My neighbor Doug was a judge for the Belgian table at our homebrew contest, and commented that he really liked a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. I had never had one before, so I started researching the style and decided to brew my own. I also purchased two commercial versions of the style, including the Brothers Thelonious shown in my previous post.
Belgians in general aren't my favorite style, as I don't care for the Belgian yeast flavors sometimes. But in these dark strong versions, he yeast flavor can be balanced with the complex flavors of darker grains, giving some prune and malty flavors.
My version is on the light side of the style, as shown below. Dark only refers to the fact it is "more deeply colored than golden."
This is the first taste of mine, and it is very young at only two weeks in the bottle. But I really like it. If anything, I like it better than the Brothers Thelonious. It has a bit of alcohol warmth that should mellow out with age, but it more complex and rich in flavor, so some of the belgian yeast flavors are muted. I also nailed the carbonation level.
I'm looking forward to trying some bottles in three months.
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