40 Beers at 40

Holiday beer & St Feuillien Blond

2008-07-17T23:23:00.010+02:00

Returned last weekend from a holiday delighting in the wonders of Jutland and Schleswig- Holstein. From the beer perspective, it was a bit mixed.

Beer in Denmark is insanely expensive -- the equivalent about five euro for 0.4 litres of basic pilsner in a pub. We ran to the shop in the town of Ribe for a couple of bottles of Tuborg. Nothing to write a long blog entry about.

Pickings were better in the supermarket in the city of Vejle, where as you can see here, they had a healthy selection of Belgian beers.

We opted for a 750ml bottle of St Feuillien Blond and a picnic lunch of bread and cheese. It was the day after our big day at Legoland, so the parents were due a serious break.

It's a fairly typical Belgian strong blond ale: bold and yeasty, good body, the right amount of fizz and froth, and quite hoppily bitter. I'm not sure it distinguishes itself from the pack very much, but it's no slouch, especially after a full day of fun park terror.

Later, we found ourselves in Germany, in and around Husum, the town Theodor Storm put on the literary map. I read his book The Dykemaster (Der Schimmelreiter) while there, and it proved the perfect way to spend the evenings after long days of driving around the dykes and walking over the beaches and mudflats. It's a terrific tale, both apt for its place (North Frisia) and time (written in 1888), but also with observations about human behaviour that go far beyond.

The book went well with Flensburger Pilsener on tap, as here. I do think it tastes better in its ceramic top bottle -- we had that on a boat going out seal-watching on the sand banks, where the massive tidal flats meet the North Sea.

.

Belgium buys Bud

2008-07-15T11:28:00.001+02:00

Beers from Congo

2008-07-01T23:44:00.003+02:00

My former colleague Fred now works in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and he has sent me a few photos of the beers he's drinking there. Ngok is from the Republic of Congo; Mutzig and Primus are from DRC.

Fred's got more great photos of Congo on his Flikr page, and not just of beer. Highly recommended.

.

oerbier

2008-06-29T18:02:00.003+02:00

Once again, I must describe my distaste for the use of cartoon characters on beer labels, but since the girls bought me this one as a welcome home present, I’ll give it a fair shot. And it does seem a rather refined brew: it sports a bow tie and claims to come “with taste evolution”.

It’s a lovely dark beer with a thick head. The first taste is sweet, with a bit of that black cherry cola, like Bobeline Brune. I’m reminded of Moinette Brune, too. It also has a strong burnt malt note that turns sour in the aftertaste. It’s missing the extra flavours of the Moinette, however -- no cinnamon here -- and overall, it’s not as complex. 9% alcohol.

I think, it’s a bit too sweet for me. The little cartoon character on the label may be cute, and it may be a well-dressed bottle, but still, it hasn’t wowed me much.

I guess the “with taste evolution” claim on the label refers to the fact this beer has a secondary fermentation in the bottle. I’d like to see how it ages, actually. Once those sugars are converted over time, I imagine it would lose its sweetness and become something quite rich and multi-layered. I think I’ll put some down in the cellar and try it. I'll give it about year and see what we get...

In the meantime, I'll just be happy I've got a dark beer to enjoy after those dull lagers of Colombia. A quiet moment in the sun-trap...

.

Pilsen (Colombia)

2008-06-22T06:53:00.002+02:00

Sure it’s not a Belgian beer, but then, “Pilsen” is not from the Bohemian town that gave us the great style of beer. Produced by the Bavaria brewery, this Colombian beer has something of an identity problem.

I’ve just been sampling it here in Medellín, and I can report it is indeed a beer in the pilsner style. Not too bad, but in no way exceptional. The name just begs an appellation discussion, though. Weren’t the Czechs trying to get legal protection for the name “pilsner” or something?

.

Ivorian Chimay

2008-06-19T22:05:00.005+02:00

While I've been working on getting myself checked out of a plastic surgery clinic in Bogotá, Seb sent along these photos of himself and his friends celebrating their own Chimay fathers' day in Côte d'Ivoire.

Strangely, this happened totally by chance at the same time as our Four Fathers Chimay celebration. Spooky.

Our Four Fathers' Chimay

2008-06-16T22:35:00.009+02:00

Fathers' Day was celebrated yesterday by four of us with various types of Chimay. Over in New Jersey, Brian and our father had Chimay Grande Réserve, but apparently, this bottle they bought in the States did not have the year very prominently displayed on it, so I've no idea if it was the 2008 or something aged and older. Anyone know why the date isn't on the bottles you buy in America? Is it not fermented in the bottle there?

