An Abbey Brune sighted in its native habitat of the Illawarra Brewery.

First up, I’ll apologise for the crappy ‘‘dubbel trouble’’ pun in the subject header. But when you’re talking about a dubbel, it’s a screamingly obvious pun to make. And, sometimes, I like screamingly obvious.
And it’s not exactly like this dubbel, a seasonal called Abbey Brune from the Illawarra Brewing Company, is in any way going to cause you trouble. Well, not unless you drink a whole lot of them, because it comes in at a largish 7.6 per cent.
Though I really don’t have any idea where the guys have hidden all that alcohol because I couldn’t really taste it. In that respect it’s a very cleverly-created beer – to make something that’s so high in alcohol and camouflage it pretty well is rather impressive.
That alcohol content is also the reason the Illawarra Brewery (where I sampled this one last weekend) is serving it in the glass you see above. Which remind me a bit of a small flower vase for some odd reason. But sending this over the bar in schooners would just be asking for trouble.
I didn’t get much in the way of aroma from the beer, which could be because I had a bit of a blocked nose. Could also be because I feel a bit self-conscious about sticking my nose deep into a beer glass while in public. The flavour is of stewed fruit and a bit of alcohol – but not as much as a 7.6 measurement would lead you to believe. There’s also a molassy flavour and maybe some candi sugar (though, to be honest I have little idea what candi sugar tastes like but assume it must be like the sweetness I taste here. Hey, it’s got the word ‘‘sugar’’ in the name, it’s got to be sweet, right?).
All-up it’s a Belgian-style that’s on the mild side, which is appropriate given that Australia has milder winters than Belgium.
Would I drink it again?: Actually, no. But that’s not because there’s anything wrong with the beer, but rather that I’m not the biggest fan of Belgian beers. It’s not the style I go for when I’m in the bottle shop or the pub. If I was living in Belgium I reckon I’d be drinking a lot of imported beers.