0
15
May

Toer de Geuze

For those of you that don’t speak amazing French like me, that means ‘Tour of Geuze’ or Geuze tour perhaps, if you want to get all fancy and get your syntax right (is that syntax, I can’t remember, I just remember getting taught about it in English class and immediately forgetting exactly what it meant).

Anyway, for the uninitiated, Geuze is an ancient style of beer, made with only the yeast in the air – ok, there is water and malt and hops too. The Senne (or Zenne in Dutch) river valley is the only place it is made these days (certainly in Belgium, and possibly in the world), for some reason there is just the right kind of yeast in the air. Being all ancient it is not what most people think of when they think beer. It gets tainted by the air and basically turns into vinegar. But then after a few years chillin in barrels, and a mix of older beer with younger beer (to give it carbonation), it becomes delicious – still a hell of a lot more sour than any other beer, but once you’ve acquired a taste for it, you can’t get enough. There are lots of technicalities (lambic = unblended beer, oude geuze = no sugar added) but if you really want to get your beer geek on this is not the place. Go do some googling. Sugar added to geuze is stupid in my opinion, the sourness is awesome, embrace it.

Geuze is also the basis for Kriek – Belgian cherry beer. It is also delicious, though more often than not waaaay too much sugar is added and then it is sold to young girls as alcoholic candy. Legend has it that a brewer was trying to sabotage a rival’s beer by pouring cherries into it, but then it was delicious and the joke was on him. It doesn’t seem all that believable a story though does it, why wouldn’t he just throw some horse shit in there? It’s just a waste of good cherries otherwise.

Ok, history lesson over. Since geuze can only be made in a small geographic area, it is easy enough to drive around to the 11 producers/blenders (some ‘breweries’ don’t actually brew the beer, they just buy the basic un-aged liquid, then age it and blend the different barrels to make their own beer). So that’s what the toer is. The producers open their doors for a day, give some tours, some tastings, and roast a few pigs (well one place did that anyway). Some people biked around, some drove (Belgians tend to be quite happy to drive drunk), but most took organised buses, me and my crew included.

So now it is time for a breakdown of what went down, what I drank, and where we went. We were in for five breweries in seven hours, and quite a bit of driving in between (me and the wife didn’t get great seats – we were across the aisle from one another, and let’s just say, neither of us had a whole seat each).

Tilquin

A blender, not a brewer. Opened in 2009 – they blend wort from four different breweries, then age it in wine barrels from France. We took a tour here and the guide said something about lambic only lasting two weeks, didn’t really understand what that was about, then again he was doing us a kindness and speaking English when everyone else spoke Dutch. He sure went into a lot of detail, and we spent a lot of time listening to him speak Dutch. Too much time, in the end we didn’t even get to drink their beer! There was a token system – so you have to use cash to buy tokens, then tokens to buy beer. We didn’t have enough tokens for the beer we wanted and then had to spend our last five minutes trying to sell our tokens to people arriving. Not a great start.

During the brewery tour we did get to drink something at least. A taster of blended lambic with a mix of 1, 2, and 3 year old beer. It was quite smooth, not super sour, not highly complex; malty with a hint of bitter.

Fortunately my mate Darin had the insight to buy a bottle of their plum gueze so we could try it at the next stop. Not very plumy, not very carbonated, not sweet. Good, but not crazy-mazing.

Boon

So Artisanal

The tour at boon was self directed, there were people stationed around the building and you could talk to them if you wanted – after the Tilquin fiasco we chose not to talk, instead we just had a quick gawk at the brewery and headed to the bar. On the way we got a cheeky taster straight from this cute little barrel. It was an 18 month lambic, really bitter for a lambic, and vinegary as always. Kind of like an apple wine, with a surprising amount of alcohol noticeable.

Kriek Marriage Parfait

Boon’s marriage parfait beers are unsweetened, distinguishing them from their ‘oude gueuze’ (which is usually unsweetened). This is a good beer, with a fairly pure cherry flavour – you can taste the pips (in a good way). It is not too sour and even a little creamy.

