Trader Joe's Vintage Ale 2010
Unique and limited edition, this Belgian style ale is crafted once a year as a special treat for those of you who appreciate flavorful, bottle-conditioned ales with character.
This year’s vintage: a rich, dark and full-bodied ale with a fine and generous coffee-colored, beige foam. It’s ready to enjoy right away and you may also wish to cellar a few bottles. It will evolve interestingly well, developing more complex flavors as the years go by. Keep bottle upright in storage.
Best before 9-10-2013.
This year’s vintage: a rich, dark and full-bodied ale with a fine and generous coffee-colored, beige foam. It’s ready to enjoy right away and you may also wish to cellar a few bottles. It will evolve interestingly well, developing more complex flavors as the years go by. Keep bottle upright in storage.
Best before 9-10-2013.
3.5
193 reviews
Monrovia, United States
Community reviews
2010 Vintage
12/29/2010: Trader Joe’s 2010 Vintage Ale (Dark Ale Brewed with Spices and Natural Flavor Added)... Aroma: Ginger spice aroma; ginger-cola. Appearance: Brown, opaque color; large, fluffy mocha-colored head that is long-lasting. Flavor: Ginger; herby DFH/Stone/Victory Saison Du Bugg flavors - sage? rosemary?; dry, spicy finish; a touch of alcohol. Palate: Smooth with a gerneous amount of carbonation; medium-bodied. Overall: Decent; not unlike previous vintages bymuch.
750 mL corked and caged bottle (9% alc./vol.; Best Before 09-10-2013) from Trader Joe’s in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rating #174 for this beer.
Serving: 750 ml. bottle. It pours a dark and murky reddish brown with a large tan head. The head is pretty short lived. The nose is a little papery with notes of dried fruit, raisin, and dust. The flavor has a tinny bitterness to it with the yeast, dried fruit, and caramel sweetness. This one hasn’t aged all that well despite what the label says.
No thanks to Moll for leaving this bottle. This did not age well. Some dark fruits along with mint and a very off dryness.
You may not feel outstandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 X 10^18 joules of potential energy—enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.
Bottle shared at RBWG! Pours a dark black brown with a light ring of lacy head. Aroma and taste are boozy, belgian esters of dark fruits and hints of caramel and coffee. Mouth is a little thin, with lots of bubbly carbonation on the mouth. Not too bad, apparently its cheap too, so that’s cool.
Bottle shared by SpringsLicker at the RBWG grand tasting
Appearance: Clear dark mahogany with a small beige head
Aroma: Toasted malts and dark fruit
Taste: Toasted malts, raisins and plums
Nice
Brown pour with light foamy head and lace. Aroma of brown sugar and a nutmeg like flavor. Sweet brown sugar, a nutmeg like taste that grows at the end. Medium body with light carbonation
RBWGJX nice,a step down in the lacing and taste than the aroma suggests. Nice color picturesque....
750 ml bottle to taster at RBWG (thanks to whoever shared this one). Looks good; a fairly opaque dark brown with light beige lacing. Smells of dark fruit, candy, and Belgium yeast. Tastes like it smells with an average mouthfeel. Solid, not spectacular.
This cork and caged bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a large sized head of foamy finely sized brown colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a semi-opaque dark ruby red brown colored body and a fair lacing. The aroma was spicy cloven and musty. bubbly . The nice flavor contained notes of mild spice, but only after I stirred it up to remove the intensely bubbly carbonation. A decent one that I would consider drinking again.
750 ml bottle with "Best before" Sept. 2013 date on bottle, consumed January 2012. "Unibroue" stamped on the cork ... that’s a good sign!
Pours a clear but opaque dark brown with a huge. foamy cappuccino-colored head that leaves a good amount of sticky lacing. The aroma and the flavor both clearly indicate that this is a spiced ale. The exact combination of spices is unclear, but nutmeg and allspice seem most obvious, with hints of clove, ginger and cinnamon. The spice combination is nicely complex and well-chosen, but the beer is a bit over-spiced for my taste. The malt and hop components are well-masked by the spicing. Some raisin, prune and other dark fruit notes are evident. The aroma has a lightly tart aspect, but the beer is primarily sweet. High ABV is decently hidden in both taste and smell. Smooth; very good, medium carbonation; high ABV evident.
