Belgium

Rodenbach Grand Cru

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Back in the gestating phase of this blog, I put together a dorky list of beers I wanted to try. This was mostly based on hearsay and tomfoolery on the internets, but my friend and frequently-mentioned beverage compatriot Padraic recommended a few sour beers for me to try. One was Jolly Pumpkin’s La Roja, a well-crafted beer that I ultimately enjoyed, even if it didn’t blow my mind. Another recommendation was anything from Rodenbach, so I girded my loins for another foray into the sour realm of beer. This time, I was rewarded with a beer that I now count among my favorite sours. Consider my mind blown:

Rodenbach Grand Cru

Rodenbach Grand Cru – Rodenbach apparently brews a single base beer, but what makes them special isn’t really the brewing details, but rather, the aging process. They take that base beer and put most of it in giant oak vats. There it sits, for two years. At that point, it’s then blended with a proportion of “young” beer and bottled. What we have here today is 33% young beer and 67% beer aged for two years. And boy, did that aging do the trick…

Pours a dark amber color with a finger of creamy looking tan head. Smells of a wine-like vinegar, a familiar twang that indicates sourness to me, with maybe some mustiness peeking through too. That fruity, vinous sourness hits immediately in the taste, but a nice rich malt character emerges quickly, along with a little of that caramel, oak, and vanilla character from the aging. Lots of complex but well balanced flavors here, a sourness that is pleasant but not overpowering, an oak-aged character that adds a richness of flavor without overwhelming the more delicate touches. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, rich, and full bodied, but that sourness prevents it from feeling heavy. A really wonderful beer, among my favorite sours. A

Beer Nerd Details: 6% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked and covered). Drank out of a goblet on 5/26/12.

Well, call me a believer. I just may be coming around to sour beers, though they still don’t get me revved up the way a bourbon barrel-aged beer does. Anyways, I’ve already got a bottle of the Rodenbach “classic” (similar process, but only 25% is aged, the rest being young beer) in my fridge, though I’m not expecting that one to be quite as revelatory as the Grand Cru!

A Saison Darkly

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Okay, I give up. We can discuss the merits and demerits of style definitions all day, we can even devise new ways to evaluate styles, but I defy anyone to make sense of the “Saison” style of beer. I do believe it’s the least coherent style in the history of beer. Ostensibly a rustic, farmhouse beer, there are many classics of the style, starting with Saison Dupont, which I’ve come to think of as it’s own subclass of saisons. Sweet and spicy, it’s pretty much what I look for in a saison. But then you’ve got another class of saisons that are lighter and dryer, your Cellar Doors or Jack D’Ors. Then are the earthy, Brett dosed beers, a la Saison Rue. If that represented most beers that were labeled saison, I think we’d be in good shape, but then Fantôme has to explode the entire notion of the style by making super tart, even sour examples of the style. Sometimes you’ll get a saison that’s in the 3-4% ABV range, sometimes you get one around 10%, and anywhere inbetween.

But even after all that, there is at least one commonality between all these sub-styles: a pale color. Well fuck that. It turns out that there are a number of dark saisons too. Shit. Basically, if you pick up a beer labeled saison, you can look forward to something with anywhere from 3-10% ABV, pale to dark color, sweet and spicy to earthy and roasty or what the hell, maybe even (intentionally) sour.

On the other hand, I’m rarely disappointed by Saisons, even when they’re not what I expected, and they’re a pretty versatile beer, working in a great number of situations. Need something light and fluffy for summer drinkin? A saison will do ya. Need something to pair with food? Saisons, especially dry saisons, are actually a pretty good fit. Want to blow your mind? Pick up one of the higher ABV saisons. Need a sessionable lawnmower beer? Pick up one of the lower ABV varieties (these are relatively rare, but it seems to be a popular homebrew choice).

Anyways, here’s my first dark saison, and like everything I’ve had from Stillwater, it’s pretty darn good. It also marks a rash* of Phillip K. Dick inspired brews, also including the Grassroots/Tired Hands Do Saisons Dream Of Electric Yeast?** Fortunately, drinking this beer didn’t inspire any paranoia… except about the saison style definition, I guess.

