Top to bottom: Mimolette, Morbier

Dubbel (Double)

STYLE NOTES: Belgium’s Trappist monks devised the recipe for dubbel, a strong version of brown ale, with 6 to 8 percent alcohol. Dubbels typically have a rich, complex, malt-centered personality and a copper or caramel color. Most are bottle conditioned—refermented in the bottle—so they may not be crystal clear. Hops remain in the background, contributing little to the aroma and only a barely perceptible bitterness in the finish. Instead, dubbels seduce with bakeshop aromas such as raisin, clove, molasses, brown sugar, dried fig, toffee, and toast.

These seductive scents result largely from caramelized liquid sugar added to the wort, a common practice for Belgian brews. The sugar deepens the beer’s color, contributes toffee-like aromas, and helps boost alcohol without adding heaviness.

Expect creamy, medium carbonation from a dubbel and a medium-full, almost viscous body from the elevated alcohol. The first impression on the palate is typically malty sweetness, but most dubbels finish crisp and dry. Some, like Ommegang Abbey Ale, have a lingering sweetness, with a bitter edge for balance.

BEERS TO TRY: Achel 8°; Allagash Dubbel; Anderson Valley Brother David’s Double; Captain Lawrence St. Vincent’s Dubbel; Chimay Red Cap (Chimay Première); Maredsous Brune; New Belgium Abbey Ale; Ommegang Abbey Ale; St. Bernardus Prior 8; Westmalle Dubbel.

CHEESE AFFINITIES: With their malty richness and lush texture, dubbels can accompany cheeses with robust flavor. Consider washed-rind cheeses of moderate pungency; truly smelly cheeses may prove too much. Alpine cheeses with their nutty scent and silky textures and aged Goudas with their caramel notes can be especially pleasing partners for dubbels.

Made in Holland for Cypress Grove Chevre, a California creamery, Midnight Moon may surprise tasters who think they don’t like goat cheese. Wheels weigh about 10 pounds and are aged for six months or more, yielding a firm, rinded cheese with a dense, shaveable interior—not the spreadable texture associated with younger goat cheese. Midnight Moon blends the sweetness of aged goat Gouda with the brown-butter, toasted-nut, and caramel aromas reminiscent of aged Gruyère—flavors that align nicely with a malty dubbel.

Mimolette’s vivid pumpkin-orange color draws attention at the cheese counter, where it stands out among the paler selections. Even Wisconsin Cheddars, tinted with the same plant-based dye, do not have quite so strident a hue. Modeled after Dutch Edam, this French cow’s milk cheese looks like a flattened bowling ball and only develops an interesting character with considerable age. At eighteen to twenty-four months, Mimolette becomes brittle and waxy, with a butterscotch aroma and a piquant, sweet-salty taste that welcomes a strong, spicy dubbel in response.

The ribbon of ash in the middle of a Morbier is largely decorative now, but in times past, it served a purpose. French farmers made curds with the evening milk and sprinkled them with ash to protect them and prevent a rind from forming. The following day, they would top the ash with curd from the morning milk to complete the wheel. Today, this practice probably persists only on a handful of small farms. Most Morbier, a cow’s milk cheese, is made on a large scale and is not particularly compelling. But when hand-selected and matured in the cellars of one of France’s esteemed affineurs (cheese agers), such as Jean d’Alos or Pascal Beillevaire, Morbier becomes a cheese to relish. A semisoft, washed-rind cheese weighing 11 to 18 pounds, a good Morbier has a supple ivory interior with many small openings and aromas of mushroom, earth, and damp cellar—plenty of character to merit a matchup with a powerful dubbel.

MORE CHEESES TO TRY: Appenzeller; Beemster XO; Chimay; Comté; Central Coast Creamery Holey Cow; Garrotxa; Hoch Ybrig; Leiden; L’Etivaz; Lincolnshire Poacher; Marieke Gouda; Meadow Creek Grayson; Munster; Murcia Curado (Naked Goat); Pleasant Ridge Reserve; Raclette; Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise; Vacherin Fribourgeois.