Here in Brussels, I was with my father-in-law, Ronnie, and we had the Chimay Blue. This beer has gone up in my estimation in recent weeks. It's still not going on my list of top ten Belgian beers, but it's getting closer. It seems richer than when I first tasted it for the 40b40, more date and raisin notes.

Fiona -- not a father, but we let her drink anyway -- opted for the Chimay White, a grapefruity tripel. Laura chose no Chimay at all, because was driving the team back to Connecticut.

It was all captured on Skype video phone -- well, not the drive to Connecticut -- so I'll leave you with the snapshots here...

Poperings hommelbier

2008-06-14T17:05:00.002+02:00

Another beer from the Van Eecke brewery in Watou, this one stresses the hop element: “hommel” is the Flemish for “hop”. Apparently, it also means “bumblebee”. No idea what the connection is there, if any. Picture of hop plants on the label. No sign of any bees.

The beer itself is a blonde ale, and, yes, heavy on the hop: bitter, super-dry finish. It’s quite cloudy, with a lot of the bottle yeast in suspension. Does this mean I poured it too fast? It has a kind of steamed celery or steamed onion taste to it, which is actually quite nice. 7.5% alcohol, balanced nicely. Not much sting to this bumblebee.

.

Chimay Grande Réserve 1999

2008-06-08T16:10:00.002+02:00

“Pig farm” and “slurry” were Fiona’s first tasting notes on this one. And while it’s true this nine-year-old bottle of Chimay Grande Réserve had strong agricultural notes, I found it outstanding just the same.

Interestingly, the 1999 was quite different from the Chimay Grande Réserve 2001. Rather than creamy and smoky, this one was a bit thinner and more pungent. “Rotten leaves and mushrooms”, said Marcus. I thought hemp and wet linen, with a few sweet notes, and though it had no fresh fruit taste, I detected a kind of black cherry liquor flavour.

Marcus compared it to a non-alcoholic German Malzbier, but the alcohol level in this was high. Not that you could taste is -- the great mix of flavours hid the fumes very well -- but you could feel it. “With every sip, I feel more and more drunk”, Galima noted. She was quite right, and in that regard, the 750ml split between the four of us was plenty. When bottled, it was 9%, and I’m guessing the extra years of bottle fermentation probably put it up to 12 or 13%. That’s just a guess, though.

The taste was so complex and rich, so full of organic, mucky malt... We suddenly remembered a hunk of Chimay cheese we had in the fridge, and passing it around, we realised the rind of the cheese had exactly that farmy richness. Logical, of course.

“Stinky”, concluded Fiona.

But to me it’s oh so good, and again, it’s obvious that aged Chimay Grande Réserve will remain in my list of top ten Belgian beers.

.

Bornem Dubbel

2008-06-05T21:37:00.004+02:00

Here’s an abbey beer from the Van Steenberge group for damp Thursday.

It’s wonderfully dark, and it has an absurdly thick head -- you could build a wall out of it. The taste is burnt oak and “sour molasses”. The 8% alcohol doesn’t overwhelm.

Overall, however, I’d say it’s not complex enough. A beer this dark with a head this thick promises more flavour than this brew delivers. I was hoping for something deeper and richer.

It’s drinkable, of course, but I probably wouldn’t buy this one again. Maybe no beer can brighten up a damp Thursday.

.

Updated top ten

2008-05-31T22:01:00.004+02:00

Having tasted over 100 Belgian beers now -- well beyond the original expectation of the 40b40 -- I have had to make a few changes to my list of top ten Belgian beers, adding Chimay Grande Réserve (aged) and Floreffe Prima Melior. I made some space on the old list by combining Rochefort 6 and Rochefort 10 into one entry and lumping Floreffe Prima Melior with the Floreffe Dubbel that was already on the list.

If you think this combining is cheating, I can only say I refuse to have a rerun of the great Corsendonk Crisis. Feel free to sue me. I am 100% confident the law is on my side in this.

I also slightly downgraded Achel Brune in my top ten. It's still there under the entry for Achel Brune Extra -- a phenomenal beer -- but I've been having worrying thoughts about the regular old brune. I tried it again during the Ardennes winter retreat in a blind taste test, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed. In fact, it tasted like a completely different beer, not my beloved malt-loafy brew. I am going to have to do more research to resolve this question.

In any case, please have a look at the list of top ten Belgian beers, and let me know if you think I've got it right.

.

Floreffe Prima Melior

2008-05-31T18:46:00.004+02:00

Trying to catch a few rays of sun on the terrace here in the early evening, but the air is still cool. Time to open a new beer.