Stillwater A Saison Darkly

Stillwater A Saison Darkly – Pours a very dark brown color with tons of khaki coloed head and visible sediment at the bottom of the glass. When held up to the light, you can see beautiful ruby red highlights. Smells strongly of musty Belgian yeast, tons of spice and a little fruit too. Taste is sweet, with lots of spiciness and some very nicely balanced roasted malt notes. Mouthfeel is full bodied with a highly carbonated, spicy bite, and a somewhat dry finish. An interesting take on the saison style, this one grows on me the more I drink. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (11.2 oz) Drank out of a goblet on 5/12/12.

I’ve always liked Stillwater, but they’re emerging as a go-to brewery for me these days. And there are tons of brews I haven’t sampled yet either… Nothing in the immediate pipeline, but you’ll definitely be seeing more of their stuff on the blog.

* Two beers counts as a rash, right?

** But don’t worry, there’s plenty of PKD available for the taking. The Märzen in the High Castle, The Three Hop Rhizomes of Palmer Eldritch (oh, oh, The Tripel Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich!), Flow My Beers, the Policeman Said, The Fermentation of Timothy Archer, and probably tons of others.

Philly Beer Week: Iron Hill and Dupont Spéciale Belge

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Well, folks, it’s been a long week, and while I wasn’t able to post anything due to technical difficulties, I was (of course) still partaking in some interesting beer. The most exciting thing that happened was a quick Philly Beer Week preview event in which I got to try Brasserie Dupont‘s first collaboration beer, made specially for Philly Beer Week 2012 in collaboration with Iron Hill’s brewer. I won’t belabor the story about how the collaboration came to pass, but while the beer was made specially for Philly Beer Week, I’ve also heard that it will be getting a wider distribution (according to the PBW website, it will be available “coast to coast” after its introduction in Philly).

For the uninitiated, Iron Hill is a local chain of brewpubs that’s become quite popular and well respected around here. I like them a lot, and Dupont makes some of my favorite beers, so I was quite looking forward to this beer:

Dupont Speciale Belge

Iron Hill and Dupont Spéciale Belge – I should probably explain at this point that my notes here are sparse, so take this review with a grain of salt. The short story is that I really enjoyed the beer. It’s a pale amberish color with tons of head, but it’s brewed with Dupont’s distinctive yeast, and that pleasant Belgian yeast spice and ester character is the driving force behind this beer. Lots of spice in the nose, and compared to Dupont’s bigger saisons, it’s got a lighter, fruitier felling to it (from the yeast, not the hops). According to the story, it’s made using smoked malt, but I wasn’t really picking up any smoke at all (a friend who was also in attendance didn’t pick up on it either, but I’ve resolved to buy myself a bottle of the stuff and try it again anyway, so I’ll have to look a little harder next time). Light to medium bodied, it’s actually very refreshing, which was really nice because this event was outside and it was quite warm. Overall, a really nice beer. Does it rival the classic Saison Dupont? Well, maybe not, but that’s a pretty high bar to clear. I’ll give it a tentative B+ or maybe even A-, though again, I’d love to try this again.

Beer Nerd Details: 5.75% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute? Goblet? Whatever that glass in the picture is… on 5/16/12.

I’m trying to decide how active to be during Philly Beer Week. A lot of the events are in the city, which aren’t really that convenient for this suburbanite, but who knows, maybe I’ll hop on a train or two and attend some events. Definitely looking forward to the Hill Farmstead event at Teresa’s, but as of right now, I haven’t really planned out anything else for the week.

Duchesse De Bourgogne

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I’m a backwards man. Instead of easing myself into sour beers, I started with the sourest of sours*, a Gueuze that was fine for what it was, but it almost soured** me on sour beers forever. Or for a few weeks, at least. I then moved on to some of Russian River’s fabled sours (described on their website as “high” sourness), which I enjoyed quite a bit… and yet, I hadn’t really caught the sour bug just yet. And despite some true sour revelations over the past year or so, I still wouldn’t call myself a huge fan of sours. But then, I realized that I didn’t really start off with the typical beers.

