It’s been a year now since Anderson Valley beers started showing up in Georgia, and ended my long hiatus from this brewer. In fact, I just enjoyed a mug of the very malty Boont Amber Ale at Taco Mac last night, the first time I’ve enjoyed a draft AV brew. In the meantime, we’ve also started getting Sprecher beers here, which really has nothing to do with Anderson Valley, except that these are brewers I have long loved and hoped to have access to. If we could only get Deschutes, Great Lakes, and Narragansett I would be a very happy man indeed.

Anyway, in addition to the regular AV beers we are now enjoying, some of their specialty brews are showing up to, including Anderson Valley Brother David’s Double. Now, I have a brother David, though that’s not the reason I bought the beer. I just happen to really enjoy Belgian-style abbey dubbels, and new Av would probably crank out a good one. I was right on that.

Like all Anderson Valley beers, the 22-ounce bottles of Brother David’s Double sport those funny looking creatures on the label. You know, the bears with antlers? Deer have antlers, of course. And if you crossed a bear with a deer, you might get a bear with horns. What would you name such a creature? Hmmm. Bear. Deer. Beer! That’s what I would call it anyway.

Brother David’s Double is a potent Abbey Dubbel indeed at 9% alcohol by volume. Most of the examples of the style that I have run across usually clock in around 8% or so. I paid $7.99 for my bomber bottle. Ingredients from the brewery website:

MALTS:

Pale Two-Row, Munich (20L), Aromatic, Special B, Chocolate (415L)

HOPS:

Columbus, Saaz, Goldings

And detail from the label:

Brewed in a cloistered nook of remote Anderson Valley, this handcrafted Belgian-style strong ale may be the closest you’ll ever get to heaven on earth (sic). Made in very limited quantity, it is malty, tangy and a little wild, it si sure to raise your spirits. We suffered to brew this enormously complex beer so you can enjoy it completely guilt free.

Anderson Valley Brother David’s Double pours to a murky brown color with a thick and very creamy head formation of tightly packed bubbles and a deliciously inviting nose of banana, chocolate, and toasted nuts. Taking a sip, the beer is as tasty on the palate as the nose promised: I get more of the chocolate but in a subtle way, with dark, very toasty-nutty malt, banana, vanilla, and a bit of yeasty funk. I really like the yeasty funk in the finish where it intensifies. The beer is very smooth and drinkable, and doesn’t seem as strong as it is at first, but becomes boozier as it warms. I get an ever so subtle phenolic note, too.

What a wonderful abbey dubbel style ale, it’s easy to see why it won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer festival in 2011. Give it a try, you’ll certainly be glad you did. 4.5.



Home