La Trappe Dubbel (Koningshoeven / Dominus)
From a classy bottle desigin, this beer is a deep ruby color with a head struggling to stay aloft. Ends up looking a little limp in the glass. Smell is a small rummy scent over a smoothly aromatic malt foundation that screams "Belgian." A cotton-soft and demurely sweet dark fruitiness is here and there. Tastes like a raisin, pure and simple. That descriptor is oft employed for the style but never has it fit so succinctly. Unfortunately little other characterisitics shine through as the malt is serene in other areas, with a barely bready undertone before the raisin flavor and small amounts of toasty-roasty roughness in the finish. Fairly sweet with few yeast inflections besides a baseline fruitiness of darker types. I expected a few more Belgian-like peculiarities. Carbonation was fairly low and the mouthfeel was moderate and clean with just a hint of girth. Drinkability was through the roof because while it lacked much in the way of overall complexity it greatly made up in appreciable simplicity of flavor and ease of quaffing. Nary a bite of alcohol or other obnoxious faults. Pure and simple.