Ommegang Adoration Ale - Brewery Ommegang

CavePainter

Massachusetts

4.65/5  rDev +14.3%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance: A rich, reddish amber. Cloudy with a fading, off-white head.

Smell: Robust. Dark Fruit and spice. A bit of astringency and almost a bit cidery.

Taste: Rich and complex. Wonderfully smooth malt taste that almost instantly yeilds to a mix of tart and dark fruit. Well spiced, but never overpoweringly so. This beer is a full tongue experience - with a nice bit of alcohol warmth. I pick up some cidery, pear-like tastes, plum...

The spices are well mixed and you can't quite tell where one taste ends and the other begins. They seem to hang in the foreground - you know they are there, but they refuse to take center stage.

Mouth Feel: Full bodied, but finishes remarkably dry.

Drinkability: Warming. A sipping beer. A winter warmer. This beer is meant for nursing, not quaffing. This is a different sort of social experience; a sipper intended from nights around the fire.

You will not be disappointed in this beer.

Serving type: bottle

11-08-2009 20:57:39 | More by CavePainter

frothyhead

New Jersey

4/5  rDev -1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Pours a hazy brown orange with solid one-finger tan head into a tulip.

Nose is boozy and astringent. Dark fruit, brown sugar, some peppery spiciness and a hint of orange. Some hints of chocolate coming through as it warms.

Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with a bit of chewiness.

Taste is a solid Belgian strong dark ale with all the added spices mingling and adding some nice flavor. Similar to the nose, the alcohol comes through a bit, though not overpowering at all. A mild astringency and dryness in the finish. Orange, dark fruit and brown sugar notes throughout.

Drinkability is good given the mostly hidden 10% ABV. Easy to put away a full bottle without a second thought.

Overall this is another nice one from Ommegang. It's a little different, and that certainly makes it worth trying. Great for a cold winter's night, spicy and warming. I have another bottle of this I'll be saving for a night closer to the holidays.

Serving type: bottle

11-08-2009 03:08:33 | More by frothyhead

scottg

Vermont

3.98/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Served in a Ommegang Adoration Ale glass which is a chalice type glass at the Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier, VT.

This is a Belgian Dark Ale brewed in the Belgian Winter style, so it is a spiced beer. Pours a hazy dark copper, light brown color with a 1/2 finger off white head with good retention leaving light patchy lacing. Spicy and fruity aromas- ginger, corriander, orange, cherry and candy sugar. The up front taste is of the spices, mainly ginger and corriander with some others mixed in which lead to some light hop bitterness and yeast with some vanilla with the spices fading out. Medium high carbonation, medium body there is a nice clean mouthfeel. Quite drinkable, the alcohol is noticeable but very smooth for 10%. The balancing of spice flavors is very nicely done.

Serving type: on-tap

11-05-2009 22:35:45 | More by scottg

froghop

Washington

3.7/5  rDev -9.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

pours a hazy dark maroon with a small yellow-beige head, and some lacing.

smell is of caramel, roasted nuts, alcohol, spice, and dark fruits.

taste is smooth, spice, prunes, raisins, red grapes, pepper, some caramel, and a touch of cocoa, ends dry and a little bitter.

Serving type: bottle

10-31-2009 21:55:31 | More by froghop

Billolick

New York

4.33/5  rDev +6.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

I had a taste or two of this at the recent BA Belgian fest in Boston, glad to see it today at DeCiccos's in Ardlsey, NY. $13.99 for the typical Omme. caged and corked Belgian style bomber. (w/o vintage dating BTW.) Dark brown, cloudy, darker khaki head, huge initially, slowly, slowly turning to a thicker film, collar and then respectable larger blots of lace. Sweet malty nose with hints of rum, raisins, figs, dark ripe fruit. BSDA in feel, tasty and personality. More sweet malt, rum notes, raisins, figs, light smoke, chocolate, thoroughly delicious, w/ 10% nowhere in sight. Complex, tasty and oh so wintery good. High quality sipper. Seek out and enjoy

Serving type: bottle

10-31-2009 01:28:02 | More by Billolick

JasonA

Massachusetts

4.63/5  rDev +13.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Pours medium translucent (almost transparent) carmel. Not much head, though lacing is solid.

Bready, malty, yummy. Light candi sugar, booze. Swirl kicks up a good amount of carb which is nice to see. Definitely Belgian.

Wow. What the heck is that. Bready, something, carmel malty, spice, and then something else at the end. There are 2 flavors in there I cant place. Something in the begining and the finish is beyond me. My only guess for the finish is Brandy. Maybe some special barreling or cubes.

