This past Sunday was the 5^th installment of the Thirsty Hopster Tasting Series, and the first time we've partnered up with a local bar to enhance the experience. Initially, I thought ‘enhance the experience' would just mean that everyone would be guaranteed a seat and there'd be no more discreetly hustling crates of beer to and from the park or makeshift seats fashioned out of couch cushions in my living room. But no! Chuck and Nicole from The Trappist went above and beyond: opening up the bar early especially for us, putting together and awesome plate of cheese, figs, olives, and other snacks, and providing better tasting commentary than I could on my best day.

The theme was a loose one I came up with when wondering about the two way traffic of ideas (or lack thereof) between Belgian and American brewers. Belgian and Belgian-style beers have gotten big in the US lately, with imports booming and domestic brewers innovating on classic Belgian styles. What I haven't heard as much about is an impetus within the Belgian brewing scene to pick up on what the Americans are up to, and to innovate on American styles. So, we set out to find the best beers brewed by Belgian brewers in non-Belgian styles (generally American or British).

Before diving into the beers themselves, I think the best insight of the day on this Americo-Belgian beer trend came from Tim  from William's Brewing in San Leandro. He noted that when we Americans brew Belgian-style beers, we usually mean that we use their yeasts. But when Belgians brew American-style beers, they usually use... their yeasts. You'd think that if yeasts are what "define" one family of beers from another that a Belgian brewing an American-style beer would use American yeasts, but nope! They change up just about everything else except the yeast. This seems rather obvious on one hand, but struck me as I kept thinking about it as pretty important. There's no particular reason why a Belgian-brewed beer has to use a traditionally Belgian yeast strain. On one hand, I think this means that there's an untapped source of innovation there for Belgian brewers (brewing with other yeasts), so long as they think their customers show any kind demand for the crisp flavors of low-ester yeasts. On the other hand, it means there's also a potential for a global convergence on high-ester Belgian style yeasts, if we adopt them at such a rate that they become the standard in every geography. I don't really believe this will happen, especially considering how tiny the craft beer market still is in the US. I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. In reality, I think that if anything the selection of craft brews styles and flavors out there will continue to diversify, both in the US and globally.

I have no official tasting notes from the event, but I will give a few words on each of the brews:

• Belgian Scotch Ales
  • Scotch Silly from Brasserie de Silly: Deep clear amber color, think off-white head. Very malty and very sweet, as expected with a Scotch, but gets its Belgian twist in its exceptional fruitiness. For me, the high sweetness and high fruit flavors together were a little overwhelming. I usually like either a strong dose of one or the other, but both together tasted cloying. 8.0% ABV
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="256" caption="Miriam & Ben (who came in from NYC for the tasting! ok, not only for the tasting...)"][/caption]
• Belgian Stouts
  • Troubadour Oscura from Brouwerij De Musketiers: Very light color (medium amber) and lightness of roast (small bit on the second half of the taste) for a stout. Probably more similar to the prior beer (Scotch) than the following one (Export Stout). More drinkable than the Scotch Silly, but still showing strong Belgian-style esters. 8.5% ABV
  • De Dolle Extra Export Stout from De Dolle Brouwers: My favorite of the first three (the malt-driven beers). The carbonation rush was intense at first, bursting even, which was too much in my opinion, but it calmed down as the glass warmed. Nicole gave us some great tasting notes of which I only remember ‘pine' and ‘licorice', and in fact I could taste the licorice in the middle of the taste. Darker and roastier than the Troubadour, this one is unmistakably a stout. The alcohol is more noticeable as well, even though these two aren't far apart in ABV. 9.0% ABV.
• Belgian IPAs
  • Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor from Brouwerij Het Anker: This was a total about-face from the stouts, but there was really no good choice in terms of whether to drink IPAs before stouts or stouts before IPAs. It was very light in color for an IPA, straw colored, but not light in flavor. It had a really aromatic nose, full of perfume-y and earth-y hops and a big lemon kick. It was only mildly bitter, so many of the non-IPA drinkers proclaimed it the first IPA they ever enjoyed. It was a really nice departure from West Coast IPAs that often all have the same light amber color, pine and grapefruit aroma, and bitter flavor. I love those WCIPAs (Is this an acronym yet? It should be.), but I like most of all when someone does something new that's just as good as the old stand by's, if not better. 8.0% ABV.
  • Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel from Brasserie d'Achouffe: Ah, at this point, I was long caught up in conversation, and failed to take mental notes. However, I will make it up to you with another recommendation...