According to dontdrinkbeer, Duchesse De Bourgogne is “The Mistress that Starts Every Man’s Sick Foray into Sours” (he also mentions Rodenbach, which has also been on my list at Padraic’s urging for quite some time now – I’ll get theres someday, I promise). As we’ve already established, I went backwards, so this was probably the dozenth or so sour I’ve had… but I’m glad I’m getting back to basics here. So once more unto the breach, dear friends:

Duchesse De Bourgogne

Duchesse De Bourgogne – Pours a dark amber with beautiful highlights when held up to light. Just a bit of light tan head. Smell is quite funky and earthy with a twang in the nose. Taste is very strange. Sweet with a fruity candy character, a little funk emerging in the middle and a light, vinegary sourness hitting in the finish. Well carbonated but but an incredibly smooth, almost creamy mouthfeel. Maybe a little vinegar acidity there, and lots of slickness in the finish. Overall, it’s an interesting beer. Not being a big sour guy, it’s a bit unusual, and it’s not my favorite, but it’s very well done. B

Beer Nerd Details: 6% ABV bottled (11.2 oz) Drank out of a snifter on 3/23/12.

I suspect I’d had this beer earlier in my sick foray into sours, I’d have a higher opinion of it. But after having had some revelatory examples, I didn’t quite find myself loving this, though it’s clearly a good beer. Oh, and while I’m not a huge food and beer pairing guy, I’ve noticed that Flanders Sours (I’ve not tried it with others) go really well with both dark chocolate and cheddar cheese. Go figure.

* In case my lack of experience with sours is not apparent, I have no idea whether or not that Gueuze is actually the “sourest” of sours. It’s just the one that sticks out in my head as being obscenely sour.

** Pun intended.

Beer Club: The End is Beer

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Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. We had a good turnout this month, with quite a few interesting beers to try. As usual, we hit up a local BYOB, this time a Thai place. Good times were had by all.

Beer Club March 2012

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For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer we tried are below. As usual, conditions were not ideal, so the below probably isn’t completely representative of reality. In order of drinking (not in order of the picture above):

  • Elysian NIBIRU Yerba Mate Tripel – I arrived a bit late to the gathering, so I didn’t get to have a lot of this, but it was a nice Tripel style beer with a twist. Apparently part of a twelve beer series celebrating the Mayan apocalypse of 2012… (also the source of the “End is Beer” pun). I wouldn’t call it a top tier beer, but it was nice. B
  • Lakefront New Grist Sorghum Beer – Wow, is this a light colored beer. Incredibly light beer in every way. Not bad, per say, but there’s not a ton of flavor here either. It reminded me a lot of a less tasty but better balanced Coors Light, if that makes any sense (which it probably doesn’t). Certainly not a great beer, but it has it’s place. C+
  • Tröegs Nugget Nectar – I’ve actually reviewed this before, but I’ve revisited it a couple times since then and I have to admit that it gets better every time I try it. Nice hoppy citrus and pine resin character, with some earthy/herbal notes as well. An excellent beer, I’d upgrade this to a B+, maybe even higher (this was generally considered the best beer of the night by beer club homies)
  • My Homebrewed Simcoe IPA – Seemed to go over very well with the beer club folks, even the people who don’t normally love IPAs. Not to toot my own horn, but this did turn out really well. Tons of citrus and a little pine from the hops in both the nose and taste. The bitterness is well matched and pleasant. Really solid beer. B+
  • Atwater Dirty Blonde Ale – A very nice, sessionable wheat ale that sorta suffered from being tasted after a few stronger, fuller flavored brews. A very nice beer, to be sure, but it was hard to really pronounce it a great beer compared to other beers in the tasting. B-
  • Stillwater Of Love & Regret – Another of my contributions to the night, I bought this last week without realizing that I’d actually had it before, so I figured I’d share the wealth. The bottle did sorta explode when I popped the cap, instantly foaming over. Luckily, we did not lose much of it, and the beer still tasted wonderful. It’s got a saison style feel to it, but a little fruitiness and lots of spice too. Very nice beer and one of my favorites of the night, though some others didn’t care as much for this one… B+
  • Great Lakes Conway’s Irish Ale – This Irish Red Ale seems to share something with the typical English Pale Ale style, though this time around, there’s enough flavor around to make it feel balanced and actually decent. I enjoyed this beer, despite not being very blown away by it. B-
  • Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale – A very nice IPA style beer, though BA lists it as an American Pale Wheat Ale. Not sure what that means, but it turns out that it’s a lot like a regular old (well, a very good, actually) IPA. Lots of American Hop Character, quite nice. I’d like to try it again sometime… B+
  • Left Hand Milk Stout – Another beer I’ve had before and enjoyed. Reminds me very much of Lancaster’s Milk Stout – very roasty, some coffee flavors, and overall a decent roasty stout. Solid, but not one of my favorites. B
  • New Belgium Lips Of Faith – Cocoa Mole – A most unusual beer. I get lots of caramel malt and chocolate out of this, but the chipotle spice is what really gives this beer an extra kick. It was pretty good in the context of beer club, though I’m not sure I’d love to drink an entire bottle of the stuff. B
  • AleSmith Old Numbskull – My other contribution for the night, this was the biggest beer of the night, and boy does it have an intense aroma/flavor profile. Lots of caramel and citrusy, resinous hops. Really nice and I liked it a lot, but I was glad to have shared it with a bunch of other folks. Overall, might be the second best beer of the night behind the Nugget Nectar. B+

