Good lookin out Bloorseph. Hope they make the grade.

Man, I haven't posted in here in a while. I've got about 6-7 things to review.

Now that football season has hit, I'm usually so over drinking by Sunday that I get on the good clean living train during the week.

Usually.

I heard about them on the Taco Mac beer blog:



Quick beer story/word of warning:

The week before Labor Day I had a meeting down off Marietta St. so I decided to stop in Hop City. One of the things I picked up were a couple of mixed twelvers, one from Brooklyn and the much lauded by the Cap'n one from Victory. During the UGA game on Saturday, I had three of the Brooklyn's, two of the IPA's and one of the Pennant Ale's. I've never had either and they thought they were "just ok". The IPA was drinkable but the Pennant was not my thing (I was hoping at the time that my wife would like it so she could drink the remainders).

The next day, man, I had some gas. I chalked it up to...life, the rack of spare ribs I ate and Georgia's piss poor performance. Late in the day, I decided to crack a brew and reached for the Brooklyn Brown Ale. That's when I noticed that the fucking thing was expired back in April. I rifled through the recycling and fridge and sure enough, every one of them was best by either April or May 2011. Bitches!

So on Monday, I called Hop City and spoke to Kraig, who I had also spoken to the day I was in there. He said this was impossible since they'd only gotten those mixed 12's in a couple of weeks before and could I send him an email with the pertinent info, etc. I did and included this pic:



I never heard back from him which kinda sucks. Not that I was expecting anything but A. Acknowledgement and B. an apology would have been cool.

Holy shit man. I know I had some past-expiry stuff back at Thanksgiving in Madison, without realizing it, and that shit made me feel like 40% all fucking week.


So I have this giant stack of shit from Belgium to post...

So here's how I'll do it... first the best of it. Then the also-rans.


BREWERY VISIT - The Best: Straffe Hendrick, Quadruppel, from the Brewery Halve Maan (half moon), 11%

I tried like fucking hell to mentally teleport Loog or Derris here by sheer willpower, I really did. If it were possible, I would’ve done it. My god man. You could just smell the cooking wort right over the wall, you sat under the vats in a lush courtyard, and you get to drink maybe the best Belgian beers I’ve ever had. I had the dubbel Straffe at the belgian beer fest last time in Boston, so I know of them. But the quad was fresh, cool, and perfect. This was my pick. Top dog.


And speaking of Brewery Halve Maan, their “blonde” (because they follow that classic 4 format, so they make one) is actually branded as a local beer for Brugge, the city where the brewery is. It’s called Brugse Zot, and it is goddamn GOOD.

Honest to god I didn’t know they were linked, and I had the Zot first – I had one sip and looked at First Mate and said “whoa, this is not like everything else. Something’s up here, this is really good.” Turns out there was a reason. This is the best brewery here that I had anything from. These guys have it Nailed. Down. Tight.



BREWERY VISIT - Brewery De Prael (Amsterdam) – Dubbel Blonde, 7%

Found this brewery in Amsterdam, and it was the best of the 2 I visited there. Sadly I only got a chance to have this one beer, but when you’re traveling with family, them’s the breaks. This was cloudy, sweetish, complex, packed a good hit, and got me really interested in having more… which I can’t. They’re pretty small, and I never saw their shit for sale anywhere else. Fuck me. These guys showed promise. It didn’t taste like the “classic 4” you see everywhere else, the Blonde, Dubbel, Trippel, Quadruppel. Next time.

BREWERY VISIT - Brewery t’Ij (pronouced “t’ EYE”)

I was chatting up my waitress one day in A’Dam telling her about my beer lust, and she tipped me off to another brewery nearby in a windmill. She showed me these three bottles on the wall behind the bar (“come back here and check them out!”)…

…pulled out a laptop, showed us the map, and off we went.

I have to say, getting these beers found and tasted is not simple with a wife who can’t drink beer and a 2 year old girl in tow, but it was so well worth the effort. SO worth it. Fuck. These were really good beers.



Achel – Blonde

The craft beer bar guy was telling me that there are only 7(?) real, commercialized trappist monesteries making beer. The rest are breweries that name themselves after local monesteries. This is one of the legit ones. I’m not just saying this because of the back story, but I swear to jebus this was the best bottle I had, other than the Hendrick Quad. I almost can’t describe it. It mean, it’s a blonde, and you can sort of imagine what it was like, but it was… different. More spice, more layers, and the yeast was different. It was not like the rest of them. I never saw another one or I would’ve had these with every meal. Incredible. This was what I was hoping to find on this trip. If you can find it, stab/rape/pilliage to get it. Really really great beer.


