to use the Authentic Trappist Product marker that says the products are made in/near the monastery, done by or directly with the monks and to support the Trappist order or its goals. Since then there have been I think 14 Trappist breweries, three of which cannot use the ATP marker for various reasons, one of which has closed, most of which I have tried at least one beer from. This is one of the few I had not tried. Now there is just the Italian Fontane Abbey I have not tried out of ones with the ATP marker, and Mont Des Cats and Cerveza Cadena which are not ones that can use the ATP marker. Not bad overall. Anyway I recently tried the Quadrupel from this brewery and found kind of meh, but decided to give them another go with this, and do notes on it this time. This was found at Independent Spirit and drunk while listening to Wintersun: Time I – a friend had recommended them so thought this would be a good time to give them a go.
