Gulden Draak is a dark Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

 with high alcohol by volume

Alcohol by volume

Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....

, brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Ertvelde

Ertvelde

Ertvelde is a village of the Belgian municipality of Evergem.Eddy Wally used to have his legendary show venue in the village-center, called "Paris, Las Vegas"....

, East Flanders

East Flanders

East Flanders is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and in Belgium on the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant , of Hainaut and of West Flanders...

. It is named after the golden dragon at the top of the belfry

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

. In 1998 Gulden Draak was crowned the best-tasting beer in the world by the American Tasting Institute (now ChefsBest).

Aroma and taste

Gulden Draak has a strong scent of alcohol, which hampers the ability to easily define its aroma. Still, there is a powerful fragrance of barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

, ripe plums, and cherries. Different testers worldwide mention a sweet coffee aroma. Compared to the aroma, the taste is influenced somewhat less by the alcohol. It hints at sour cherries and brown sugar

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content, or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white...

. The aftertaste is somewhat bitter. Gulden Draak also has a high alcohol content for a beer at 10.5%.

Packaging

Gulden Draak is packaged in its signature white bottle in volumes of 33, 75, and 150 centiliter, and in kegs of 30 liters.