I’ve had Floreffe Dubbel before, and it was so good, it actually joined my list of top ten Belgian beers. So, this Prima Melior has a lot to live up to...

This abbey beer pours dark chocolaty brown, with a lovely firm head. I’m expecting something quite thick. The initial taste is... wow. Rich. Charcoal, burnt malt, bitter, hints of nutmeg. Pillowy body. It’s very close to Westvleteren 8, actually. Slightly thinner, perhaps, and not quite as sweet and gingerbready, but it is excellent. 8%, in case you’re asking.

I think I am going to have to review my top ten again. I’ve got several problems actually, but perhaps I should save that discussion for a separate post. Right now, I just want to enjoy the rest of this Floreffe Prima Melior.

And, by the way, I am fairly sure this is a UN beer, given the sky-blue cap it wears.

In a land where Belgian beer is illegal

2008-05-30T09:11:00.003+02:00

.
No, I'm not going to talk about Saudi Arabia. Actually: Alabama. Apparently, any beer over 6% ABV is illegal in that US state.

A campaign called Free the Hops has been pushing for a change in the law. Labeling themselves "Alabamians For Specialty Beer", they certainly have my support.

A new bill is being discussed, it seems. Lew Bryson had a clip of the debate on the issue in the lower house of the Alabama state legislature, which really is worth watching. If you are like me and often marvel at the depth of ignorance displayed by elected officials at the national level in that country, you really should see what state-level politics offers. You'll need something over 6% ABV after watching that.

.

Chimay Grande Réserve 2001

2008-05-22T22:52:00.001+02:00

.
I was wondering what beer I would have for my 100th tasting in the 40b40, when my colleague Alain invited me out to Beermania for a drink. We looked around the shop for something special, something I hadn’t tried before, and we settled on a dusty bottle of Chimay Grande Réserve 2001.

I had tasted the Chimay Grande Réserve 2007 before, but I really wanted to see what aging process would do.

In short, the 2001 is a completely different beer from the 2007. It’s darker, thicker and one hundred times smokier. Is has none of the raisin/date taste to it. And, it’s gorgeous. Just a wonderful beer in every respect. Aged Chimay Grande Réserve needs to go on to my list of top ten Belgian beers, but I’ll have to think about what to get rid of from that elite group. And I’ll need to experiment some more with older and younger bottles of this one.

Cheers, Alain! Hopefully we will get the photos out of your phone at some point...

.

La Trappe Witte

2008-05-18T19:36:00.002+02:00

Its label proclaims La Trappe Witte to be, “the only Trappist white beer in the world”, so I was a bit surprised when I poured it out and saw it has the colour and clarity of a pilsner. Ah, but then I poured the rest of the bottle into the glass, and this variety’s typical cloudiness emerged.

No mistake in the taste, however. This is a wheat beer -- and with a similar set of aromatics as Hoegaarden. Smooth and refreshing. Maybe slightly less sweet and bit more grassy than Hoegaarden, otherwise indistinguishable from it.

Following on my tastings of La Trappe Blond, La Trappe Dubbel and La Trappe Quadrupel, this one is again nothing super. Once more, I’m just left with that feeling of disappointment: a Trappist beer should be something special.

==

p.s: This is the 99th beer I’ve reviewed on this blog. Looking forward to number 100...

.

La Cuvée des Trolls

2008-05-18T18:40:00.002+02:00

I have already poured scorn on the idea of using fairy-tale creatures on beer labels, but since we’d just emerged from the cinema where we watched a very good new fantasy film, Chasseur de Dragons, I decided to give La Cuvée des Trolls a try.

We sat down in the nearly empty Armour Fou on Ixelles high street, and after waiting about 30 minutes to be served, I had in front of me a frosted glass with a little gremlin painted on it. I felt very adult.

This is not an unusual or exceptional blond beer. It’s smooth and yeasty, slightly lemony. Drinkable enough, but nothing worth killing a lot of time writing about.

Would rather kill that fucking little troll.

.

Joseph the spelt beer

2008-05-17T16:40:00.003+02:00

Our local bakery sells a great loaf called “14 cereal bread”, and every time we buy it, which is pretty often, we challenge each other to name 14 different grains. We get to about nine or ten if we’re lucky.

Spelt is a cereal variety I’ve at least heard of, barely. But it’s not one I’d recognise like, say, barley. A 50-kilo sack of spelt could fall on me, and I wouldn’t have any idea what hit me.

And a spelt beer? Dubious. And “bio”, ie organic? Sounds too pure, perhaps. Indeed, I bought this bottle in my favourite eatery in our neighbourhood, La Tsampa: a faux-Tibetan vegetarian restaurant and healthfood shop run by a friendly group of mostly Portuguese Buddhists. Just goes to show, there is a Belgian beer for everyone.