Orval – Trappist

This is maybe number 2 or 3 on the list, it was very very fucking good. On the sweeter side but not too much so. Went great with a giant bucket of fresh mussels. If you can find this, buy it.


Augustin – Blonde, about 7%

Had this after a LONG day of biking, on the windowsill of an over-priced hotel in Brugge looking at a canal. I recall it being hoppy, but little else, because I downed this fucker in about 90 seconds.

I forget which brewery does this – Gentse Tripel

Whatever brewery is right outside Gent does this and brands it for the city, “Gent tripel” essentially. It was ok, I don’t recall much about it. I thought it was Green’s Brewery, who does the gluten free beers, but then I later thought maybe not. I was told whatever brewery it is is in the midst of expanding so the tours and tasting are closed.

Gandavum – Mamalekker

Another small local brewery does this one for this craft beer bar (!) we went to a few times in Gent. The name means “breast drinker/licker.” The story in town is that a guy was sentenced to starve to death in public, and got shackled up in the square. To keep him alive, every night his daughter would sneak up and breast feed him. The beer tasted better than boobymilk (I would imagine), but the vessel it was in was less fun to hang onto.


Ciney – Tripel

Never seen these guys stateside, and it was very good, if still directly in line with the classic 4 formula. Malty, big, strooooong kick, great body, I’ll have 3 more please and then a cot and a pillow.

Steen Brugge – Tripel

Ie, “stone bridge.” This one also stood out, in that I cannot get it here, and that it was good / different. It’s sharper, a little hoppier and more spicey than other more malty, sweet tripels. Great shit to find at a bike/kid friendly café in the middel of motherfucking Nowhere along the bike paths. The next 2 customers who stopped in came in on 2 massive black farm horses. Srsly.


Grimbergen

Another one at the kid-friendly café (well shit there were like 5 places like that but this one was massive, 2 trampolines, a ball pit with slide, apple trees to pick, etc). I’d seen Grimbergen all over, but finally had one here. For a thick heavy beer, it’s very sunny and sweet.


Leffe – Radieuse

You know what goes well with this red beer from Leffe? Hand-made Brugge chocolate, a happy/tipsy wife, and a sleeping daughter. Man what a great fucking trip this was.

5 beers I had in my room over the course of 3 days

I hit up a store and grabbed everything I hadn’t had yet.

Hi, do you take amex, and do you ship? Also do you have a kleenex or maybe an old sock or something?



And then there’s the ones you probably already know...






And the light / forgettables:

Bintang – The kind of light shit they have at the Indonesian Rijstaffel joint

Zzzzzzzz


Wieckse – Wittbier

A witt I can’t find here. Tasted just like everyone else’s. They do witts here instead of german weizens, I guess, to fill that –other- taste range of sweeter, lighter beers.


Hertog Jan – Lentebock

This is sorta like the Sam Adams of that area, I guess. They don’t do the classic 4, they’re mid-tier, the beer is malty and ok. Big difference is that “normal” alc % over here is like 7%. Lighter stuff has 6%.

Gull – Icelandic lager

On the flight there, via Iceland Air, I had several of these courtesy of the “Economy Comfort” tickets that got us bumped up into 1st class. “You don’t have to ask, you can just keep ‘em coming.” Thin, clean, german style boring blah blah. It’s “beer.”

Jupiler – Swill

This is the Bud of the Netherlands. Avoid it unless you’re looking for something incredibly light and flavorless. This is beer for people who don’t actually like beer. But it was free. And they didn’t have anything else in the first class lounge at A’Dam, somehow.

Hertog Jan – Lager

I needed something light for the 4th of the evening, and this was it. Light enough, in fact to have more than one. -shrug-

My God.

This made me drool a little bit. And make cummsies a little bit.

Has anyone else tried the Guinness Black Lager? It wasn't as good as I was hoping. I almost had trouble finishing it. It wasn't bad...just odd. I've been on a Smithwick's kick for the past couple of years and nothing has been able to knock it off my favorite list. Christian Moerlein Lager has come pretty close.

I tried as hard as I could to keep it short.


And failed.

Never even seen it.

Oh but you'll all be thrilled to know that Heinekin in europe has now come out with an "Extra Cold" version!



EXTRA COLD!

i'm very jealous.

You ever been to Amsterdam J? I know you were posted close enough in Deutschland to drive over...

you're some sort of wizard to be able to visit that many breweries/taste that much beer on a family vacation.

nope. only went to switzerland and luxembourg while i was over there and i don't think i knew enough about beer at the time and would drink bitburger and think it was great.

i'm trying to think of some beer i had in germany that i think was about 7% and i couldn't even drink one of them at the time. it was horrible at the time but maybe i'd think differently of it now.

