New Belgium - Abbey Belgian Style Ale

Today I'll be drinking New Belgium's Abbey Belgian.  Abbey is a belgian dubbel that has won plenty of awards over the years.  It's brewed with an 'authentic' belgian yeast strain, bottle-conditioned, and registers 7% on the alcohichter scale.  New Belgium includes some recommended food pairings for this beer on their website.

The beer is a dark, translucent mahogany with a frothy tan head.  The lace sticks to the glass nicely.  Aromas rise out of the glass in waves - banana and honeycrisp apples first come to mind.  There is also some caramel malts in there and some alcohol in the background.  The taste takes a turn away from the fruits, and features a toasty, bready flavor up front.  Then come spicy cloves and a little woody, cedar flavor.  Towards the end, the bananas sneak back in for a brief moment, and then disappear just as quickly, leaving a relatively dry finish.  The body is lighter than I expected, and carbonation is on the heavy side. 

Overall Rating:  (3.6 out of 6.0)  This beer brought some nice flavors to the table.  But the body was too light, almost watery, so that detracted from the experience.  If you like Belgian Dubbels, this is a nice, inexpensive US interpretation, take it or leave it!