A great time was had by all, so it was another successful beer club, and as always, I’m already looking forward to next month!

The Oak Melchior

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Just what is a Melchior? Every time I see that name, I have to pronounce it like I assume Robert Loggia would. The Oak Melcheoooorrrrrrr!

As it turns out, Melchior is not a reference to a beloved character actor, but rather one of the Three Wise Men. Melchior, Caspar (aka Gaspar), and Balthazar were the three kings bearing gifts to the newly born Jesus. While not explicitly named by Mathew in his gospel, as near as I can tell, most of the details come from various Greek transcripts dating to the latter half of the first millennium. Basically, Biblical fan fiction.

Well, the relatively new brewers over at the Picobrouwerij Alvinne decided to make a series of beers celebrating our favorite Magi, then age them in a variety of barrels. This particular beer was brewed with mustard seeds and aged for 6 months in Calvados brandy barrels. Actually, the barrels apparently contained Cognac for 10 years and Calvados for 8 years. The label says that “We found these barrels at a local farmer in the French Contentin.” I get the impression that the Belgian brewers just got drunk, crossed the border and mounted an attack on France, who promptly surrendered, yielding old brandy barrels as spoils of war.

Beer Advocate lists this as a Belgian Strong Pale Ale, which makes sense, because my exhaustive research has revealed that Melchior was likely the king carrying Gold:

Alvinne Oak Melchior

Picobrouwerij Alvinne The Oak Melchior – Pours a cloudy golden orange color with minimal head, actually quite a pretty looking beer. The smell has a twang to it that I associate with sour beers, and that seems to overwhelm any other aromas (upon further pours into the glass, I do get a sorta bready aroma too). I was naturally expecting the sourness to appear in the taste, but there’s not much there. Instead, I get typical rich oak flavors and maybe a bit of booze (presumably from the cognac and brandy) with a thick but smooth malt backbone. Maybe just a hint of a sour twang there, but you really have to look for it (and possibly imagine it). I’m not detecting the mustard seeds at all, but that’s as it should be. The flavors are complex enough that I’m sure the mustard played a role somewhere. The mouthfeel is chewy and heavy with just enough light carbonation to make the rich flavors palatable. The booze contributes a big warming feeling as well. An extremely unusual beer, but one I’m glad I got to try. If it weren’t for the disconnect with the aroma, this would be in the A range, but I’ll still give it a solid B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 2/4/12. Cap sez: Melchior Calv342, Jan 2013 Lot 469.

Has anyone ever made myrrh beer? How about frankincense beer? I smell a homebrew batch coming on. Or something.

I’d be really curious to see how this Calvados barrel treatment would work on a darker beer style… and apparently Picobrouwerij Alvinne has done just that. For a “pico” brewery (i.e. a really small brewery), they sure do seem to put out a huge variety of beers, from typical Belgian styles to Imperial Stouts. Beer Advocate lists 54 different beers. And they’ve seemingly barrel aged all of their normal beers at some point. In several different types of barrels, no less. The Melchior itself has 5 different barrel-aged versions.

I bought this bottle on a whim because it sounded interesting and it was from Belgium (let’s call this another successful round of Belgian Beer Roulette). Now I’m going to have to head back to State Line Liquors and stock up on some more Alvinne treats.

