Bell's Sparkling Ale

Drinking this fresh off tap, my first time tapping a keg of this, in February 2012, looking back on notes from February 2003, which reference notes from another tasting in summer of 2002, which I found unsatisfactory, apparently. I will post them uncensored, with only the slight correction that today I would reel back the gushing considerably. It's a good one, a very fine one, but not quite the end-all and be-all I made it out to be. Notes, away!

A huge, thick effervescent white head crowns a hazy orange color. Some yeast still floats around, then settles at the bottom of the glass.

 Aroma is sharp, fresh, and lively , full of citrus, (lemon, orange)and spices. The name gives no indication of style, but it's clear , before tasting ,even, that they're going for something in a Belgian style, something close to Duvel, maybe. 

Taste is divine, with great hop spark alive on the tongue. Yeast comes in big on the palate, and a large amount of sweetness, too. When I first tried this beer last June, I noted :"Did the sugar truck back up into the vat, and dump it's load?" I don't know if it's me, or if it's this batch, but I'm not turned off by the sweet factor, which isn't as strong. 

In the middle, more fruitiness comes through, peach, apricot, but sugar is still strong . Light in body and texture, but full of flavor, and bursting with playful hops. "Sparkling" is the appropriate name for this ale, and Bell's has crafted the best Duvel imitation I've ever tasted, from Belgium, the U.S., or anywhere else in the Universe.