Style: Dubbel with cherry
Brewery: Duvel Moortgat
Origin: Belgium
Size: 33cl
Alcohol: 8%
Price: 38kr
Systembolaget: 81722
Pierre Gobron and Chris Bauweraerts began home brewing in the late 1970s, before venturing into full-time beer production in 1986. The brewery was purchased by Duvel in 2006, and they currently export to 72 different countries. The 4 gnomes on the range of labels have their own names, with Marcel and Micheline depicted on this bottle. It has been brewed with 12% sour cherry concentrate. I’ve had this beer a number of times over the years, and it’s always been a favourite of mine, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to finally have it in a tasting. This beer was paired with 70% cacao chocolate from Nordic Chocolate.
This beer has a gorgeous deep red colour, with an off pink bubble bath style head that held for a long time. The aroma was dominated by sweet cherry, with very little else evident. It smelt wonderful, but it could be classed as a bit two-dimensional. The taste was more of the same, with the sweet cherry making up the majority of the taste. A small hint of biscuit, redcurrant, strawberry and citrus were in the background, but this was all about the cherry. The taste was short but sticky, with the thick body coating the lips well.
This is a great beer if you like cherry. It is so over powering with the cherry notes that if you’re a fan of the fruit, you will love this. The alcohol is so well hidden, it makes this very dangerous indeed! If you don’t like cherry, then I would avoid. I couldn’t drink many of these in a session, but it is great to break up the flavours during a session. I love it this though, and I’m looking forward to my next bottle!