ABV is powering, not over powering huge difference. Lets face it, this is a 10% brew, alcohol is expected. I love the balance for a winter brew and this is exactly what I want when it gets cold.

Outstanding. When winter comes, this is exactly what I want. Im going to go and raid the store and sock some away for a few more winters.

Serving type: bottle

10-30-2009 23:09:22 | More by JasonA

Viggo

Ontario (Canada)

4/5  rDev -1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

On tap at the Publick House.

Pours a hazy dark orange/brown, a bit muddy looking, thick light tan head forms, settles to a thick ring and layer, some decent lacing, looks good.

Smell is neat, sweet and spicy, cinnamon, ginger, cherries, lots of fruit, caramel and brown sugar, biscuit, touch of dark fruit/chocolate, reminded me a bit of a spicy St. Bernardus abt 12.

Taste is similar, dark fruit, ginger and cinnamon spiciness, cherries, toasty and candi sugar middle, yeasty, light bit of chocolate and raisin, pretty cool.

Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied with medium to high carbonation. Pretty neat stuff but maybe a touch too spicy. I liked it though.

Serving type: on-tap

10-20-2009 14:26:27 | More by Viggo

DanielClouser

Georgia

2.28/5  rDev -44%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

750 ml into Duvel tulip.

Picked this up at Hop City today.

Ugh.

I love Ommegang's work. I love out-there beers. I even love super-spiced beers that everyone else whines about being out of balance.

This one is just bad. Maybe I got a bad bottle, but I don't think that I'll want to shell out $13 for another try (I think that's what it was: I just bought it without even checking the price).

I didn't drainpour it but, but if I was the drainpouring type, it would be flowing through the sewers right now.

The only thing I've tasted that was anything like this was a hefeweizen I brewed before I understood the brewing process. I added mangoes to it, spiced it with too much coriander (I know, I know--that belongs in a witbier, not a hefe), and fermented too warm. AND it got a bottle infection.

Oh, but Adoration has a lot of chocolate in the flavor profile, too! No mango, of course, but they make up for it will the overabundance of other spices.

It's a little better as it warms, but it's just not a good beer. The yeast provides great flavor, as usual, but the rest of it just destroys it.

All the other reviews of this one are very good, so this makes the likelihood of a bad bottle much higher (especially considering that it tastes most like an infected homebrew). But it really tastes like this is coming from the spices.

Sorry to be a downer, but I would avoid this one and pick up Hennepin, Biere de Mars, Ommegeddon, or any of Ommegang's other spectacular brews.

Serving type: bottle

10-18-2009 01:27:28 | More by DanielClouser

johnmichaelsen

Oregon

4.13/5  rDev +1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

On tap at Max's today.

The beer pours a dark reddish brown color with good head retention and lacing. The nose on this beer is pretty sweet, with lots of brown sugar, cinnamon and spice. Flavors on the palate replicate the nose, and the beer is definitely on the sweet side. Mouthfeel is full and fairly smooth, with the alcohol pretty well disguised (considering the 10% abv.). However, the combination of spice, sweetness and fairly high alcohol do detract just a bit from the beer's drinkability. Still, this is a pretty enjoyable, easy to appreciate winter warmer.... though a little bit goes a long way.

Sampled again on 10/28/10 at Mahaffey's. The newest version had a bit more spice I thought, as well an addition of hops I would guess. As a result, I got more citrus on the nose and palate, as well as some pepper (which helped to counter the sweetness). As a result, I upped the taste score a half point.

The current version is probably the most Belgain-like beer I've had from Ommegang to date.

Serving type: on-tap

10-17-2009 21:23:07 | More by johnmichaelsen

Slatetank

Pennsylvania

3.38/5  rDev -17%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

I had a full serving of this in a Duvel tulip on draft at BCTC'09.

A -The appearance of strong brewed tea, dark caramel color w/ a few fingers of rocky ecru capping

S - Medicinal notes of yeast, spiced/herbal w/ mild toast. A caramel malt note which has an accent of nuts, the phenolics win out w/ mild alcohol aroma though

M - Very dry feel w/ herbal again phenolic dry finish. Mild crisp texture w/ high relative effervescent and slight alcohol which distracts

T - Loads of strong biscuit and astringent almost star anise type acrid flavors. The taste struck me like peanut brittle without the candy edge, mild caramel from the malt. The taste gets even more dry near the finish with yeast and alcohol flavors giving more spice.

D - A strong dark Belgian that didn't win me over, might just have been the climate, but it has too much liquer effect with alcohol overdone, not one I would try again unless they sell it in bottles most likely.

Serving type: on-tap

08-04-2009 14:12:00 | More by Slatetank