I've been hearing scuttlebutt for months now about Linden Street Brewery, a new distribution brewery going in over in Oakland, not far from The Trappist. Apparently they specialize in California Common style beers, which got me pretty excited since this is a style that needs a little more attention. It's an ale-lager hybrid style, using lager yeasts fermenting at ale temperatures (which are higher), that Anchor rescued from oblivion. To-date, Anchor Steam is still the only commercial example you can find reliably, though there are others that pop up in smaller brewpubs here and there, or as seasonal releases. I had previously emailed the owner of Linden Street to find out what their deal is, and how an enthusiastic beer drinker could get a hold of their brews, but unfortunately he told me that their ‘unofficial' Friday get-togethers had gotten too big, and there would be no more until their official opening. So, you can imagine how excited I was to find not one, but two Linden Street beers on tap at The Trappist, and that both were California Common style beers. One was a traditional light ale-lager hybrid, while the other was black. I tasted a few sips of them both and quickly snapped up a glass of the Black. It was incredible: dark, smoky, and heavily roasted, but still really crisp and refreshing. If you like Moonlight Brewing's Death and Taxes, you'll like this as well. I just hope they have their official opening soon so that I can get it at more places! In the meantime, make your way over to The Trappist fast, and see for yourself!

Yeah, so what if I can't pronounce this beer?  Does it make it any worse?  Au contraire my friend, it makes it better.  It nearly elevates me to the highest circles of beer snobbery.  What better than to drink a beer that you yourself cannot even pronounce?  It is seriously too good for words.

All self aggrandizing aside, this Belgian is a seriously good beer.  Rick from the great Beverage Warehouse suggested it to me, and he was right on.  On to the review....

Belgian beer with thick head, retention is excellent and very pillowy like the top of an ice cream float but better elasticity.

Color is amber and slightly cloudy. Lots of fruity smells, a bit of yeast.

Taste is malty, yeasty and bananas in the middle. Very strong dried banana taste. Finish lingers and coats the mouth.

The banana taste is strong, but not overpowering at all.  Nothing like beer that actually has a fruit in its name (Apricot Hefewizen) or a lambic.  It kinda hangs around in the background and mingles with the other flavors.  Noticeable, but not drawing too much attention to itself.

Very drinkable for its level of sweetness. Very solid Belgian could have used a bit more funkiness in the yeast.

Overall, this was a very good beer with an interesting flavor profile that I have not encountered before.  I actually bought it for Traci, who tends to like beers that are a bit lighter but she enjoyed it as well.  I paid $9 for a 750 ml bottle which is a pretty good deal considering its from the other side of the pond.  I would definitely drink this again, but not before I have tried some other offerings from the motherland of beer.

Overall: A

Beer snob would rather drink: Tazo tea

Deze week wordt jaargang 2008 van de Cuvée van de Keizer vrijgegeven.  Het bier, dat zoals de traditie het wil op 24 februari werd gebrouwen, wordt aangeboden in elegant bedrukt flessen en heet voortaan 'Cuvée van de Keizer Blauw'.  Dit jaar ziet ook een blonde tegenhanger van 10 vol.%alc. het levenslicht: 'Cuvée van de Keizer Rood'. 

Beide bieren zijn verpakt per 12 x 75 cl. in een mooie doos.  De bekende houten kisten worden aldus vervangen.

You see, there are whole styles of beer that I generally avoid just because they seem, well, wimpy and bland next to their most similar cousins in the beer style galaxy. 

Pale Ales are one of these - why bother when you can have an IPA? Although, I guess this begs the question, why bother having an IPA when you can have an Imperial IPA?  I think there is a good answer to this second question though, which is that sometimes you want the citric or piney or floral flavor of an IPA without the extreme bitterness of an Imperial IPA.  It's sort of a aromatic hops vs. bittering hops debate.

Another example is brown ales.  Sure, I guess they are good, but come on, wouldn't you rather have a porter or a stout?  Or an American strong ale? Or a spiced brown ale?  Something with a little taste to jazz things up?  Plain brown ales seem to me about as boring as you can get on the darker end of the spectrum.

But I'm going off on tangents here because my point in sitting down to write this post was to focus on one pale ale that I can always count on, and that's Mirror Pond Pale Ale by Deschutes. 

It was a night of many beers, though I hadn't intended for it to end up that way.  I had gone to Bar Crudo, one of my new favorite places to drink beer (great beer list, very knowledgeable and friendly staff, and great friendly atmosphere at the bar).  I always try something new when I go there, and almost always walk away with a new favorite.  The first time it was the Gouden Carolus Tripel, the second time it was the Gulden Draak. 

