The Beer with Muscles but its not from Brussells (Duvel)

Member Name: wtwildcats

Product:	Duvel
Date:	08/12/02 (1060 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Distinctive taste, Easy Drinking

Disadvantages: Price

Hello, and welcome one and all to an alcohol opinion. I'm going to be giving my thoughts on Duvel beer.

Well, the beer is brewed in a place called Breendonkdorp in Belgium, but I do apologise for stating the obvious LOL.

Its a wheat-like beer, and is bottle conditioned, which means that when you buy a bottle of it, there will be little bits in the drink. These bits are generally bits of yeast which continues to ferment the beer whilst in the bottle. Theoretically then, you could lay this bottle down for a while, and drink a more refined beer months down the line.

But why wait? Its tastes blinking lovely already. Unlike most British bottle conditioned ales, the "bits" should be poured into the glass and drunk with the beer. This adds to the all round flavour of Duvel.

PACKAGING

You can get this on draught, but only in a very small number of outlets in the UK, and to be honest, the bottled variety is good as good, if not better. So, bottles are found at a load of supermarkets, are are 330ml dark brown glass bottles. However, why I am drinking this one, well, its because in Sainsburys now they are doing 750ml sie bottles of this stuff, but obviously its more expensive. (Prices will follow.) The bottles have a white label with the word "Duvel" on it, and a fair bit of writing in a few european languages, including English.

PRODUCT

This is a very lively drink. Pour it into your glass with some care, because you will end up with a massive head at it can last for absolutely ages, and more importantly, if you pour the beer too fast, you will look a prat in front of your mates, and they will mock you.

Duvel itself is a pale golden colour and it smells of erm... Duvel beer. Its hard to describe it, but this smell is typical of Belgian Trappist beers, even though its not a genuine Trappist beer.

The laste is light and fruity, and has no lingering afterta
ste. You can te
ll you've drunk beer, but thats about all really. There's no bitterness - as mentioned in the disdvantages above, this beer is almost lagery. (Only joking about that being a disadvantage.)

The strength is typically Belgian though. At 8.5% ABV, its not a session beer. In fact its not easy to find in pubs anywhere - whether bottled or draught. It's not a trendy drink, and quite rightly so - its too strong for that.

Overall this beer is a nice drink. I drank this to unwind after a terrible week at work, in the knowledge that next week will provide more tension than this one, and the week after that will be even worse. What a nice run up to Christmas.

Well, thats all part of being a Trade Union Rep, an EHO, and a Local Government Officer I suppose. So, watch out for more beer type ops - there may be loads to come :(

Would I buy another 750ml bottle of Duvel - NOPE !!

The beer is lovely - really, a lot of people would like this - but at £3.25, I think it was for a 750 ml bottle, and at around £1.30 for a 330 ml bottle, its cheaper to go small.

Thanks for reading this.

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