beer_name: Verboden Vrucht  / Fruit Defendu (Forbidden Fruit)
text: 33cl bottle into 1/2-pint glass. BBE 23/03/07, today 17/01/06. Forbidden Fruit pours cloudy -- live yeast in the bottle -- with a half-finger foamy tan head over a dark amber body. Aroma is strongly malty in the Belgian style with undertones of grape, toffee, honey, wine, and lots of spirits...I'm also picking up a little wintergreen, which is an interesting touch. The first taste is quite smooth and weaker than one would expect from the nose. Scotchiness and spirits dominate but there is a little roastiness and grape and some bubblegum. Well-blended, with the aftertaste subtle and perhaps unambitious. Fruitiness is subdued and gets swamped by the spirits and sugar. The texture is heavy and thick and mildly acidic, with carbonation weak. Overall, this is decent, perfectly passable as a Belgian ale, but I wouldn't call it great. I feel like the bottle isn't doing is justice, though, and that on tap it would achieve a much more complex character.