Tag: Belgium

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Up From the Cellar – Chimay Blue (Grande Reserve)

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The Chimay characterized “Grande Reserve” or more simply as the “Blue One” is a dark Belgian ale that was initially a Christmas beer and that the website says  “improves across the years.”

Chimay goes on to describe Ol’ Blue as an “authentic Belgian beer, whose tinge of fresh yeast is associated with a light rosy flowery touch, is particularly pleasant. Its aroma, perceived as one enjoys it, only accents the delightful sensations revealed by the odour, all revealing a light but agreeable caramelized note. ”

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I first reviewed this beer back in October of 2009, This is a strong beer. My glass was from a 2008 jeroboam of the Grande Reserve. Alcohol and yeast flavors dominate with a golden ale taste in the background.

How will my more educated beer palate and the cellaring in the 4+ year old beer change that initial thought?

Let’s see….
The cork popped out of this 09 09 vintage very easily to my immense relief. Cork fighting is not fun. A little whiff of smoke twirled out of the bottle. The taste seems off here. Very light and watery. Cola caramel notes are the main feature with a lingering bubbly ness. What is throwing the taste off are some metallic notes that start small but grow on the palate. If there was more malt heft left, the discordant note may have been hidden but age has taken that out it seems. The Belgian yeast adds a little spice but more cidery notes to the proceedings.

As it warms up, the lightness and bubbles are replaced with a cloying sugary flavor. It mitigates the metallic note but now the taste is more apple / maple and a bit in the syrup side.

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The Verdict? – This counts as a failure. Probably the biggest of the series. I can handle metallic but both the wateriness at the beginning or the sugariness at the ends are a big turn-off for me and I will chalk that up to age not the highly esteemed brewery.

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Session # 91

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After the haterade that was Session 90, we have moved on to a wide open discussion on Belgian beers for Session 91.

The topic comes to us via our host, Belgian Smaak.

Many of the suggested writing prompts piqued my interest but I thought I would just take a chance and see what Belgian beer I first rated on Ratebeer.

And I found it within five ticks, Golden Valley French Prairie Blanche. A witbier brewed in my ol’ college town of McMinnville (Go Wildcats!). Sure a saison from Portland favorite Upright followed soon after and the requisite Bruery beers were there in the early days of craft beer fandom. But what some may call a starter Belgian was the first for me.

My brief thoughts back in 2009 were as follows, “Nice spice smell on this one. Possibly a little too dark for a wit. The taste is spot on. Light with many different notes.” I gave it a score of 3.8 out of 5.0.

Nowadays, I am more apt to drink a tripel or an American tinged Saison then I am to have a Witbier. But the wit style, along with the German Hefeweizen have flavor profiles that I can easily identify and enjoy. The coriander from one and the clove of the other are familiar guideposts to lean on.

Whereas a Belgian Strong ale may be too heavy on the palate or a Belgian IPA may be tilted too far towards yeast in one direction or hops to the other. The simpler Wit along with the Belgian single seem to always work, if I can generalize.

And I say that after participating in a Wit Bier tasting.

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Cantillon Bulks Up

No, no steroids here just more capacity for the beloved Belgian blender, Cantillon.

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They have apparently been in the market for additional space since last year and have found a new space in an old blender building that held Brasseries Limbourg up until the sixties.

Due to the lengthy process of aging, you won’t see an immediate impact but once 2 to 3 years/vintages pass they will eventually be able to double their production.  Which is great news for those who can’t get enough of their stellar line-up.  Soon they will brew the wort at the main brewery before transferring (after cooling) to mature at the new location.

 

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This + Craft Beer

L.A. is not Belgium (yet) but one thing that might be translatable from there to here is the combo.

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Check out this article with photos from PopUpCity right HERE. Why can’t we mix and match? Restaurants have been slow on the uptake.  Either grafting on beer to a menu (looking at the lazy people and Bourbon Steak in Glendale) or ignoring it all together. So how about Pet grooming and beer?  Pets get treated real well here in L.A. so why not combo with some craft beer?  Or follow the Wasbar example.  Maybe a combo coffee house in the morning, craft beer at night concept?

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Up from the Cellar – Cuvée Renee from Brouwerij Lindemans

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Brouwerij Lindemans is coming up from the cellar in April!  I started with the Faro and now we tackle the Cuvee Renee. A refermented in the bottle Gueuze that the label declares “Improves in bottle with age”

I always dread corked bottles.  You never know if the cork will behave or if there will be a geyser.  But this cork came out easy and cleanly.  No trouble at all.  It pours a really clear orange with a bit of lacing around the edge of the glass after the initial pillow of foam recedes.  The aroma is pure funk.  I get grass, hay and barn wood.  And this probably sounds strange but I also get that smell just before rain starts.  Weird.

