Beer Review: Unibroue Maudite

After trying the Unibroue La Fin du Monde and loving it, I was excited to try the Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Maudite from Unibroue. A 4 pack of this beer ran me $9.99 which is OK for a Belgian style ale from a company such as Unibroue.

The color of this beer is a smooth dark brown color with a dark orange hue. The head is not huge like many other Belgian beers but it is sizable and really locks in the citrus smell for the duration of the glass. There's a steady stream of carbonation coming from the bottom of the glass indicative of a healthy amount of carbonation.

There's a medley of clean fruity smells that hit your nose immediately. Big citrusy notes present here; lemon and orange peel mostly. Some yeast smell definitely makes its way into your nose as well. Overall pleasant smell though it does remind me a bit of chemical cleaners... this seems to be a common theme with citrusy beers. Maybe its just my nose.

The taste is impressive. The citrus taste mirrors the smell and everything is wrapped up in a substantial, doughy malt backbone. This beer strikes an excellent balance of sweetness and other flavors with some dark fruit flavors coming through. To complete the package, everything is very crisp without being thin; truly a great mesh of flavors.

The body of this beer is excellent for an everyday drink; it's substantial but drinkable. This is definitely one of my favorite belgian style beers. Even at 8% abv, there is no hint of alcohol burn at all but you will certainly feel the effects of it after 2 beers. Not an amazing value at $9.99 + tax, but worth every penny.

Score: A-  4.0/5

Beer Review: Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

This beer is regarded, in the craft world as one of the best doppelbock's (a stronger version of a bock) produced. I picked up a 4-pack for $10.99 + tax. There's is actually a funny story behind this beer for me. When  I was down to my last beer of the bunch, I reached into the fridge to grab it and to my dismay I found a bottle covered with beer slush. Apparently the fridge was on full blast and the beer was close to the freezer unit so the beer froze, expanded and seeped out onto the bottle. I was able to salvage about 1/2 the bottle from this frozen one but the following review is based on a fresh beer (not frozen at any point). As for the beer itself...

The dark amber color looks like a glass of root beer until you see the modest head. It's enticing and though the head is not large, it is very creamy and sticks well to the side of the glass.

There is a whole lot going on in the smell here: tons of sweet, fruity flavors excite the sense. There is definitely a dominant dark fruit smell; maybe prunes, raisins or cherries. Not much hop smell here, but I wouldn't really expect any in the first place.

The first sip is a delightful melody of the aforementioned flavors; big complex raisin/plum flavor followed by sweet malts. There is a definite doughy taste to the malt, but the problem is that the doughy flavor does not correspond to a viscous consistency in the body. More on that later. There's a little bite of alcohol on the back end of the sip but that is really overshadowed by the sweetness of the beer. I really did love the first few sips but by the end of the glass I wasn't psyched about the flavor; it was a bit TOO sweet for me, I found, and while the flavors were robust, they were very separate and didn't meld particularly well together.

The body of this beer is, to be frank, is off. There is not a lot of carbonation and it's a very thin beer. I guess I was expecting sort of a viscous consistency and this was quite the opposite. I could have dealt with the little carbonation if there was any substance to the body, but alas, there was none. Even though the thin body makes it very easy to drink and the 6.7% alcohol is nowhere to be found, I wasn't wowed by any means. Definitely some disappointment here.

For the money I paid, and the hype surrounding it, I was expecting more from this beer. Maybe doppelbocks just aren't for me, but his beer left something to be desired.

Score: C+  3.25/5