Hello guys.  For today’s craft beer review I’m going to be trying the Trappist Achel 8 Bruin produced by the Brouwerij der St. Benedictusabdij de Achelse located in Hamot-Achel, Belgium.

Nothing like an authentic Trappist brew to set the night off right.

I couldn’t find any type of commercial description on the website http://www.achelsekluis.org/, nor could I find any information anywhere else on the web, so we are just going to have to try this out and decide for ourselves what this beer is all about.

Let’s pour.

This Achel 8 Bruin comes in an 11.2 oz. bottle and has an ABV of 8.0%.

The beer poured a murky brown to burgundy color.  The cap was off white, decently sized, mostly creamy, soft and smooth.  The retention time was quite alright and the lacing was more than ok too.  Once the head settled it left a thin skim behind on top of the liquid.

The smell revealed wonderful hints of dark fruit.  Figs, dates and raisins.  Some spicy cloves were infiltrated by a delightful sour dough bread and that all too familiar Belgian yeast.  It had an almost “tea like” quality to the nose I thought.  As the brew warmed I began to detect hints of caramel sugar and touches of booze.  This nose was very, very well balanced and harmonized.  Really nice.

The taste was more of the same except that the alcohol was a bit more established.  Awesome dark fruit tones.  Figs, dates and raisins mixed with a pleasant bready goodness.  More of that smooth, silky and creamy Belgian yeast also.  The cloves sat right in the middle and only added to the overall complexity.  The caramel sweetness was more of an undertone that never got in the way.  One thing I noticed about this brew was the fact that it never became sharp or medicinal like some of the “American” Dubbels can be.  This beer tasted wonderful and was super well coordinated to say the least.

The mouthfeel was medium bodied.  Very smooth, dry, mostly creamy and chewy.  The carbonation was spot on and a good bit of warmth was felt for the entire drink.  The palate was convincingly drenched with flavor after each and every sip.

Man.  This is a beautiful and brilliant beer in my opinion.  It was so easy to drink too.  It had all of the proper goodness that one would expect from a Belgian Dubbel without ever becoming obtrusive or overbearing.  There’s really not a whole lot else to say except pick one of these up if you happen across a bottle.  I don’t think that you will be disappointed.  The Achel 8 Bruin may very well be the best Dubbel that I’ve tried up to this point.  I would love to pick up another bottle or two to sip on while I play guitar.  It seems like the right kind of beer for that sort of thing.  Could just be me though.

Thanks for reading and commenting folks.  I appreciate it.

Until next time.  Cheers.

Score:  4.5 out of 5
Grade:  A