Lets talk about that mad ***** (dulle teve)

[stakem1]

jedwards can attest I have pestered him numerous times with random questions revolving around bottle dating of different De Dolle offerings.

However, what sparked me to create this thread is a number of rumors/here-say and what I believe to be general misinformation that ive come across in reading various forums. (All regarding the mad ***** in 750ml bottles.)

The 750ml seem to be circa 2004ish or older. Was this really just the brewer using whatever bottles he had access to? Is the 750ml contents the same as the smaller format? Is it possible that the perceived taste differences are merely large formats aging better than smaller? Via ratebeer, someone suggested a completely different beer "reserva" though it was not marked as such on the bottle.

On BA I saw claaark13 chime in with some tasting notes/commentary, which maybe im recalling this incorrectly, lead me to lean toward my notion that it might be storage based variations and not so much as a different brew in the large format bottles.

It has been years since ive had one of these large format mad bitches so my opinion on the matter is void. I remember it coming from a source that did not have ideal storage conditions, label almost completely gone and the taste was heavily oxidized to the point of it not being recognizable as mad *****. At this same tasting a bottle of 16 year old rose de Gambrinus was also opened (same storage) and that was a funktified mess that I also thought was possibly a victim of storage conditions.

 

[claaark13]

Certainly storage conditions (notably exposure to sunlight) are a factor. jedwards has had bottles that have been skunked, and I know of others have had the same unfortunate experience as well. The bottle that I opened was stored in a local store's cooler, laying down, in a box for years. I believe that all of the bottles started hitting the US in 2004, though they may actually be the 2003 vintage. I don't think there are multiple vintages of the 75cl.

I also have a bottle that was acquired from a well-known store in the US and has been stored (or at least I'm nearly certain it has been) horizontally. I've not opened mine, and I don't think jedwards has opened his either (same original source). So, no notes on that one.....yet.

As for your Reserva question, I know who you're talking about on RB. He and I have talked about it in a BM and his claim is that some bottles were filled with the Reserva and that there is absolutely no way to know which are which without opening them (though there has to be a color difference if you had both to compare, right?). I believe that these bottles are mostly the regular version.

This idea, though coming from a reliable source, brings another question, which is "Why do we know the 75cl bottles hit the US ~2004, but the small Reserva bottles are labeled 2005 on the cap?" I'm nearly positive that the caps on the small bottles say 2005 on them, but I can't look at mine because I'm at work. So, as if dating De Dolle wasn't rough enough, they throw this into the mix. I do think the 2003 75cl are the same batch as the base for the DTSR 33cl bottles that seem to have been released in 2005.

 

[xscottypx]

i saw some on a shelf earlier this year, but passed on them