January 02, 2004

Beer

Posted by Chris

orval.jpg
Oddbins the off-licence (that’s liquor store to you guys) nearest my home recently got in a largish selection of Belgian beers. I spent a month in Belgium just over a year ago and one of the many pleasures of being there was sampling as many of their excellent brews as I could. There are many many different styles, but my favourite of all was a Trappist beer (made by monks) called Orval . It is not as strong as the other Trappists and has a slight aftertaste of grapefruit (no-one else tastes this!). Every Belgian beer has its own dedicated glass and Orval is no exception - it is one of the most stylish.

As well as the Trappists (Orval , Chimay , Rochefort ,Westmalle and Westvleteren - the hardest to obtain) there are many distinctive styles such as the Lambics (Gueze Belle Vue) either straight or fruit flavoured, lager-style beers, British-style beers (developed for WW1 Scottish soldiers), dark ales, white beers (such as Hoegaarden) and so on. I’ve been given many different estimates of how many different ones there are (up to 2500!) Wonderful.

Posted on January 2, 2004 09:27 PM UTC
Comments

Alas, the selection of Belgian white beers here in Beaumont, Texas is lacking. Houston, with a fair selection, is 100 miles west.

I am mighty pleased that the Michigan Brewing Company has resurrected Celis White . . . .

Do you like Wieckse Witte from Holland?

Posted by Dedman · January 2, 2004 09:49 PM

No post on Belgian beer is complete without mentioning Duvel. By way of the Duvel site, one finds a Belgian-style beer brewed in America, called Three Philosophers. Cheers.

Posted by ogged · January 2, 2004 10:06 PM

I am partial to Chimay myself, plus the occasional lambic. A good US Belgian-style ale is Pranqster, from North Coast Brewing Company.

Posted by Steve · January 2, 2004 10:30 PM

I’ve always liked Delirium Tremens. Carbonated and almost like champagne. I drank a lot of Orval a couple of years ago, due to a pricing snafu at my then-local Safeway (a 1.50 a bottle), and never tasted grapefruit.

Posted by Thomas · January 2, 2004 10:39 PM

The Trappist ales are too fruity/spicy for me, but I love the whites and blondes.

Is there anything that’s in the style of Hoegardden, but not Hoegardden? (I don’t want to drink the same thing all the time.)

Blue Moon does not count. Allagash Belgian White is not half bad, but I assume it’s only available in New England.

Posted by Katherine · January 3, 2004 01:17 AM

God I love Belgium beer. I spent a year teaching English in Lille, France, just a few minutes from the Belgium border. One of the high points of the year was when some of my students drove me to a beer supermarket. There must have been 500 varieties of Belgium beer.

I was partial to Leffe, which was easy to find at every bar in northern France but difficult to find in the US.

Posted by Frolic · January 3, 2004 01:54 AM

I too am a Chimay man — I like the Rouge because it is cheapest around here — but would note that there is a very good Belgian-style ale brewed by Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. Indeed I see now that I look at Google, the Three Philosophers that Ogged mentions is their product.

Posted by Jeremy Osner · January 3, 2004 02:41 AM

I love Duvel, and a Hoegaarden if my tastebuds are up to something spicy (yes, that’s spicy to me). I would love to do a beer tour of Belgium, but I don’t think I’d live past the first week or so.

Posted by Jackie D · January 3, 2004 06:39 AM

Your obvious course of action is to take a one-week beer tour of Belgium.

Posted by Jeremy Osner · January 3, 2004 12:31 PM

Wieckse Witte from Holland is a bit like Hoegaarden, isn’t it?

Posted by Dedman · January 3, 2004 02:23 PM

Ommegang, as mentioned makes some great Belgian-style ales. So does Unibroue, in Canada. You can find a lot more, with reviews, at BeerAdvocate.com (http://www.beeradvocate.com).

Posted by Matt Zwolinski · January 3, 2004 10:38 PM

mmmm. I was in Brussels last month for a couple of days, and did my damndest to try as many as I could—beermania (www.beermania.be) was right around the corner from where I was staying. I agree with you—I liked the Trappist beers the best. Though I wasn’t above slumming a Jupiler on the train back from Brugge…

Posted by opus · January 4, 2004 09:35 AM

Hmm, looks like I might have to run a few [dozen] experiments and see if anything can become as beloved as Guiness.

Posted by Aramis Martinez · January 4, 2004 11:42 PM

Foremost, a previous poster hit it on the head, no discussion is complete without the mention of Duvel. It’s better from a tap (natuarlly) although a bottle is pretty good when in the states or elsewhere.

I would also add that Kwak is pretty good.

For those who haven’t been to .be, I would add that each Belgian beer has a special glass associated with serving said beer. Duvel’s glass is like a piano man’s tip jar or like a very overgrown snifter.

I would add that our neighbours north of the border have been continuing in the Belgian tradition. Les Quebequois are producing a rather Belgian-ish beer called “Fin du monde” End of the World.

-Steven

Posted by Steven G. Harms · January 7, 2004 04:30 AM

What a lot of people don’t know, is that there are 6 Trappist beers. La Trappe (Achel) brews the 6th.

As for white beers like Hoegaarden, we also have for instance ‘Brugs tarwebier’, ‘Wittekerke’, ‘Dentergems Witbier’, ‘Mater’,… Hoegaarden itself has some varieties as well: ‘Hougaerdse Das’, ‘Hoegaarden Speciale’, and ‘Hoegaarden Grand Cru’ are some of them.

But I fear most of these beers aren’t known abroad.

Which only leaves me to agree that Duvel and Delirium Tremens are amongst the finest beers around. Myself, I prefer the Westvleteren Trappist. Maybe a suggestion: ‘Oostendsche baron’.

Simon, Belgium

Posted by Simon · January 8, 2004 11:49 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.