Dark Ale

Brouwerij Achilles was unknown to me a week ago. I happened upon a dusty bottle of this Serafijn Celtic Angel at the store and thought I'd give it a try. The bottle has all the markings of an eccentric Belgian brewery, it's label is Spartan and the colors are faded, the spelling looks familiar but there are a few extra Js in there... and it's in a 750 with a foil wrap around the top. What little information the label does contain identifies this as a Belgian Dark Ale. After pouring the beer and taking a few sips I'm convinced this is really more of a light dark ale... if that makes any since. The As a lighter version of a Belgian dark ale this beer the Celtic Angel had all of the basic flavor elements of a dark ale, just in lesser quantities and potency. Yes this beer is sour, citrusy and malty, but all of these flavors are mellowed out quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, this beer isn't watered down, just mellowed out.

Unibroue's Terrible is anything but terrible. I went into this beer expecting it to max out on the fermentable flavor chart like some quadrupels that I've had, but it is really much more tame than I'd thought. This really does work to the beer's advantage. Because the Terrible isn't at the extreme end of the flavor spectrum, you can really pick up on all of the layers in this beer. Most noticeable up front is the roasted, almost dark chocolate, base of this beer. There is a bit of spice up front which is what makes this beer so reminiscent of a quadrupel. Under all that spice and roasted malt is a sweet component that mellows everything out on the aftertaste. Don't get me wrong, this beer still packs quite a punch at 10.5% but it's put together in such a way that you could drink the whole bottle without coating your palate in fermented spice.