The news drives me to drink (often), so I bought a six of Leffe Brune, as it was the only brown ale at the closest beer store to me (I ain't walking far on a 95-degree day).
I gotta say...this is a
weird beer, man. Apparently it's a
Dubbel, but not strictly speaking, as it's an "Abbey" beer that isn't actually brewed in an abbey.
It's a brown ale, so it has that bit of a biscuit-y bite to it. But it's also got a ton of malty chocolate and caramel to it. But there's also this initial non-hoppy bitterness, and the carbonation is damn near Coke/Pepsi-like. It has very little aftertaste, too; you read about a "dry finish" often, but this one really has it - you get some of the viscosity of the beer left over in your mouth, but not the taste, really. All of that together reads horribly. It sounds terrible...but let me tell you, it's not. It works. Weirdly so, but it works. You only get 11.2 ounces instead of 12, but you get 6.5% ABV, so it's a fair trade.
This might be a new stand-by, honestly. I'm impressed.