Febrewary Beer Club

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Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. An interesting turnout this month, as a few stalwarts were absent, but new attendees picked up the slack. This time around, we visited a Mexican BYOB with quite the ostentatious decor:

February Beer Club

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Phew, that place has some brightly colored furniture. But amazing salsa and good food too. For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer we tried are below. As usual, conditions were not ideal, so you can and should be skeptical of my notes. In order of drinking (not in order of the picture above):

  • Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball Ale – Wow, very rich malt flavors here, like a Scotch ale, but with something more. I got a distinct barrel aged character out of it, though this not one of those versions (apparently there are bourbon, port or brandy barrel aged versions, which I’d love to try). Fantastic beer, got the night going in style, though it may have set the bar unreasonably high for the following beers. I’d love to get me some more of this. A candidate for best of the night. A-
  • Appalachian Jolly Scot Scottish Ale – A somewhat local PA beer, this is another malt-forward ale that, unfortunately, didn’t stand up too well to the Hairy Eyeball. It was fine, to be sure, and I’d probably really enjoy one of these by itself, but it came off as being a biton the thin side after the rich flavors of the Hairy Eyeball. B
  • Blue Moon Belgian White – I know, it’s brewed by Coors, but hey, it actually worked really well at this point in the night. After two malt forward beers, it was a really refreshing change of pace, and I honestly have no problem with this beer anyway. Obviously not something I would ever go out of my way for, but a lot of places that only stock macros will have this on tap, and it’s actually a nice beer. No, it won’t melt your face, but it’s a good gateway beer. Lots of wheat and citrus, it’s refreshing and made for a nice palate cleanser tonight. B
  • Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale – Big brown ale brewed with Maple Syrup, you do get that character coming through pretty strongly here. A big, rich ale, no real hop presence, but lots of malts and that maple syrup adds a nice richness to the proceedings. Very well done, and another candidate for best of the night. A-
  • Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA – Well hopped (citrus and a little pine), plenty of balancing malts, and some of that distinctive rye character (though I never got the full-on rye bread character people seem to talk about). It didn’t blow my mind, but a very solid beer that I could probably drink often. B+
  • St. Bernardus Prior 8 – Not pictured (late arrival), but it’s a classic. Already reviewed here.
  • Southern Tier Creme Brulee (Imperial Milk Stout) – Another beer I reviewed a while back, this is one of the more interesting beers of the night. Massive aroma, intense flavors of chocolate, caramel, vanilla, maybe even some coffee. I could just sniff this stuff all night. Great stuff, maybe even a little better than I remember (though I think my chief complaint last time was that it’s a bit too sweet to drink a whole bottle). A strange beer because I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites, but it’s so distinctive and interesting that I’d highly recommend it to just about anyone. A great dessert beer.
  • Dominion Ale – Any beer that follows the intense flavors and aroma of Creme Brulee was probably doomed to failure, and this turned out to be a rather standard English Pale Ale, a style I’m coming to dislike quite a bit these days. I always feel like there are buttery off flavors in these beers, and this one is no exception. I even threw in a small slice of orange, which helped mellow it out a bit, but blegh. Not a fan of this beer. D
  • Kaedrin Christmas Ale – My homebrewed winter warmer style beer (a kinda spiced red ale), this thing has to be my best beer yet. Very nice spicy aroma, picking up lots of that cinnamon and clove, tastes quite nice, almost creamy mouthfeel. I really hope this wasn’t some sort of fluke. I should really do a recap of all my homebrews at some point on the blog, so no rating for now, but I would seriously put this up against any of the winter warmer style beers I’ve had over the past couple years.
  • Boxcar Brewing A Long Winter’s Night – This is probably as local as I can get. The (tiny) brewery was literally a few blocks away from where we were tonight (and this limited edition brew doesn’t even warrant a page on BA, apparently). This winter ale was very interesting. I didn’t get a lot of spice or anything out of it, but it was a very nice cloudy brown color with… it’s hard to describe. Roasted chocolate? But not at all like a stout. More like a brown ale, but with no coffee and some chocolatey overtones (to be honest, it’s very much like their regular brown ale, but perhaps less nutty). Very solid beer. B

All in all, a pretty great night! We didn’t manage to get to all the beers in the picture, though I ended up taking a can of pale ale home with me, so perhaps a review of that in the coming weeks… That’s all for now.

Ultra Brune

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It’s time to play Belgian Beer Roulette! It’s a game we can all win more often than not, and so this time around, yes, I won. Maybe not a blowout, but a win nonetheless.