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Boy, this a puckery inducing beer.  My first thought was of sucking a lemon.  It has that citrus note that is punctuated with tart.  It is twisting my mouth into different shapes.  It is really sharp at the front of the mouth which makes finding other notes a little harder.  But I do get some oak wood notes.  Very minor but there.  A little bit of apple cider vinegar as well.  I have had beers that are more sour but this is definitely at that end of the spectrum.  Not an easy drinker and a sharp contrast to the sticky sweetness of the Faro from earlier this month.

Both were bought at the same time.  So I will “assume” that they were close vintages.  And yet they couldn’t be further apart to me.  This is super tart and that doesn’t let up much as it warms either.  In fact, I start to get more grapefruit pith notes now.  My palate is in a state of sour shock.

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The Verdict – Part of me thinks that this beer has turned a little too vinegary and that I may have held it a good half year too long.  But the acid isn’t super high and I still do get some citrus notes and the barnyard funk is in full bloom.  So, I am conflicted.  Let’s split the difference and say that this would have been better back in January.

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Up From the Cellar – Brouwerij Lindemans Faro

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Brouwerij Lindemans is coming up from the cellar in April!  I start with the Faro and move on to Cuvee Renee later in the month. Now per the description from the excellent resources at Beer Advocate, here is what a typical Faro should be, “A blended Lambic with the addition of candi sugar for a lighter, quite sweet and more palatable beer. Commonly spiced with pepper, orange peel and coriander.”

Now I have had this beer for just over 2 years.  I purchased it and the Cuvee Renee at the same time from Vendome Liquors near Toluca Lake.

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It was a multi-step process to get the beer in a glass.  First you peel off the silver foil protecting the neck of the bottle.  Then you pop the cap.  And then you pry the cork off.  (That is something that I still have yet to master gracefully).  Once open it pours an amber orange color with little to no head to it.  The initial aroma is simple syrup to me.  Also a touch of apple cider  Very sweet smelling.

The taste is also extremely sweet.  But it is counteracted by a bubbly character and a slight bitterness at the back of the finish. There is a slight hint of tartness tucked into as well.  But overall this is not that far removed from an apple cider that uses a more sugary varietal of apple.

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The Verdict: Between the sweet and the bubbly, the sweet is winning the time war.  I have not had many Faro’s so I do not have a comparison vs. what a vintage from 2012 would have tasted like.  (I did not have the foresight to buy one to taste then).  But I have the sneaking suspicion that this lambic would just keep getting sweeter and would also probably get drier as well.  I can totally taste how this would be a gateway to stronger and tarter lambics though.

 

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De Ranke Hop Harvest

Now I don’t normally go in for hunting “whales”.  In fact that whole scene is a turn off for me.  But from time to time, there are some intriguing beers that I would buy very quickly if I see it.  And the DeRanke Hop Harvest is one of those.  Despite the horrible label that probably won’t change in 2014.

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I am sure as the year goes on, others will get added to the list.  No joke.

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De Lambikstoempers

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Lambikstoempers are an “association that wants to make known the beer culture in Belgium and support, specifically the beers of our region: the Senne valley and the Pajottenland.”

For some reason, I imagine Stormtroopers heading into a bar and brewery demanding at laser point, that good local craft beer be served.

They started back in 1999 (10 years before I started blogging) and have been putting on events and getting into the news since then.

I am talking about them because I believe that we need more watchdog groups like theirs to keep different elements of the craft beer world honest and to call people out in a constructive way.

And what is a Lambikstoemper?

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It is a pestle  to use in mashing in sugar to a lambic or Gueuze.

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Gueze & Kriek – book review

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I was quite excited to get this book for Christmas because this is a style that I don’t know the history of so I dove right into reading it (after finishing up the 2nd book in the Song of Ice and Fire).

First off, this is a translation and it shows in parts. Lot’s of exclamation points and some odd transitions from sentence to sentence. But it excels in two spots that are most important to me.

One, it delves into the history of this beer briefly before expanding to the history of each of the brewers and blenders. It is a treat to learn about where Cantillon started and where it is now. Literally it is a history if who started it and where it is now You even get a bit of travel guidance as well with some notations of where to go to order a glass.

Second, the photographs are great. For someone who has not been inside one of these breweries, or the country of Belgium for that matter, these shots really take you in front of and behind the scenes. Some captions for the photographs would have been helpful though. But that doesn’t detract from seeing a well used coolship filled with beer.
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One jarring note is how often male inheritance of breweries is mentioned. As if a woman couldn’t brew these specific styles! It is a bit great-grandfatherly for my taste.

Overall an interesting look into a very historic and specific style. I felt bad not drinking that style exclusively while reading it.

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Xmas 2012 – Achouffe / N’Ice

Off to Belgium and the gnomes of Achouffe…

“The N’ICE CHOUFFE is a strong dark beer that will warm you up during the winter months. It is spiced (with thyme and curaçao) and a light hop taste, a well-balanced beer. The N’ICE CHOUFFE is unfiltered, and re-fermented in the bottle as well as in the keg.”