I take it you spent a few minutes in their bar in the Amsterdam airport. They guarantee it to be 32 degrees out of the tap, and I have to admit that it's the only Heineken I've ever drank that didn't taste like toenail clippings and grease trap effluvia. I didn't love it, but I didn't puke either.

A couple observations on your beer post above:

I saw above the Halve Maan sign, there was also a Brouwerij Henri Maes sign. Just wondering if Halve Maan is owned by the Alken-Maes conglomerate- they own Grimbergen and Ciney and god knows what all else. And, as a side note, Maes pils is equal in swill factor to Jupiler, and about as ubiquitous. Carlsberg/Heineken owns Alken-Maes, btw.

Quads are generally way too heavy for my tastes, but I'd drink one of those Halve Maans just to say I had.

The 7 Trappist breweries is correct, although I read somewhere that an 8th was going to open by the end of the year. And, as for Achel, everything you say is spot on. That shit almost brought me to tears when I had a couple in Greenville earlier this year. It's the only tripel that might knock St. Feuillien out of my personal #1 beer in the world. I need to check with my inn-keeper here to see if he's got it in stock now- when I posted about it on FB, he said he was working on it. That would bring 6 out of the 7 Trappists always available there, and if he likes you (a lot), he'll bring a bottle of the 7th, non-commercially distributed one in from his private stock for you.

One hell of a trip, man.

I'll have to try out that Guinness. I've been really enjoying the McSorley's Black Irish Lager (which is really an American beer anyway) and I'll be curious to try another in that style. A couple craft black lagers I've tried were decent. I think it's a style that I enjoy.

Last I was in Amsterdam all I drank was that Bohemia shit that was cheap and on draft everywhere, but I can't say I was coherent enough to be picky. Mostly the only thing I remember about the beer there was how they always served it in some pretty tiny glasses and how they considered giving you a ridiculous amount of foam a good thing and thought Americans were funny to not want half a glass of foam.

I think my lack of over-indulgence was the only thing that saved me a more serious bout of the Craptastic Blues.

Same here. I think I pretty only drank Hoegaarden or Duvel while I was there. Maybe a Heine every now and then. At the time I had "other interests" while in Amsterdam.


Well done Cap. Sounds like a fucking amazing trip. Totally jealous. It's funny, Hop City here regularly stocks Orval and Achel. I've honestly never been blown away by them. Then again, I think I had both while well on my way to Drunktown.

That Brewery De Prael Blonde LOOKS amazing. Like a damn lemon milkshake or something.

I WILL be back there someday.

After Cap'n's inspiring post I cracked this open tonight finally. The first beer I've had that I had to use a wine opener to open. I can see why though. It's all class.

My immediate reaction is one of smelling and tasting of tart fruit, like sour apple. Not a fruity beer though. Billed as a Saison or Farmhouse Ale, this is pretty damn complex. It's still got that faint Belgian yeast funk to it but man is it smooth. Total dry finish. The tartness doesn't linger.

The alcohol is damn near non-existent (8%) and is easy drinking. I don't know the story here. I think you can find it year round but I"m not sure. I've heard that no 2 batches are alike and they mix up the spices for every one.

I think I like this more than the Saison Dupont. Try it if you can find it.

Jesus, Kyle. I salute you, sir.

Drinking beer with Kyle is something that everybody here should do at least once, preferably multiple times.

I ALWAYS get gas from craft brews, especially those of the darker, maltier variety (higher sugar content?). I'm not totally sold that a refrigerated, alcoholic brew would increase the likelihood of giving the drinker gas only a few months after it's expiration date. Maybe someone more familiar with beer chemistry and biology can enlighten me? Did you notice a foul taste?

I do agree with you that the guy from Hop City should've done something to rectify the situation. They shouldn't be selling expired beer.

Here's some info on beer expiration codes, and the comments below the article have some info that offer up some education on beer spoilage (i.e. hops is a natural preservative, brown bottles don't let in light, higher alcohol content means it keeps longer).

They definitely weren't skunked but like I said before, the Ale tasted a little off. Not having had any of the beers before hurts here because I've got nothing to use as a comparison.

And yes, I'm pretty disappointed in the guy from Hop City as well. I'm pretty sure that there are laws against "returning" alcoholic beverages and I certainly wasn't expecting anything like a full refund. But at least return my email and maybe shoot me a gift card for 5 bucks. It would at least get me back into the store.

You can get Achel, Derris? Damn.

Rate Beer has Achel 8 Bruin and Extra Bruin listed as broad distribution and available in Massachusetts.
I'm pretty sure I've seen a few bottles of Achel 8 around here as well, most likely in Omaha at Crescent Moon or Brix.
It might help to have a Belgian restaurant or two in the area.

Why don't I see anything Cantillon on here???