Bornem Double Abbey Ale – Brouwerij Van Steenberge

I'm not a big fan of Abbey ales. That's what I've always told people and myself. They weren't for me.  Then I started this website and started doing beer tastings. And doing these beer tastings of different beer styles is when I started to really taste beer. A friend of mine gave me a variety pack of various Belgian ales, one being the Bornem Double Abbey ale from Brouwerij Van Steenberge.  I read the label - Double Abbey Ale - and thought that this is a beer that I would not like and prepared to write-up a poor review.  The opposite is what happened.  I actually enjoyed this beer. You can see from the picture that when I poured this ale into the snifter, it formed a nice head. It was large, frothy, light brown in color and dissipated slowly.  The color of the beer is a ruby red/brown and it has slow carbonation. I smelled the beer and I could pick up the maltyness and the sweetness of it.  I couldn't pick up the hops. The initial sip of the beer is the hit of sweetness with caramel notes.  The finish brings the malt and the banana notes with the alcohol taste on the backend. It doesn't linger on your palate, which I do like about this beer. This is an enjoyable beer. Don't judge a beer by it's style. You need to taste it first! I recommend going out of your comfort zone when trying beer. What you think you don't like, you may be totally wrong about.  It is great to "discover" a new style of beer. It will add  variety to your selection. ABV= 8.0%