Zeven Zonden / “Seven Sins” - Gula

(Please note that this selections only comes in 500ml bottles)

Like Luxuria, Gula—meaning gluttony—employs multiple herbs and generally falls into the broad category of strong Belgian dark ales. Like Luxuria, it’s particularly hard to come by in the States (aside from patchy distribution around San Francisco). But ultimately we found it to go in pleasant directions distinct from those charted by its sinful brethren: a lower degree of spice, for sure, and a profile sitting arguably in-between a Belgian quad and Flemish reds.

Seven Sins Gula pours a rich mahogany with copper edges, capped by a persistent tan foam that stuck around throughout. Where Luxuria leads with spices and notes conjuring warmth, here we got deep layers of red fruits, raisins, plums, and dates. There’s a caramel undercurrent here as well, a provocative malt-forward core that, while veering occasionally towards notes we would anticipate in quads (caramel, cola, and brown sugar), ultimately comes back around to something more vinous and earthy. We found leather notes, clove. Even hints of licorice.

The feel of this one, like the Luxuria, seemed an ideal offering for the winter months: softly presented alcohol adding lightness, fine-bubbled CO2, and the subtle edge of mulling spices once our glasses properly warmed. The core of this revolves around those fruit aspects: the dark cherries, the fruit leather, and the lightly spiced red fruit. And we actually (despite that other offering’s lower alcohol percentage) found this to have better-hidden alcohol overall. We’d encourage members to sample this side by side with the Luxuria (and sharing both!).

Like our other Seven Sins offering in this special offer, the Gula is in a 500ml format. We’re inclined to pair these two up when it comes to holiday gift giving, but we’ll leave such things to the creativity of our subscribers beyond that. (As you might imagine, we tend to give a lot of beer-related gifts this time of year.) The brewery suggests that these should age nicely and provides the production year on the front label accordingly. Try it with creamy blue cheese.