Ultra Brune

Brasserie D’Ecaussinnes Ultra Brune – Pours a very dark brown color with amber highlights and a finger of tan head. I was a little off-guard, and lots of yeast chunks ended up in the glass (though I have to say, sediment never seems to bother me). Smell is filled with bready Belgian yeast, with some dark fruitiness tucked in there too. Taste is very sweet, lots of dark fruit, a little booze but nothing overwhelming. Maybe a bit of a toasty milk chocolate thing going on too, but it’s not a strong component. Mouthfeel is a little heavy, sticky sweet, but there’s enough carbonation to make it work. Overall, quite good and another successful round of Belgian Beer Roulette… B+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (11.2 oz.) Drank out of a goblet on 1/21/12.

Every time I play Belgian Beer Roulette, I feel like I should do it again soon, and this time is no exception. But I should probably drink down some of my cellar before I play again!

Affligem Dubbel

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Affligem Abbey was founded in the middle of the 11th century by a group of six “pillaging knights” who had reformed themselves into Benedictine monks. Brewing activities began as early as 1074 and the abbey was apparently intimately involved in the hop trade (apparently hops still grow near the monastery). History being what it is, the abbey’s buildings were sacked several times over the centuries, and always rebuilt, though after it was destroyed during World War II, the monks decided to contract a local brewery to make their beer. That brewery was eventually bought out by Heineken, but the monks retain the Affligem brand name and certain controls over their beer (and like the Trappists, they use their proceeds for charitable purposes).

They claim their current recipes are a modernized version of the same beers being brewed nearly a thousand years ago. The modernization was apparently lead by a monk named Tobias, who called the result “Formula Antiqua Renovata”. I assume that this is all marketing fluff and that “modernization” consisted of completely redesigning the beers or that the original recipe went something like: water, barley, hops. Anyway, Affligem appears to be most famous for their Tripel or perhaps their Noël, but they first came to my attention because of their most excellent Dubbel (which people rarely talk about for some reason):

Affligem Dubbel

Affligem Dubbel – Pours a cloudy brown/amber color with a couple fingers of white head. As you get towards the bottom of the bottle, you can see yeast sediment as well. Smell is filled with dark fruits (raisins, plums) and Belgian yeast character (spicy). Flavor is rich, sweet and fruity with a well matched spiciness and nice dry finish. There’s something else here that’s contributing to that richness – almost like molasses or brown sugar. Sometimes I’m even getting a note of chocolate in there. It gives the beer a most welcome distinctive quality. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied and it’s got those rich flavors, but this is definitely easy to put down. At 7%ABV, it’s not going to kill you either. Overall, one of my favorite dubbels! A

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (750 ml, caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet on 1/20/12.

This beer does share a certain character with Ommegang’s Abbey Ale, though this isn’t quite as heavy. I remember picking up a bottle of this stuff in my fledgling beer nerd days when I knew nothing about beer. I picked it because it had a tasteful design and I knew I liked dubbels – not quite Belgian beer roulette, but pretty close. I remember being somewhat disappointed by their Tripel when I circled back on it, but it’s something I’m going to need to revisit at some point.

Trappist Westvleteren 8

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I’ve already written about this beer’s bigger brother, the legendary Westy 12 – purported to be the best beer in the world (maybe second best) – and most of what I said goes for this beer as well. It’s just as hard to obtain (I got my bottle along with the 12), it’s got that same spare Trappist aesthetic (no labels, just some info crammed on the crowns to identify them), and while its ratings might not be quite as high as its brethren, it’s still extremely well reviewed (it currently resides at #16 on Beer Advocate’s list and #15 on RateBeer’s list). So let’s take a closer look, shall we:

Westy 8 Cap

Trappist Westvleteren 8 – Pours a dark brown color with some amberish highlights and a couple fingers of light tan head. The aroma and taste have the same profile as the 12, but somewhat more subdued. Lots of dark fruit in the nose, plums, raisins and the like, and some of that musty Belgian yeast character. Taste is also very flavorful with that dark fruity sweetness and dry finish. Mouthfeel is a dream, just like the 12. Perfectly carbonated, dry (but not too dry), and just a hint of booze. It’s definitely lighter bodied, and the flavors are slightly less rich. Overall, a fantastic beer, but not the equal of its big brother. A-

Westy 8

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (11.2 oz.) Drank out of a goblet on 1/13/12. The cap has a date printed on it that says 07.10.14.

Amazing stuff. I feel like I should have more to say about it, but nothing else is coming to mind. If you ever get the opportunity to try any Westvleteren beer, don’t pass it up. I’m not going to go out of my way to try the Blonde, but perhaps I will luck into one at some point in my life. Or perhaps not. These are rare beers, after all!