Joseph the spelt beer is cloudy grey-yellow and has a slightly astringent smell. The initial taste suggests a hint of detergent. But nothing in that is immediately off-putting. The body is thick and syrupy, but not at all sweet. It coats the tongue. Very strong yeastiness. (it is bottle fermented) Lightly bitter aftertaste. Low alcohol, 5%.

I’d like to suggest that maybe someone’s washed a sock in this liquid at some point, but that sounds a bit harsh. I don’t mean a dirty sock, if that helps. There’s just something of a woolly residue about the whole thing.

It’s not great, but it’s not horrible either. Perhaps spelt just isn’t the right grain for beer. Perhaps stewed sock is a bit of an acquired taste.

.

Malheur 6

2008-05-10T16:51:00.002+02:00

Belgium’s May heatwave continues into this three-day weekend, and after a good few hours in the garden, I’m settling back with a Malheur 6 on the now steaming terrace.

I’ve had Malheur 10 before, and I wasn’t raving about it. Of course, that was during a low-point in the 40b40, in which I was sampling one strong blond ale after another, and growing quite sick of them.

Malhuer 6, however, is something different. Very smooth. At 6%, it’s not as strong as the 10, and I think the easiest way to describe it is that it’s like Leffe Blond without the sticky sweetness. That means, it’s very good, because it’s that syrupiness that ruins the other beer.

Malheur 6 has mild carbonation, notes of stewed sour apples, and a lovely hoppy finish. Strongly recommended drinking for a steamy afternoon when everything in your garden is thriving so much that you can almost see the shoots growing.

.

La Divine

2008-05-05T20:58:00.003+02:00

Another beer from the Silly Brewery, makers of the unloved Double Enghien Brune. This one is called “La Divine”. No expectations raised there really, eh?

It has a lovely dark amber colour. And the taste is excellent. Smooth and low fizz body. Malty without being sticky. Perfectly balanced bitter and sweet, with neither lasting too long in the aftertaste. It’s strong, but the alcohol doesn’t overpower the other tastes. Hints of clover.

Overall, I’m quite impressed. I’m not sure what’s so “Divine” about it, but then, I’m an atheist so even if they claim the 9.5% alcohol content brings the drinker closer to god, I wouldn’t buy it. This beer, however, I would buy again.

.

La Trappe Blond (and Alt)

2008-05-04T21:43:00.005+02:00

After a long weekend in Münster and Düsseldorf, Germany, where Hefeweizen and Altbier were enjoyed in some significant quantities, we arrived home with a couple hours left on the sun-trap terrace. Just enough time to open a bottle of La Trappe Blond.

In previous tastings, I wasn’t overly impressed with La Trappe Dubbel or La Trappe Quadrupel, and in general, I have to say this brand, La Trappe from the Koningshoeven Brewery, is my least favourite Trappist label. And I’m not just saying that because it’s from the Netherlands while this is a blog about Belgian beer.

The Blond again failed to meet expectations. It pours a lovely clear amber, but I could hardly find anything in the taste to distinguish it. Not that it’s bad by any means -- it does have a creamy sweetness that’s identifiable if not exactly noteworthy. But really, if that’s the best I can say about it, it must be pretty disappointing. 6.5% alcohol, in case you were wondering.

I was much more impressed this weekend by the Altbier, or “Alt”, in Düsseldorf, in particular the brand Schumacher. It’s a very drinkable pale ale, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s passing through North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), which seems to be about the only place you can find it. See, so I do like some non-Belgian beers...

Special thanks to Marcus for introducing me to Alt on Saturday!

.

Zinne Bir

2008-05-01T17:50:00.006+02:00

Downpour. Bright sun. Downpour. Bright sun. That’s Brussels these days.

We had a couple hours catching up on gardening this morning while it was dry. Then, a full two hours of Monopoly inside while our new plants got soaked. Now, I’m trying to squeeze in a quick beer-tasting on the terrace in the few minutes it remains a sun-trap before that dark cloud comes overhead.

I picked up this bottle of Zinne Bir ages ago, and I have to admit I bought it for its label. It’s brilliant, and actually, it matches this day perfectly. And it's just one of several great beer labels from La Brasserie de la Senne (De Zenne Brouwerij).

This one sat on my shelf looking pretty for months -- no harm, as that’s just given it a bit more time to ferment in the bottle -- and now comes the moment when we will tell whether what’s in the bottle is as good as what’s on it.

It’s a blond beer with an amber colour and thick head. The taste is strongly bitter with a deep current of candied orange peel running through it. The alcohol level of 6% blends in nicely. Very nice overall balance.