Giant Barrels, also artisanal

Oude Geuze Marriage Parfait

This guy is 8% – crazy high alcohol content for a geuze. It is very smooth considering, but not crazy complex; quite wheaty/grainy. It is good, but not spectacular.

Framboise (raspberry beer)

I just had a taste of this, and it was pretty much like drinking an alcoholic raspberry. Most importantly it does not taste like Kool Aide.

Vat 44

This was definitely the crowd favourite at Boon, with almost everyone in our group walking away with some. It is more complex than the others we tried, with different types of sourness hitting at different times, some nice peppery notes too as well as a solid malty body. Unfortunately for the readers it is super limited edition.

Megablend

The Megablend is made especially for the toer, and as you could guess from the name, is a blend of beer from all of them. I imagine it is not easy blending so many different brews. What you get is something really complex, a hint of sweetness followed by lots of sour, plenty of yeast and a decent malt body. Nice.

De Cam

During the bus ride our wrangler gives us some information about the brewery we are about to go to, on this journey I heard this – dutchy, dutchy, dutch, dutch. Lambic steak. More dutch. Turns out blender in Dutch sounds something like steak; and it was lunch time.

These guys are well known for their raspberry lambic – but it is not something that I plan on getting to know again any time soon. Too acidic, it feels like it is going to eat through your stomach lining. Luckily I didn’t order one of these for myself; unluckily I did order the cherry version. Lambic has its place, but that place isn’t four or five in a row. This is NOT a session beer.

Oude Geuze

This was just a taste of a friend’s beer, but it was amazing. Partially because I had reached lambic saturation point and this was not a lambic, but it was genuinely a really good Geuze. It is much more beery, with a lovely malty body, deep complexity, and straight up less sour. It is smooth and tasty, with a hint of honey; a good gateway geuze. I wanted to take some home with me but they had sold out! Bastards.

Timmermans

This is a big operation; they make large volumes and a lot of it is sweetened, so I was not super pumped about the visit. On the upside, they were actually brewing as we walked through through, so we got to smell the delicious wort as it cooled in the giant copper tub waiting for the yeast to float into the room and settle on the beer.

Some history, the beer mole, and the hot wort catching some yeast

They also had sweet barrels with a picture of a mole holding a beer paddle on them. We didn’t have much time here, and no one was very excited about the beer so we didn’t try any other than the two year old lambic that we were given during the tour. It was very lemony and had a nice yeasty smell to it. Super sour as always, and a little hint of peppery funk. But all in all it was kinda like drinking fermented lemon juice.

3 Founteinen

For the last stop of the day the sun was out and we decided to make the most of it, so we skipped the tour (a brewery is a brewery, is a brewery after a while). By this point people were starting to get geuzed out – so a few people ordered blondes rather than geuze, Wifey had a tea (and, upon drinking it said “oh, it is nice to drink something that doesn’t taste like vomit.”But she wants you to know that she does actually enjoy lambic – it’s vinegary like pickled onions and gerkins….)

I on the other hand, was just lambiced out, so had their Oude Geuze. It was delicious; so much smoother and more complex than the lambics. It has a prominent grapefruit flavour, with a pithy bitterness and grapefruit sourness. It has a decent malty body with some yeastiness thrown in there too. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.

Summary

All in all it was a pretty special day, though it did have its ups and downs. It was great to see the countryside where it all happens, but there was not enough time at each brewery  – though the lesson here is probably skip the tours unless you are really interested, and even then you probably only need to do one throughout the day). There was a little too much lambic (which we were warned about by Darin who had been before, but I certainly didn’t listen).

There was a lot of excellent beer too. The highlights for me were the guezes at 3 founteinen and De Cam, with honourable mentions to the rare Megablend and Boon’s Vat 44.

The toer only happens once every two years, but if you are in Belgium (and you have tried geuze and like it) do not miss it. 

