Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at New Belgium's Abbey Belgian Style Ale.

I picked this beer up in Chicago the day after Pesach. At the time, I was on the fence about whether to buy this beer since I had gone down to Binny's with a game plan of buying Shiner and Sprecher beer. Since I am a fan of Abbey Ales and had never tried the New Belgium version, I took the plunge and added the Abbey Ale to my cart. When I tried it at home, I began to wish I had bought a 12 pack instead of just a six'er.

The Abbey Ale is classified by the experts at BA as a Dubbel which they define as:

[A] rich malty beer with some spicy / phenolic and mild alcoholic characteristics. Not as much fruitiness as the Belgian Strong Dark Ale but some dark fruit aromas and flavors may be present. Mild hop bitterness with no lingering hop flavors. It may show traits of a steely caramel flavor from the use of crystal malt or dark candy sugar. Look for a medium to full body with an expressive carbonation.

The Abbey Ale poured a dark brown - darker than a Newcastle but not as ebony as Guinness. The pour yielded a small amount of foam and a little lacing on the glass. My first sip of the beer made me take notice of the maltiness. However what really struck me was how rich and well balanced this beer was. I immediately said to Mrs. Kosher Beers (we were having Sunday Night supper) that this is the best new beer that I have tried in a very long time. After a sip, she agreed with me as well.

This beer would go well with London broil and other rich (non charred) meats. Mrs KB comments that the Abbey Ale would go well with anything and I have to agree. I could even see this beer pairing well with sponge cake! Given the high alcohol content (7% abv) I cannot see having more than one or two of these at a meal, but if you are lucky enough to pick up some you can experiment with your own pairings.

New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale is under the Kosher Supervision of the Scroll-K of Colorado. Although the beer does not bear the kosher symbol on the label, it can be found on the bottom of the six pack carrier. Additionally, if you would like me to e-mail you the LOC for New Belgium Abbey Ale, send me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

Please note that not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision. Please click on the link on the left side of my home page to see my latest Kosher Beer List.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/1912 . As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!