The Gouden Carolus Tripel was just exactly what I want out of a Tripel.  It was highly carbonated with sparkling bubbles of CO2 and a great foamy head.  The fruity smell was wafting out of the glass before I even got close enough to sip it.  I think this is what really draws me in to beers, if I can smell them before I taste them, I know it's probably going to be good.  It's got the punch and body of a high alcohol beer, but it tastes delicate, like this combination of citrus, apples, an light spiciness might dissipate if you're not nice to it.  It was sweet, but in the way fruit is sweet, not in the way marshmallow peeps are sweet, which it to say, in a pleasant way, not the somewhat sickening way I sometimes associate with oh, say, lambics. 

The Gulden Draak is another beast entirely, well not so much entirely since it is also Belgian, highly alcoholic, and very, very good.  It's a darker beer, a medium brown with a reddish tinge and another great (typically Belgian) head.  It has a lot of things going on at once, which is what I most like about it.  You can roll it around on your tongue for many seconds before swallowing.  At one moment you'll taste the same orange and apple fruitiness that might be similar to the Gouden Carolus above, the next moment it's lightly burnt/candied sugar, the next moment it's peppery spice.  It's a medium to full bodied beer, unlike the Carolus above, and fully satisfying.  Also, though it's 10.5% alcohol by volume, but you'd never know it, which is the big danger with this one. 

But that's enough about prior trips to Bar Crudo, at some point I have to get back on track to my Mirror Pond review.  This time I had two great beers, but neither one has displaced the ones I compare it to in my head. 

First, there was the Reinaerts Flemish Wild Ale, which is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.  This is a beer fermented with wild Belgian yeasts, from the Brettanomyces family, unlike the typical brewer's yeasts used to make most beers and lagers.  People often describe the smell of a Brett beer as "barnyard-like", "horse-y", etc.  Tim described this beer as "earthy" when he served it to me, which I think is probably a better term to use marketing-wise (who wants a truly horsey beer?) and to fit what the beer actually tasted like.  I think it is a very good example of a Brett style beer, in that if you wanted to know what the flavors of Brett yeast are, you can find them here.  That said, it wasn't one of my all time favorites.  I like that it was sour, but would probably go with an Oud Bruin or Flanders Red instead if I wanted a good sour beer.  I guess it was just that I'm not a big enough fan of the Brett taste for it to be the main draw for me in a beer.  Since the Reinaerts was pale there wasn't the malt complexity going on that you find in the darker Flemish-style beers.  Which is why I moved on to....

The Rodenbach Grand Cru, which is a Flanders Red Ale.  I split a 750ml with and friend and at this point was eating a good deal of bread and butter to try to tide over this beer pre-dinner.  I have to say, though I haven't tasted them head to head and my sense is that most others would disagree with me, that I think I prefer the Duchesse de Bourgogne.   The Rodenbach was tart, wine-y, and complex, but so is the Duchesse.  I think the difference is that the Rodenbach was very smooth and all the flavors seemed well integrated and mixed, whereas the Duchesse seems more rough-and-tumble with different notes popping up more suddenly and unevenly.   I very much liked it though and am eager to try it head to head with other Flemish reds to see what I really think when I (A) Haven't had other beers already that night, and (B) can taste the comparable beers side by side.

Which brings us to the real point of my review, the Mirror Pond.  We left Bar Crudo intending to have some sushi at Akiko's but found it closed even though it was only about 9:15pm.  So we walked around the corner to the Irish Bank, not wanting to wander around too long and miss our chance to eat.  I had a very decent beef stew that came with a ginormous scoop of mashed potatoes on top that was somewhat remarkable in how spherical it was.  I'm not sure how I feel about unnaturally shaped potato mounds, but the stew was tasty and filling nonetheless.  So, I ordered a Mirror Pond, which I probably didn't need at this point on a Wednesday night, but that's what the first couple of beers will do to you, is egg you on to have another. 

While all of the Belgian beers reviewed above are eccentric and special and exciting, I don't think the Mirror Pond is, which may have you wondering why it is the focus of this post.  But it's dependable and a standout beer in a much maligned style and something I could probably drink any time, anywhere.  Sitting on the sofa after a long day of work?  Have a Mirror Pond.  Out to a fancy dinner with relatives? Have a Mirror Pond.    Barbeque on a friend's roof deck on a hot day? Have a Mirror Pond or two. 

Again, as with the Gouden Carolus above, it's the aroma of the Mirror Pond that makes me such a fan.  It has great citrus hops flavors that are way more prominent than in other beers with comparable or higher IBUs.    It's not sweet and there is some hop bitterness, so this is more of an orange zest flavor than an orange slice flavor. 

That was it for me that night, and a good thing too. 

Anyway, without further ado, I give you the Beer of the Week: Duchesse de Bourgogne. 

Why?  Because this stuff is on a roll!  This is a Flanders Red Ale, which is a pretty unusual style, and one you don't see too often, but I've now run into it 4 TIMES in the past TWO WEEKS. 