OK, that’s all for now. It’s started raining again, and I’ve got to get in before the laptop gets too wet.

No, wait. Now the sun is coming out again. Maybe I've got time for another tasting.

.

Affligem Dubbel

2008-04-22T21:31:00.000+02:00

Racing to get a review in here between packing and preparing for a weekend of work away from home...

Affligem Dubbel pours a bottle-brown colour and has a fairly thin body. It’s malty and sweet but fizzy. More fumy than you’d expect for 6.8%. Not bad, but not hugely above average either. It’s a bit of a disappointment, really, because I quite liked Affligem Tripel.

Wait. Now I am sipping the beer a few minutes after writing the above, and I’m getting more out of this glass. The fizz is greatly reduced, and I sense a biscuit taste and a surprising hint of lavender.

Maybe I was just in a rush before and not concentrating. I’m off to Oslo for work tomorrow, and I’ve got one hundred things to do before my morning flight.

But OK, time to slow down and enjoy the rest of this abbey beer.

.

Hoegaarden

2008-04-22T21:18:00.004+02:00

Once again, I come to a Belgian beer that I should have reviewed ages ago: Hoegaarden. Apart from Stella Artois, there can hardly be a better known brew from this country.

For the record, I have written up other beers from this brand family including, Hoegaarden De Verboden Vrucht, Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Hoegaarden Speciale, but it is the regular old wheat beer, Hoegaarden, that everyone knows best. So, after waiting 90 beers to get to this point, let’s get on with it...

No, wait. First a confession: I love Hoegaarden. I think it’s the first Belgian beer I ever tasted. The cloudy straw colour is so inviting, and I’ve always found it enormously easy to drink, with its citrus-and-spice aspect just brilliant on a warm summer’s day. Always give the bottle dregs a swirl before you finish pouring it into your glass to get all the flavours... yum.

That said, I’m not sure it would be on my list of top ten Belgian beers. I wonder if what I love about Hoegaarden is not this brand per se but the whole idea of the Belgian-style wheat beer or witbier -- which is not to be confused with the numerous varieties of German Weißbier, which are also excellent, though generally significantly heartier (or at least the Hefeweizen that first comes to my mind).

Anyway, the point is I really haven’t tried enough other Belgian wheat beers to tell if Hoegaarden is a great example of this genre or just standard fare. Luckily, I have a full summer ahead of me in which to do a bit of research and side-by-side comparisons.

.

Cuvée de Francorchamps

2008-04-20T21:21:00.003+02:00

I suspect this is going to be a dodgy beer, but since it has a little race car on the label and I just spent all day driving, it seems appropriate for an evening on the sun-trap terrace. OK, I was in a Volkswagen Passat in the Netherlands not in a formula one, but as I was taking the in-laws around to look at tulips, porcelain and cheese, I thought I might find these items closer to a Dutch motorway than any speedway. But we’re back now, and, well, enough about me...

Cuvée de Francorchamps is a beer we picked up at a shop in Malmedy on our Ardennes winter retreat, but although it boasts an address in that town, I now know enough to realise that this means very little. When is comes to location of production, there are a lot of cheating Belgian beers.

It’s a tripel with 8% alcohol and a coppery colour. Strong head. The taste is a bit better than I expected, actually. Slightly creamy, good bitterness of grapefruit pith. Not as sharp and yummy as, say, Chimay tripel, but not too bad considering -- did I mention this already -- it has a picture of a formula one racing car on its label.

There’s something about having a picture of a car on a bottle of alcohol, no? I know this brand is trying to play on the F1 race at Spa, Belgium, but really, should we be encouraging strong ale drinking and fast driving? And everyone knows F1 drivers prefer champagne -- at least when it comes to spraying booze over people if not actually consuming it. Do they ever even drink it?

.

Double Enghien Brune

2008-04-15T21:11:00.003+02:00

Time to get Silly. Time to drink a beer from the Silly Brewery in Silly, Belgium, that is.

It’s supposed to be a dark beer, but it’s not particularly dark. Hoegaarden Grand Cru, a blond ale, is darker. That’s a bit silly.

Sadly, when it comes to taste, it only gets sillier. This beer doesn’t have much to recommend it. Dishwashing liquid, wet cardboard, and an out-of-balance alcoholic fume-a-thon dominating the whole thing. (though it’s only 8%) Then, there’s a stale hop aftertaste that lingers about fifteen minutes longer than necessary.

“You drinking Douwe Egberts beer or something?” said Fiona, referring to the label and its similarity to the brand of coffee. Silly wife.

.