An excellent winter brew, with plenty of spicy complexity to enjoy in both the flavor and lingering aftertaste. A rather good price for a rich, Unibroue.
Roasted malts, caramel, and lots of varied spices. There’s a little bit of yeast here and there. Nice and warm from the alcohol. Good carbonation that doesn’t alter the taste. Clean finish. Medium body. Very nice. Tasty and very drinkable. Perfect for this time of year.
Appearance was cloudy brown with lasting creamy tan 2 finger head, lacing. Aromas was deep fruits, toffee, caramel, floral spicey yeasts, no alcohol present. Taste was soft spice, coffee, caramel, butterscotch, chocolate honey malts, then the belgain yeasts of cherry, fig, plum, slight rum/sherry like, Yummy. Palate was soft creamy CO2 with full body, then the fruity average length, mild sherry heat with typical spicey Unibroue beauiful finish. Aging softly...
May 13, 2011 - with blankboy, jerc & mabel. 750ml bottle thanks to J&K. Hazy deep brick red, nice lasting fizzy/foamy off-white head. Sweet caramel aroma, yeasty, some dark fruits and a little red wine - nice. Taste follows, richer, spicy, more robust red wine character, solid alcohol. Average body, solid carbonation, spicy yeasty finish - as always a solid brew, well done.
Bottle thanks to bhensonb. Poured dark brown with an off white head. Aroma and flavor were black licorice and alcohol. Body was light and fizzy.
Damn good. Has a lot of depth. Smells of coffee and chocolate, with a fruity hint. Dark black color. Tastes great, with lots of levels. Cellared for 1.5 years. Will definitely have again.
Pours black with a big foamy beige head. Aroma of clove, toffee. Taste follows suit, lots of sweet malt and Belgian yeast flavor. The alcohol comes through a little sharp.
Mahogany hued dark beer with a big fruity nose of plum, raisen and dark sugar. Big, foamy beige head. Very lively on the tongue. Big sweet beer with lots of caramel and brown sugar, over ripe fruit and some cola. Distractingly carbonated.
bottle at Ft Wayne tasting a couple weeks ago - Pours dark brown with a tan head and a malty, yeasty, dark fruit aroma. It tastes of sweet malt and Belgian yeast spiciness with a well developed dark fruit character. It’s medium to full bodied, has lively carbonation, and finishes with a little bitterness. Very good.
Black pour with a large tan head. Yeast dark fruits and malts on the nose and a taste to match. Another great vintage.
750 ml bottle into tulip, best before 9/10/2013. Pours almost opaque dark brown color with a nice 2 finger dense khaki head with great retention that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some nice bits of lacing cling to the glass as well. Aromas of big clove, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, dark candi sugar, ginger, dark fruit, molasses, and spicy yeast. Nice and interesting aromas; tons of spices going on here. Taste of caramel, molasses, dark fruit, clove, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, candi sugar, and big yeast spiciness. Lingering notes of dark fruit, molasses, candi sugar, and spices on the finish for a bit. Medium bodied with fairly high carbonation, but it doesn’t hurt the drinkability at all. Fairly creamy and smooth drinking; with a fairly prickly mouthfeel. Alcohol is well hidden with nothing but a slight warming noticeable. Overall a damn nice spiced Belgian dark ale. Unibroue rarely brews a bad beer.
Pour is dark brown with a slight tan head. Aroma is somewhat musty - yeast, dust, and some slight sweetness. Flavor is quite cloying, tons of molasses and cola flavors. Body is spicy and hoppy as well but the sweetness just overpowers it. Highly carbonated. Little to no alcohol presence.