(1) First it was at Spork, where the waiter described it condescendingly as tasting like "wine mixed with coke", which it kind of does in the best possible way, and recommended that I not order it.   He clearly didn't know what he was talking about or who he was dealing with.

(2) Then it was at Bar Crudo, where the bartender called it one of his all time favorites.  I feel like we bonded over this, even though I didn't order it this time.  I did, however, discover other soon to be favorites including Gouden Carolus Tripel and St. Bernardus Abt 12 (a quadrupel). 

(3) Then it was ON TAP at Toronado!  Now they have all kinds of stuff in bottles, but a Flanders Red on tap?  This must be unprecedented.  Again, I chose other beers (a Tripel I don't remember the name of and the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, which was decent, but not a favorite), but had to ask, "Had the Duchesse distributor just come through town on a whirlwind tour?"  The barkeep gave a non-committal answer, I think he suspected I was some kind of industry type or competitor a this point, rather than a thirsty blogger.

(4) Finally, I ran into it again, and tried it again, at La Trappe.  It was one of seven beers picked to be in a Line Up of Belgians in the beer tasting run by Stu Stuart of Belgian Beer Me.  I could not believe it!  It was really tasty, complex, and better than the first time I had it.  I think it takes a couple tastes to really enjoy it, and a server/pourer who knows what he/she is doing. 

I recommend this beer especially to my non-beer drinking wine friends.  It's not that it is the most accessible or easy to like beer, but it does taste a lot like wine because it is aged in oak casks. 

So, look for it around town and look for more posts on this blog!

Ik heb een fantastische Horeca Expo achter de rug.  Het werk werd -op een paar uitzonderingen na- uit het geheugen gewist en het walhalla van de brouwerijen werd binnengetreden.  Ik wil graag de brouwerijen Het Anker, Palm, Dupont, Verhaeghe, De Troch, Saint-Monon, Boon, Captain Cooker (bierfirma), Van Steenberge en Van Eecke bedanken voor hun gastvrijheid.

Nieuwe 'looks' voor het Gouden Carolus-gamma

Brouwerij Het Anker stelde haar nieuwe etiketten voor.  "De flessen Gouden Carolus Classic, Ambrio en Tripel van 33 cl. en 75 cl. zijn gisteren nog met de hand van hun nieuwe kleedje voorzien", aldus Vincent Poillion, sinds juni in dienst als commercieel verantwoordelijke van de brouwerij.  De ingrediëntenlijst staat in liefst 10 (!) talen vermeld: water, gerstemout, maïs, suiker, hop, gist.  De drie paradepaardjes van de brouwerij zijn allen hergist in de fles.  Behalve de inhoud, het volume procent alcohol, de houdbaarheidsdatum en enkele andere wettelijke verplichtingen, wordt ook de ideale schenktemperatuur meegegeven: 7 - 10 °C voor de Classic en 5 - 7 °C voor de Ambrio en de Tripel.

Het logo van de brouwerij en een afbeelding naar het munstuk met de afbeelding van Keizer Karel zijn mooi verweven in de cirkel, voor iedere soort in een andere kleur (zilver voor Classic, bordeauxrood voor Ambrio en goud voor Tripel), die de merknaam 'Gouden Carolus' extra in de verf zet.  In deze cirkel vinden we terug dat brouwerij Het Anker haar ontstaan kende in 1369, uiteraard in Mechelen.  Ook de kleur van het bier en opnieuw de verwijzing naar de hergisting op fles staan daarin vermeld.

Gouden Carolus Tripel

In de linker benedenhoek staat het pictogram 'product met statiegeld' en het waarschuwingsteken voor zwangere vrouwen, een verplichting voor de export naar Frankrijk.  Rechts staat het gloednieuwe logo van de nieuwe vzw 'Belgian Family Brewers', een groepering van 12 'historische en onafhankelijke familiebrouwerijen die een werkelijke meerwaarde betekenen voor de identiteit en de authenticiteit van het Belgische Bierbrouwerijwezen'.

Gouden Carolus Classic draagt met trots nog drie andere logo's.  Dit jaar viel het bier tweemaal in de prijzen: een gouden award in de categorie 'Belgian Style Dubbel' op de European Beer Star in Nürnberg en een 'World Beer Award' in de categorie 'Standard Strong Dark Ale' op de Wold Beer Awards in Londen.  Gouden Carolus Classic mag ook het logo 'streekproduct.be' dragen.  'Streekproducten zijn verse of verwerkte producten gemaakt met streekeigen grondstoffen of die als streekeigen worden beschouwd. Ze moeten bekend staan als een streekeigen product, in de streek bereid worden, én een langdurige of een historische bekendheid genieten'.