Brought to you by:
BrewTools Homebrewing iPhone App

Latest Reviews

Double Dry Hopped pseudoSue
Toppling Goliath
Modus Vivendi
Wild Beer Co.
Spaceman
Brewfist

Recent Articles

Shameless
Craft brewer sellouts become as tone-deaf and underhanded as their new overlords. Great Taste Eve
Check out the burgeoning Madison beer scene the night before the best fest in country. Good Beer Makes Good Conversation
The effects of drinking beer worth talking about. The Beers of Walmart
The largest retailer in the world now has its own line of beers. Our Take on the Lagunitas-Heineken Deal
Fuck Lagunitas. archives »

Beer Reviews

Phat Abbot Belgian Dubbel

Arbor Brewing
Ann Arbor, MI
USA
http://arborbrewing.com

Style: Abbey Dubbel
ABV: 9.0%

Eddie’s Rating:
   (Outstanding within its style.)


Comments:
On my latest trip to Michigan I brought home two beers from Arbor Brewing, Sacred Cow IPA and tonight’s beer du jour, Phat Abbot Belgian Dubbel. You’re not going to find too many brews like a bona fide Belgian dubbel. Dark and wine-like, they usually come with a hefty ABV (Phat Abbot’s is a whopping 9 percent) and a thick, estery body. The definitive dubbel is the famous Chimay Red, one of the world’s great beers. I have to say I wasn’t expecting a brew from an otherwise nondescript central Michigan brewery to throw out a take on the style that could sit alongside the Chimay.

Phat Abbot pours a dark, slightly viscous copper with a perfect finger’s height of a tan, sticky head. The nose is huge, leading off with loads of Belgian-yeast spiciness, plums, and toffee-like roasted malt. On deep sniffs, hints of that 9 percent ABV scurry in the background.

The sip puts the “phat” in the beer’s name. A big, fat body sporting a medium, unobtrusive mouthfeel could easily stand up to rich food like roast beef and wild game, but this boldness never comes close to making it hard to drink. The star is sumptuous, roasted toffee malts, backed by raisiny esters. This is one brew that you absolutely have to let warm to cellar temps, up around 55° to 60°. That’s when the rich maltiness comes out in full force to play with the dark fruit notes, along with a hint of that big ABV, to create a complex, immensely enjoyable drink.

Finally. A Phatty I can get into …

Reviewed by Eddie Glick on October 8, 2008.

Drinkin’ And Thinkin’

Beer Dorks News

R.I.P. Tallgrass... another casualty as the regional/national craft beer market continues to get squeezed. Wait... Constellation Brands cut all of the Ballast Point and Funky Buddha sales staff? They merged it with their Corona/Modelo staff?? We're SHOCKED!!! Pizza Beer founder crying about failure of company, blames everyone else. Reminder, the beer tasted like vomit. Try having better ideas or making better products so you're not a failure. It's Bud Light so doesn't really matter, but we expect this beer to be sitting around for awhile. Indiana brewery to open with controversial beer names to "get the conversation going". Translation: taking advantage of serious issues for free publicity. Hundreds of amazing beers in Wisconsin and the Cubs took back the one everyone drinks just because it exists and people have heard of it. How fitting... New Green Flash owners tab former AB exec to lead "turnaround". Gosh, wonder what his plan is... Pop quiz... Which of these entities is more washed up and irrelevant: ABInBev-owned Elysian or 80's pop-rock band Def Leppard? Need proof that the World Beer Cup is a joke? Hamm's won a medal this year. Yes, THAT Hamm's... Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Budweiser has slandered the good name of George Washington.