0
24
Mar

De Struise Brewers – 2011 Sint Amatus 12 (10.5%)

De Struise is legendary in these here parts, a very small brewery that pumps out different versions of their brews, then they (or others) age them and sell them for an inflated price. In any case they do what they do well so I was excited to try this puppy.

It is brewed with Irish Moss, not sure what that is supposed to bring to the party, but certainly sounds interesting to me.

The smell is sweet, with a hint of lime … perhaps. It has a fluffy beige head that doesn’t stick around. Flavours are sweet, slightly chocolate malt, followed by quite a lot of alcohol and bitterness, with the latter two really sticking around after swallowing. There is a little hint of sourness and a subtle earthiness (moss anyone?).

Overall it is good; a rich beer with some balance between sweet and bitter, but for me, there is too much alcohol for it to be a top drop, 7.9/10

Side note – one of the best beers I have ever had was from De Struise, a Black Albert (can’t remember which version). Oh man, I can taste it now, so rich and flavoursome, dark as the night and crazy strong without tasting like alcohol. Buy it if you see it!

0
27
Feb

International Belgians Part Trois

Hoegaarden – 4.9%

A classic Belgian wheat beer brewed since 1445! I suspect it didn’t actually taste like it does now in 1445, but who knows …

Hoegaarden was one of my first Belgian loves (and Wifey’s only first Belgian love).

In Belgium, it is cheap and mainstream – oh how I wish I could buy Hoegaarden for the price of a Tui in New Zealand (if not a New Zealander, insert generic lager from your home country here). Wheat beer is just better as a basic thirst quencher, and clearly it isn’t that difficult or expensive to brew, so why isn’t it more readily available; why!

It smells yeasty and spicy. Drink time … hey, where did the head go, honestly I look away for one minute and there’s none left.  

My first thought when I swallow, is simply ‘delicious’. It is a little bit sweet and a little bit sour; not too fizzy. The yeast is complimented beautifully by hints of citrus (it is brewed with Curacao orange peel as well as coriander seed). It is really refreshing and pares really well with food (fish, chicken, veges).

While it is just a simple wheat beer, somehow it is more than ‘just a wheat beer’ it is a finely tuned simple recipe, and sometimes simple can be the hardest thing to do well. I will miss it being so accessible when I leave Belgium.   

And just for the record Belgians don’t put lemon in wheat beer, and if it is a good beer it really doesn’t need it. The Germans put lemon in wheat beer, possibly because their beer rules don’t let them add spices which are so important to the awesomness of Hoegaarden. 9/10.  

0
23
Feb

Bouillon Part II: takin’ it back old-school

Time for part two of the Bouillon saga. We’re starting with a nice dark one.

La Noire Fontaine 8% Bouillon

Ohh yeah, sexy pour shot.

Dark brown, not black as promised – not a fountain either, poorly named really.

The fluffy head fades pretty fast and again doesn’t have a whole lot of body for a darkie (and an 8 percenter). Flavour wise there is some tasty roasted malt action, a nice level of bitterness, and just a hint of alcohol to remind you that it’s Belgian.

Unlike the brews tasted in part one, there are no spices to be found in this one. A simple, classic beer (although stronger than you will find in most countries).

Good but doesn’t leave me dreaming of more like a Troubadour Obscura or Brew Dog Dogma 7/10.

La Tontelinette – 6.5%

The label doesn’t reveal much, not even a style, it is a mystery beer. First thing I noticed was its super yeasty scent.

In the glass it was orange-amber, with a head that happened then went away. Fairly mild, but this ain’t no lager. Not really sweet or bitter – come to think of it, it kind of just sits in the middle all round: colour, neither dark nor pale; alcohol neither strong nor weak; neither bitterness nor sweet; body, neither full nor watery.