Tried November 2011
A careful pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet Tulip produces a glass filling, dirty brown tinged, dark tan colored, initially four finger thick, but then quickly glass overlflowing head; this leaves some light, wispy lacing as it slowly subsides. The beer is a dark, concentrated, opaque, sort of black color, it seems to have tinges of concentrated brown / purple to it. The foam that was rescued from overflowing tastes a bit like concord grape-juice. The beer smells predominantly of sweet spices and fruit; it reminds me of clove, cardamom, a light concord grape soda note and a bright raisin note, though really the cardamom note seems to be the most noticeable (though not by a huge margin). Backing notes of a slight grain husk character and toasted brown bread are noticeable the more you dig for them. As the beer warms up the cardamom becomes more piquant, perhaps taking on a ginger like edge to it.
The beer feels light bodied and effervescent as it first hits my palate. The beer has a light sweetness to it up front, but this gets accentuated as it rolls across the tongue by a sweet spice and fruit character. Notes of cardamom and clove linger on the palate in the long finish, and there is perhaps just a wisp of toasted brown cracker character. The fruit reminds me of concord grapes and raisins. The spice character has a slight woody black pepper note to it, a touch of nutmeg, though it really is dominated by the cardamom and then clove character. The clove is likely from the house yeast, and there is also an earthy, sort of coriander like note that is distinctly from the Unibroue house yeast character.
A pretty tasty beer, it is a little too focused on the spice character, which isn’t surprising given the house yeast character, but it is nicely drinking all the same. The light mouth feel, is perhaps the best thing going for this beer (though the visual presentation is quite striking as well).
75cl bottle from TN. Sure its not dry hopped with ground unicorn horn, filtered through a rainbow or aged in a barrel of pixie dust but you can get this quality Ubrue for ten bucks. Sometimes nice is good enough. By the way, it tastes like Christmas in a glass.
Bottle @ home, courtesy of Armin. Thanks. Dark brown appearance with a light tan head. Very spicy, mint, nutmeg, light cinnamon, mild chocolate caramel aroma. Fairly spicy Christmas beer- mint, evergreen, cinnamon, nutmeg- chocolate, caramel flavor. Pretty nice holiday beer.
Tasted bottle into tulip glass. Poured an opaque, very dark reddish-brown, almost black color with crazy thick beige foam, extremely persistent, fine Belgian lace. Strong perfumey aroma of unidentifiable spices, which is driving me crazy. I even waited until I’d sampled it on multiple occasions to write this review. I’m pretty sure it contains nutmeg and grains-of-paradise, but I know there’s stuff in there I can’t recognize. It was too much for me at first, but it grew on me the more I obsessed about it. Other aromas include pepper, clove, citrus zest, alcohol. A complex grainbill as indicated by flavors of malt, baking bread, toast, roasted barley, nuts, caramel, molasses, plums, black licorice, dried cranberries, refined hops bitterness. Very fruity, tart and tangy, with a pleasant bittersweet aftertaste. Exquisite bottle fermentation lends tiny, spritzy, aromatic bubbles. High ABV% is less warming than you’d expect. Profoundly spicy, not for everyone, but I love it.
Bottle in LA...brown black with scant head. Super spicy, but also sweet in a walnut cake/mincemeat way. Has a cola with Unibroue yeast character. Smooth but too sweet overall.
I guess this would have been about 9 months old. Dark brown. The aroma is rich and figgy, with a light spiciness. Earthy, raisiny with light fruits. Decent complexity, and clean, without too much of that Unibroue yeast.
Pours dark brown with a gigantic brown head that’s VERY frothy. Smells of sweet fruits and malts. Tastes of bubble gum, dark fruits, and burnt malts. Slightly gluey flavor as well.
Dark cola-like color. Pours with a big head which thins to a light film. Spicy and peppery nose with some apple cider notes. Easy entry with an immediate spiciness and mild carbonation followed by a peppery finish. There is also a lingering, barely noticeable plum-like sweetness in the aftertaste.