Duvel

This is my first belgian strong ale, so this could be interesting, and I hope I like this because it was pretty expensive.

A little background info on Duvel -

To commemorate the end of World War I, the Moortgats named their main beer Victory Ale. But during the 1920s, an avid drinker described the beer as "nen echten duvel" (a real devil in Brabantian) - perhaps in reference to its formidable alcohol content (8.5% ABV) - and the name of the beer was changed to Duvel. It has become the brewery's flagship beer.[3] Considered by many the definitive version of the Belgian Strong Golden Ale style, Duvel is brewed with Pilsner malt and white sugar, and hopped with Saaz hops and Styrian Goldings, the yeast still stems from the original culture of Scottish yeast bought by Albert Moortgat during a prospection-tour in the U.K. just after WWI.

The bottle I have is the 750ML corked bottle. I'm hoping for a good pop from the cork, don't ask me why.

I know you have to pour it unhurriedly so I hope I do it correctly. This is just supposed to be a beautiful beer all around.


A - Can you say gunshot sounding when the cork is popped? Holy crap that was loud. I poured it unhurried just like they suggest. The beer is pale yellow. The bubbles are rising.. and never-ending. Pretty cool to watch this upside down waterfall. The head is gigantic. 3-4 fingers, and fluffy as a pillow. Lace is just stuck all over the glass. This is probably the best looking beer I have ever seen.

S - Powerful yeasty aroma with a slap in the face of hops and citrus. That's the best way for me to describe it. More specifically it smells like lemon, not orange. Has a flower like smell to it. It's nice.

T - The taste is like no beer I have ever tasted before. It's actually going to be kind of hard to describe. It's actually a little spicy, almost kind of peppery. Once you get past to that it hits you with the citrus. Coriander and lemon. The hop smell is barely traceable in the taste, in my opinion. It's got a real dry smooth finish to it, and the aftertaste is barely noticeable. The alcohol isn't disgustingly high, but at 8.5%, I figured I'd get at least a taste of it. I'm glad I'm not. I like it much better this way.

M -Very crisp, and super carbonated. It's almost like a champagne on the tongue, it's so bubbly. Like I said before, the finish is pretty dry, smooth, and refreshing all at the same time. All that complicated stuff aside, surprisingly, it's light bodied which brings me to the next category of drinkability.

D - Due to it being low bodied and just amazing, makes this an ideal drinkable beer. It's so drinkable that I would say it's borderline dangerous because of the alcohol level. I'd definitely advise to try to take it easy, although you can definitely get caught up drinking a few of these. I'm going to be guilty of finishing this entire bomber much quicker than I had planned. I'm going to cut this review short now so I can get to finishing the beer!

Duvel.. plain and simple. Worth every penny. Don't let the price tag fool you.
This beer is two thumbs up. No doubt. If I were a deformed freak, three thumbs up.