Overall it is tasty, quite yeasty, with a little peppery bitterness that sits in the back of your mouth after swallowing. A hint of orange too. Well balanced for sure, and refreshing too – very sessionable but nothing special. 6.62/10

La Medievale, ambree 6%

Medieval cause there’s a castle in Bouillon I guess. I suspect medieval beer tasted fairly different to this, more like a lambic methinks. Anyhoo, enough of my pedantry. Lets take a look at the label – it is another in Bouillon’s series of weird labels, I am not a fan.

Was this label drawn by the brewer's 10 year old daughter?

Now, the beer. It’s a deep reddish amber, with a fluffy head that is not dense and doesn’t stick around long. The body is malty and fairly mild (unlike a February day in Belgium, which is frigid), similar to the tontinlette, but quite different, just similar in its mildness. It also doesn’t have a whole lot of body, but it does have plenty of carbonation. Like the other two in part two of the Bouillon saga there is no hint of the colonels secret herbs and spices, it is pure and beery; an old-school beer. If it was more bitter it would be similar to an English bitter, instead I guess it’s like an English malt (is that a thing?).

It doesn’t stick around in your mouth much, just a hint of bitterness after swallowing. No fruity hopness at all. Again, good but not great. 6.?/10

So overall Brasserie De Bouillon has produced some interesting beer. The wheat beer is definitely the star of the range for me while the others are solid but aren’t going to leave me craving them. 

If you like what you see and haven’t read part I check it out here

0
10
Feb

International Belgians Part II

Next on our journey of Belgian beer you can actually find outside Belgium is the La Trappe Quadrupel. As the name suggests it is a strong one (10%) and it is a trappist beer, so it’s made by monks yo!

I have very fond memories of this beer, from long before I had any idea I would ever live in Belgium. Me and my friends used to go to a lot of byo (bring your own booze) restaurants and it was awesome to be able to take a big bottle of this strong beer instead of wine. It was a good day when I found it at the little four square in Newtown!

It is cloudy and dark amber-brown with a big head that fades slowly. It is very Belgian, the alcohol is certainly noticeable, but not unpleasant. She’s fairly sweet and not too bitter. I don’t really have a lot to say about it: It’s good, it’s Belgian, it’s strong. Try it. 8.67/10

0
10
Feb

Delahize does it again

After the awesomeness of the Delhaize single hop series last summer I was super excited to see a new range of single hop goodness at my local Delhaize. Last time it was an international series (NZ, USA, BEL), this time it is three American hops that are on show – Citra, Columbus, and the awesomely named Sorachi Ace. It is another limited release, 4000 bottles of each variety this time, so you have to get in quick (and live in Belgium I’m afraid).

So far I have sampled the Columbus and the Sorachi Ace. Both are fantastic, and when we tried them we had interesting conversations about which one was better. In the end I decided that they are both just really good and you can’t necessarily choose between them. The best thing about this series (like the last one) is trying them all side by side and picking the differences between them. They are all great on their own, but they are superb together.  9/10.

Wifey says – ‘Friends liked Citra best, Sorachi Ace had a coconut oil flavour to it, delicious though.’

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27
Jan

International Belgians

I promised to do some reviews of beers you can actually get relatively easily way before Christmas, and really didn’t follow through on that, but now, here it is, the first of a series of readily available Belgian beer.

I am starting with the only trappist beer (brewed by monks) easily available around the world (though you can get La Trappe too, but I’ll come back to that).

Chimary Bleue 9%

Many years ago when I first heard about Chimay I thought it was Asian, something in the name, so I wasn’t all that interested in trying it, boy was that a mistake.

Don’t bother with red or yellow Chimay … well Red is quite good actually, but similar to Blue, so just go with Blue if you can get it cause it’s slightly better. Side note, you can also get Chimay butter and cheese, but only in Belgium as far as I’m aware, but I digress.

The blue is a dark number, great on a chilly night. It is malty and has a big off-white head. At 9% you definitely notice the alcohol, but it is pretty smooth overall. Quite bitter, with a tiny hint of sourness, that distinct Belgian yeast character, and even some subtle hints of marmite. Heaps of body, it is thick, a real slow drinker, just sip and enjoy. A fantastic Belgian dark beer.

