Leffe Blonde - Abbaye de Leffe S.A.

ipogios

Cyprus

4.9/5  rDev +38%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a beautifull deep golden colour topped by a huge white creamy head. This beer has a sweet aroma and sweet taste. Aftertaste is sweet and it's quite long lasting. It's one of my 2 favourite beers. I like sweet beers. If you don't like sweet beer then i wouldn't reccomend this one...

Serving type: bottle

11-15-2002 04:42:50 | More by ipogios

Morris729

Texas

3.13/5  rDev -11.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

Pours a very lovely rich golden color with a creamy white head that clings to the sides of the glass as you drink. The aroma is sweet and almost syrup like. The taste is also on the sweet side with notes of honey and cream. A nice beer, especially for a beginner who’s just starting to sample Abbey-style beers.

Serving type: bottle

11-10-2002 00:30:55 | More by Morris729

Pegasus

Texas

3.68/5  rDev +3.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pouring yields a very prominent creamy off-white head with excellent retention. Medium golden in color with just a touch of haze and light carbonation, lots of broken lace. Aroma of cloves and banana, much like a hefeweizen, although somewhat milder, also bread notes. Taste begins with a brief burst of sweet malt, followed by spicy clove and ripe banana flavors, with bitter citrus, mild hops, and strong alcohol notes to the finish.

I found that I like this beer for the fact that it is not so overwhelming as most of the Belgian Abbey-style ales, but it will seem too understated for Abbey-ale purists.

Serving type: bottle

10-18-2002 19:02:10 | More by Pegasus

brewdlyhooked13

Ohio

3.93/5  rDev +10.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Soft golden color, with a resilient head that did not dissipate throughout the tasting, but held a nice firm but smooth cap.

After drinking a Hoegaarden, the missus found this one too harsh, but alas, she is merely a beer pup with a limited range of what is considered 'good'. <sigh> we're working on that...

Anyway, I liked the bready aroma, and could detect a sweetness in the smell. Very pleasant. Get a good mouthful of this beer to ideally experience it. Little sips just don't do it justice. First impressions - more than average yeasty component, which I'm really beginning to enjoy as I sample more Belgians and unfiltereds. The carbonation and sweetness are well balanced, with neither one overpowering other flavor/mouthfeel components. About the time all this settles down, the baseline hop presence arrives. Not too much, but not exactly subtle. It was too much for my wife, but the Hoegaarden she had prior to this was very smooth.

Anyway, this is a great Belgian for both a beginner or one early in the game. The first time I had this beer, I had maybe one or two Belgians under my belt and thought this was a bit too busy for me. After having had some 25 different beers in the past month, then trying another Leffe, my taste has developed into a much greater appreciation of this beer. So if you don't like it first, drink around some other tastes and come back. I'm fairly certain this one will grow on you.

Serving type: bottle

10-16-2002 10:14:03 | More by brewdlyhooked13

NeroFiddled

Pennsylvania

3.83/5  rDev +7.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Crystal clear, deep golden/amber with a hugh foamy & rocky white head that holds extremely well, buoyed by a very fine and effervescent carbonation. The tiny, slow rising bubbles add to the enjoyment of the appearance. Extensive lacing is created throughout the serving. The body is medium/full with an exceptional creaminess in the mouth from the very fine carbonation. The aroma is softly sweet, almost candyish, with a light citrus fruitiness and subtle phenolics. The flavor is a gently fruity (citrusy... orange?), and sweetly grainy malt that's lightly backed by hop bitterness and gentle spice. It finishes softly dry with some gently lingering peppery spiciness that's very nice and helps to keep the sweet malts from becoming cloying. Well balanced, firm and round, but somewhat limited in character. An excellent crossover beer into the world of Belgian ales.

Serving type: bottle

10-07-2002 16:28:59 | More by NeroFiddled

Jason

Massachusetts

3.4/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

12 oz slender brown bottle with a freshness date on the back. Crystal clear golden colour with a thin bubbly lace that clings to the glass a bit.

