Black Gold Brewery First of Many 2021 Anniversary Dubbel. Currently available on tap for $7.00/473ml in Petrolia, Ontario

Back in December, Ryan Fletcher gets in touch to ask if he can send me beer from Black Gold in Petrolia, Ontario. My answer, when people want to send me things, is almost always “sure.” Months went by, as sometimes happens. People have an idea of what they’d like you to try, and wait until the stars align. One day a Canada Post tracking number appears in facebook messenger and the package purely disappears into the aether. Turns out it was delivered to a building down the street and showed up nearly two weeks later. 

This was all some time ago, and my understanding is that in the interim period Ryan has parted ways with the brewery. It’s probably for this reason that the beers have languished at the back of the fridge for a while; the consequentiality of the proceedings seemed somehow diminished by the removal of my only point of contact. 

That said, Black Gold’s website features a fairly wide variety of styles for a young brewery and I’m generally in favour of anyone crazy enough to can a Belgian Abbey style beer. Let’s have a butcher’s. 

Anything with a Belgian strain of yeast in it is going to have you make assumptions. Banana and clove are going to be dialled up, especially in a hotter ferment. In this case, the first note is practically macerated cherry with a hint of the stone. A spiciness creeps in around the edges, a little peppery on the initial sip. There is certainly clove, but interacting with the dark malt and soft water of Western Ontario, it merges a little with the bitterness on the palate. The bitterness although signposted for 20 IBU seems high for a Dubbel, which I think of as being comparatively malt driven. The banana is here, but lingering after the finish. It seems to be born backwards.

At 7%, it’s right in the middle of the style, but the intangibles are weird. It doesn’t read Dubbel. In fact, it’s a little bit like an amped up New Belgium Fat Tire, which is not a bad thing for a beer to be, especially for a brewery a year in. If they did it again, I’d want darker, rounder malt character with something underpinning the dried fruit. It might combat the bitterness that dangles from my uvula. It’s a good first attempt at a nuanced style for a young brewery.

Did You Buy This Beer?: No.

Knowing What You Know Now, Would You Buy This Beer?: If you called it a Belgian Amber Ale instead of a Dubbel it would make more sense. I get it’s named Dubbel as an anniversary gimmick, but it’s a round peg in that square hole.

Did You Finish It?:  No, but that has more to do with the fact I have to work in the morning than with any issues of quality.