8.84/10

One of the Brewers of Chimay


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27
Jan

Brasserie De Bouillon

Brasserie de Bouillon

Bouillon is an awesome little town in the Ardennes that me and wifey visited last summer (haven’t been so good at keeping the blog up to date have I?). We picked up a mixed six pack of fine brews from the amazing butchery (with the most delicious smoked meats, oh so good). Bouillon is a great place to visit (you can go kayaking on the beautiful river), and there is some decent beer to enjoy too.

This is part one of two, the first three of the six.

La Saint Laurent 6%

A golden blonde mid strength number hits you first with an interesting heby/yeasty smell, a little like grass. On first taste it doesn’t have much sweetness, but isn’t very bitter either (though more bitter than sweet).

Being on the lighter side it doesn’t have a big Belgian body, and the malts are pretty subtle. Very herby, hints of lemon, maybe thyme too or perhaps rosemary?

It is an easy drinker, a great summer session beer. It is quite unusual and don’t go there if you don’t like spiced/herbed beer, but I’d certainly have it again. 6.7/10

Cuvee de Bouillon 6.5%

A golden brown ale (more golden than brown) with a fluffy white head.

Smells sweet and Belgian with a hint of citrus. Sweet honey flavours and quite a bit of yeast comes through followed by aslightly bitter finish. Again, it doesn’t have that big Belgian body and it is a little watery, reminds me just a little of Tui (NZ represent) – but sweeter and with a hit of citrus (ok, the more I think about it, the less it tastes like Tui, I guess it just isn’t that Belgian and is quite malty yet watery).

Good, not outstanding. 5.7354/10

Blanche de Bouillon 5.5%

A light, wheat beer, with a sweet floral nose with and a big white head that dosen’t last long at all.

A slightly unusual taste for a blanche – almost flowery, citrus with a hint of some flower, rose perhaps? No orange, definitely orange, but flowery orange.

Heavy carbonation and neither bitter nor sweet. Simple but really different, I like it a lot. Probably my favourite offering from Bouillon (so far), and one of the best wheat beers I’ve had.  I want more. And check out the horrible/amazing label

Wifey says ‘delicious’ (that’s right, no longer GF, now Wifey). 8.889/10

Check in soon for more Bouillon goodness.

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8
Dec

Saturday treats in Saint Gilles

A “guest post” by GF. Not about Beer.

Ah Saturdays. The day to get stuff done.

A much welcome blue sky and long list of errands to run meant we were happy to venture outside today, despite the chilly air. First stop: Parlour Coffee (203 Chaussée  de Charleroi) for a speculoos latte to go. This place is awesome, the couple that run it are lovely, I have been told by two excellent sources that the bagels are amazing and best of all … they are now open on Sundays. Great vibe – retro furnishings and an excellent menu selection. Go there. 

Next we wander down the hill towards Jeu de Balle antique market (everyday from earlish, till 2pm) to look for wedding hats and a coffee table. No luck with the hats and the table we wanted was 150 euro (hell no) so we stopped at our favourite sausage man. We have taken many visitors to this spot – this guy makes the best boudin blanc we’ve had in Belgium (and we have had many). For 4 euro you get a giant fresh, soft yet crunchy roll with onions, mustard, ketchup and of course the herby sausage. They have other stuff inside too – but for us it’s all about the sausage. What makes it really stand out is the freshness of the bread. Next time you are down that way and hungry, try it out. Charlotte – 9 Place Jeu de Balle. Open till 4pm. 

After some more Christmas shopping and general wandering around in the cold, we came back up the hill and walked right past the Portuguese tart man. Surely it would be rude to go past and not say hello … in we went. These tarts are so good, that at only 2pm he has nearly sold out.  He bakes them all himself in the shop and he is a fun character. The tarts are on display in the window. The pastry is phenomenal and they cost 1.50 euro each. Today we had one traditional egg tart and one almond, lime and rum cake. Both were excellent. Le Petit Forcado, 190c Chaussée de Charleroi. Closed Sundays. 

