Leffe Bruin (Leffe Brown) is an authentic abbey beer with a deep, autumnal brown color and a full, slightly bittersweet taste, both thanks to the dark roasted malt. Experienced tasters will discover a creamy taste with aromas of coffee, vanilla, cloves and other roasted aromas, where brown sugar and caramel can also be discretely used. Named after – and allegedly the favourite tipple of – the Habsburg emperor Charles V, Gouden Carolus is a full-bodied dark brown ale with a sour and slightly fruity aftertaste. Brewed in the Flemish town of Mechelen. 7. Delirium Tremens (9%) Finally to Leffe Triple, brewed to a full 8.5%. This is still not the strongest of the Leffe brews, there is a 9% brew around, but I’ve not managed to find that yet.8.5% should still be strong enough to be a cause for some reverence.

Leffe Blond shouldn’t be too hard to find. I don;t know whether you have an outlet called “Total Wine” up there, but they more than likely carry it. Where I am in Maryland, it’s easy to find. Abbaye de Leffe in Dinant was founded in the 12th century and, like most abbeys and churches, they built a brewery to serve drinks to parishioners and pilgrims. Most people, including children, drank beer of some sort as it was much safer to drink than water. Produced in the Ardennes, this distinctive beer is instantly recognizable by the red-hooded gnome (or chouffe) which adorns its label. It's a refreshing pale ale with a hint of coriander and it leaves a peachy aftertaste. 5. Corsendonk Pater Noster (5.6%) I like the sound of the Belgian place in NYC, sounds like a VERY nice place to spend a lazy afternoon.Adam, make sure you ask if they can get it! If they can get Blonde, maybe they can get Brune too! (worth a shot!)

Also with easy going mouth watering buttery malted hops. And some type of coal ashness or tar taste in it to. We’ll start with what should be the lightest of the Leffe family, although still a respectable 6.2% ABV, as you can see Leffe Blond came out considerably paler than I remembered, but make no mistake, despite its pale amber colouration, this is a full bodied ale. It has a full mouth feel, and a substantial head that lasted well down the glass, leaving a distinctive lacing down the glass.The flavour is well rounded, slightly sweet, slightly spicy, but with all these brews there is something that is distinctively ‘Belgian’. Okay so not quite trappist, but once you’ve tasted a Belgian beer, you’ll spot that flavour whenever you are fortunate enough to encounter it. Well, after reading Bob the Brit’s great review of all these Leffe beers, I knew I had to try one. Fortunately for me, my local shop had the Leffe Blond – which I tried. This was my first ‘Abbey Ale’, and all I can say is that this beer is very different than other beers – special even.

The abbey that first produced Leffe, Notre-Dame de Leffe, was founded in 1152 and has a long and rich history. In 1240, the monks decided to build a brewery. Beer at that time was a much healthier alternative to drinking water, which was often full of diseases. The brewery was a great success. In fact, it was said at one point that the master brewer at the Leffe brewery made a beer that was so delicious, parishioners preferred drinking it to going to church on Sundays. Needless to say, the abbot at the time had to step in! Brewed in Leuven, just to the east of Brussels, Leffe is strong and malty and comes in two main varieties. Leffe Blond is bright, fragrant, and has a slight orangey flavour, whereas Leffe Brune is dark, aromatic and full of body. Very popular, but a little gassy for some tastes. 15. Orval (6.2%) The Leffe Blond does create an enormous head that took a LONG tome to go down, and when it does it leaves an incredible amount of lacing on the glass. The aroma and the taste, are, for me, hard to describe except that they were different – and very satisfying! Bob the Brit, I think, describes it perfectly in his review above, so I won’t try to add to that.

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It’s still a great beer and, I observed, the preferred drink of the locals in Brussels, and you can’t get a better recommendation than that. So, in conclusion, Leffe produce a fine range of Abbey style beers. As such they’re industrial rather than craft or artisan beers, but they’re full bodied, full flavoured and well worth seeking out. Leffe Brune is my favorite beer. It kills me that I can’t get it since I moved to Michigan. We have the Blond and everytime I’m skimming the beer cooler at the store and the Leffe Blond bottle catches my eye I get excited and then see it is the Blond and my heart sinks. Then any beer I buy tastes like bath water in comparison to my memories of Leffe Brune. If anyone from Leffe reads this, please distribute Leffe Brune in Michigan, USA!!! Located in the Flemish town of Roeselare, the Rodenbach brewery produces a reddish-brown ale in several different formats, with the best brews aged in oak containers. Their widely available Rodenbach (5%) is a tangy brown ale with a hint of sourness. The much fuller – and sourer – Rodenbach Grand Cru is far more difficult to get hold of but is particularly delicious. 18. Verboden Vrucht, or Forbidden Fruit (9%)