Let me tell you a little story about Grimbergen Dubbel, a beer they now call Grimbergen Double Ambrée. The first time I tried this beer (and fell in love with it) was after a trip to Montreal. The hotel in which we stayed had a mall beneath it, and that mall included a boutique liquor store with a wide array of beers I had never tried before. I purchased a number of beers to take back home on the plane to Rhode Island.

Mind you, this was the early nineties, and although security was not as stringent as it is today, I was still concerned about getting my beer home legally. I wrapped each bottle in socks and underwear, which not only provided a cushion against breakage from turbulence, but also discouraged customs from bothering it. Anyway, my bottle of Grimbergen Dubbel survived the trip and I enjoyed it when I got home.

Grimbergen Dubbel/ Double Ambrée is a product of the Belgian brewery Alken-Maes, which is owned by Scottish-Newcastle, which itself is a division of Carlsberg Heineken. The beer business is getting quite complicated these days my friends. In any event, here’s what the brewery says about this beer:

In the Middle Ages, regular beer brewers were far more heavily taxed than abbeys. Therefore, the Grimbergen Fathers used refined raw materials of a higher quality. Combining exclusive ingredients with their brewing expertise, they created Grimbergen Double-Ambrée, a dark-coloured amber ale with bittersweet flavours and hints of caramel, dried plums and double-fermented malts and hops. The beer was so delicious that people said it had “double” the taste!

Ingredients from the website:

Water, barley malt, glucose syrup, wheat malt, spice flavourings, aromatic caramel, hop extract

Grimbergen Dubbel/ Double Ambrée is an abbey ale, meaning it is made after the trappist fashion but not actually in a monastery. The beer has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume with 22 IBUs and I paid $7 for an 11-ounce glass at Taco Mac in Canton. This was the first time I had seen the beer in many years. They call it Grimbergen Dubbel on the draft list.

My glass of Grimbergen Dubbel/ Double Ambrée arrived a dark brown color with a healthy tan head formation and a soft luscious nose of dark cookie malt. Taking a sip, the beer offers more of the soft dark nutty malt flavors found in the nose along with a hint of spice (anisette?), dark plummy fruit and a bit of yeasty funk. The finish is soft and gently sweet leaning.

What a tasty brew! I see again why I fell in love with it so long ago, and while not the best example of a dubbel in the world, it is a solid one and oh so enjoyable. I’ll be looking for it in the bottle now, so definitely a re-buy beer for me.  



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