So there you have it. Three excellently delicious treats for a sunny cold Saturday. À bientôt. 

0
22
Oct

Modeste (Antwerp) Beer Festival

The beer fests just don’t stop up in Belgium, this time it was the second ever modeste beer festival which celebrates the more modestly sized brewers of Belgium (well some of them anyway). It was held in an old store house of the De Koninck brewery in Antwerp, a pretty great venue as it turns out – and very conveniently located. It was an impressive festival with a lot of damn fine beer that can be very hard to find. I wish I’d had more time there … then again I was drinking some pretty strong stuff so maybe it wouldn’t have been such a good thing. Definitely a festival to put in your diary if you are in or near Belgium, or if you just really like going to beer festivals.

Below are my thoughts on the beers that I tried. Good luck finding any of them though. We are talking some pretty obscure stuff here. I promise I’ll review some beer that you can actually try, no matter where you are, soon!

Pirlot – Hoppergod 6%

Perhaps a slightly ambitious name, then again me and my drinking companion were both very keen to try it so maybe it did its job (and god probably means something completely different in Flemish – nope, just googled it, it means God). The beer itself was not as divine as hoped, it turned out to be a golden lagerish beer, but with a little more sweetness followed by a slight hoppy fruitiness and a ton of bitterness, so better than lager but no hop God. It didn’t have that distinct Belgian body and yeastiness but would be really good on a hot day. It was a nice step up from a lager and would be a good introduction to craft beer for any lager louts out there. Overall it didn’t quite do it for me, not entirely sure why, may have been a little too bitter (Belgian beer does tend to be quite sweet so it may have shifted my palette a little … and I’d just started getting into Pilsners when I left NZ!). 7/10

Interpol (‘the smallest brewery in Belgium’) – Peated Pol 5.8%

Smoked whiskey malt beer. How could I resist. It had a strong whisky smell to it that carried through to

Whisky beer from the 'smallest brewery in Belgium'

the taste along with some sweet malt and a big old slap in the face of smoke. Now, I know I say that  want to be smacked in the face with flavour, but … this was more like a punch in the face. The smokiness made it taste a little meaty … and I’m generally not a fan of meat in my beer. There was a hint of sour yeastiness too which added a little depth. It is an amazing beer, very intense, but not something I’d want to drink often.

Hof-ten dormaal – Sherry aged beer 12%

Sherrytastic

And continuing on with the intense beer, time for some 12% sherry beer (it gets the sherryness from living in sherry barrels for a while). First impression was gooood. It was amazingly smooth for the percentage (to begin with anyway, the alcohol slowly showed itself more over time). Nice malty body with a beautiful fruity, sherrytastic finish. A hint of sourness too that is quickly followed by sweetness. At its best when sipped. A really interesting, different, good, intense beer.  9/10

Shout out to Micro Charlevoix from Canada – Rye IPA

Bockor Oud Bruin

I didn’t buy this one, but I tried a little and it was REAL good. I can see why they were invited all this way, and this beer really can foot it with the Belgians. Delicious, a hint of sourness, lots of hops, sweet malt/rye, finished with bitter – and all really well balanced, not too much of any on e thing. Definitely a 10.

Bockor – Vaderghinste Oud Bruin

5.5% A Flemish sour, with a nice balance between the sourness and malty body. Notes of lemon and cherry in the dominant but gentle sour profile. Sweetness to finish which stops you from screwing your face up and keeps you going back for more. The sweetness coming through with the malt even gives a hint of chocolate, a really good example of this style of beer. 9.6/10

How to sell more beer - open word, make a certificate saying you won a prize, spill beer on the certificate, put it in front of your stall.

Interpol – Milk Stout

No notes on this one. It was a good stout, a little bit bitter, and there was definitely a creamy/milky note to it, though not a strong one. Good but not stunning.