Medicinal from the phenolics, hints of bubble gum and ripe pears with an herbal hop backing for the aroma.

Semi-thick mouth feel with a viscous carbonation and sturdy medium body. Sweet maltiness is the wins the in battle with a rolling sweetness throughout that throws out honey like qualities. Leaf herbal hop bitterness tries to clean up the sweetness but settles back into an underlying flavour. Clean estery alcohol is a tad fruity. Hits of phenols bring an obvious medicinal quality. Finishes sweet with a long lingering herbal and medicinal flavour.

Too processed and clean for a Belgian blonde, sweet to the point of almost being syrupy on the palate. There are other Belgian blond ales that are far superior to this one. Perhaps worth a try if you appreciate the style.

Serving type: bottle

07-22-2002 19:54:20 | More by Jason

StevieW

Florida

2.95/5  rDev -16.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Tannish in color, and clear with a large thick head, foamy even, but evaportated quickly. The clearness of the beer was striking. Mine smelled somewhat harsh, stale almost. Tasted rather sweat, lots of syrupy, sweet, and citrus. Very smooth gong down but not thin. Overall it had some flashes of being a great beer, but the harsh smell seemed to dominate this one. I bought this as a single bottle of a pack, maybe is was old, that's why is what sold that way. Anyway, I am kinda glad I only had one to drink....Whose next ?

Serving type: bottle

06-10-2002 09:31:02 | More by StevieW

Andy

Massachusetts

3.63/5  rDev +2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Huge off white head with tight carbonation. golden amber color. great complex aroma, slightly spicy. deceptively pale and drinkable. some vanilla and mixed fruit flavor. somewhat spicy. little to no hop character and leaves beer unbalanced.

Serving type: bottle

05-16-2002 20:23:14 | More by Andy

rastaman

United Kingdom (England)

2.98/5  rDev -16.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Its Ok, but i don't think its anything outstanding, but i don't think its meant to be, a bit sweet, and one of the more commercial Abbey blond style belgian ales.

Serving type: bottle

03-27-2002 09:25:59 | More by rastaman

John

New York

3.48/5  rDev -2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

I thought this was an enjoyable beer. Mildly sweet with subtle fruit and spiciness. Hazy golden appearance. Limited complexity when compared to other Belgian triples/pales. Could easily knock back a few of these. A good entry level Belgian brew.

Serving type: bottle

01-21-2002 13:00:31 | More by John

QXSTER1

Pennsylvania

3.78/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Can't agree with the reviews. I thought it was a snappy, fruity Begian Single. Not as big or complex as the Trippels, but a tasty beer none the less.

Serving type: bottle

01-19-2002 13:04:30 | More by QXSTER1

Todd

Massachusetts

2.2/5  rDev -38%
look: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

Appearance: Pours a very nice crystal clear golden beer with large carbonation bubbles that give way to a very patchy large bubbled foam head that lasts for quite sometime, then goes near still with some lace.

Smell: Soft clove-like aroma with a background yeasty / banana character. Fruity bubble-gum-like aromas too.

Taste: Smooth, a bit creamy and light. Malt sweetness is subdued at first with bubble-gum flavours throughout. Faint caramelly malts and honey flavours are detectable amongst a rather bready malt character, overall. Alcohol fusels come through as the beer warms. An odd yeasty/bready character follows and peaks, with a raw-ish feel on the palate. No real detectable hop bitterness, however the beer goes twangy for a brief second then falls back to more of the odd flavour. Finish is a bit dry with strong residual sweet flavours.

Notes: A very commercial Belgain ale. And, sadly, this beer might be a very good beer if it wasn't so damn clean & filtered -- most Belgian beers are bottled-conditioned. My advice is to skip this beer. It's not the worse, but there are plenty of non-commerical Abbey-style Belgian ales out there to drink.

You should also make serve at just below room temp, as the flavours seem to get better.

Serving type: bottle

11-21-2001 17:33:37 | More by Todd