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[Tomas Danko]

KB_S1 wrote on Sun, 29 June 2008 11:36

Thomas, what would you recommend for a wheat beer? I would like to try something that is from a small independant. Another couple that may be of interest to all. Innis & Gunn, it is stored in whisky barrels to give a very strong aromatic taste. A bit syrupy to have more than 3 or 4 of the small bottles. Fraoch, a heather ale. Very different again but very nice, especially after a meal.

If you're into Innis & Gunn there's this Scottish beer called Paradox, they put it on something like twelve different types of barrels so you can find several differently labeled bottles with various tastes like that.
In the US they tend to use fresh bourbon barrels for beers, and they give you tannins as well as vanilla notes. On the right beer it can be awesome. A friend of mine in Belgium uses used barrels from Bordeaux, Calvados and Chateau Neuf Du Pape but let's not even go there... It's stunning.


One should be aware of the different in style comparing wheat beers from Belgium (wit) and Germany (weiss).

In Belgium they tend to throw in curacao peel and coriander as well as having a different (don't they always!) type of yeast stand. The peel gives the slight bitter note, the coriander gives a hint of citrus and the yeast gives you the esters (for instance isoamyl that tastes like banana kinda).

Hoegaarden may be owned by the big evil company InBev, but it's actually not too bad.

If you like that type of beer there are some even better ones:

Caracole is a very small brewery that makes a wit beer called Troublette. It may be the best wit beer in Belgium right now.

St. Bernardus Wit is very close to Hoegaarden in taste but better. The recipe was actually from Pierre Celis who founded Hoegaarden, so it's probably closer to the old version of Hoegaarden before they started watering it down. The brewery is a family brewery that is not very big.

Bellevaux is a brand new micro brewery in the Ardennes that bought a top notch mega modern brew kit but insist on making old style beer. They are tremendous. Their Bellevaux Blanche is huge on coriander without going overboard, it's god ridiculous amounts of yeast sediment left and it's veeeery fresh tasting.

Steendonk is a co-op between Moortgat Duvel and Palm, and somehow I like it. It's close to the Hoegaarden in taste but some kinda nutty note (as in the nut, not weird).

Ellezelloise Saisis is a wit beer that does not use spices but instead tries to extract similar tastes from the yeast strands. The brewery is one of my all time fave's, it used to be a one-man-brewery but now it's a one-man-and-his-wife brewery. It's very rich and full in taste. It is a very small brewery.

Cheers!

[fiasco ( P.M.DuMont )]

Wonderful beer knowledge Tomas!

A few of my favorites.

Weinhenstephaner, especially the dark weiss. Established in 1080.





Rogue Brewery in Oregon, USA are turning out great stuff. Try a Dead Guy.





Great Lakes Brewery, Cleveland, USA, does not have a bad offering.



It's 9:30 AM and now I want a beer. Not good.

[stevieeastend]

Tomas Danko wrote on Sun, 29 June 2008 11:58

steveeastend wrote on Sun, 29 June 2008 11:34 Tomas, you disappoint me! How can you cheat with americans on beer? It´s like trying to educate an Aussi on ski-jumping cheer ST Hehe oh my. By the way, there are a huge amount of great micro breweries popping up in America the last few years. No need to drink that fizzy crap stuff they insist on calling beer just to stay local! Hair of the Dog Three Floyds Smuttynose Stone I could make a very long list, but those are some awesome US micro brewers.

just kiddin anyway...

[Version]

The Delirium was very good indeed.

more Belgians this afternoon:

OK, the first one is not exactly Belgian in origin.

Brother Thelonious


Kwak


and my old fav:


I had my first Duvel in Amsterdam about 8 years ago. I've been a fan ever since.

[malice]

Belgian beers have no competition. Not even opened to discussion.

Duvel is find, but I prefer trapist beers (cistercian monastry beers)

Lately I favoured this one that I finally managed to find available in a shop in Montpellier :



Very balanced, not to drink too cold.

I like this one too, but it's rather difficult to find abroad :



easier to find are these, but beware, it's very strong :



and it's dark version, that I prefer :



Now I'm thirsty

What is great with trapist is that the monks are making cheese to go along with the beers.

And I like cheese

malice

[KB_S1]

Well it looks like we are having a family get together at the weekend.
I think I will order in some of that Brew Dog IPA and a few of their paradox too (if any in stock).

I will report back my findings.
Probably on the Monday though.

Thomas, thanks for the recommendations. I will try and find a good importer and seek them out.
If you are ever in the country give me a shout and I will start you off on the Clachaig board.

[Hallams]

Coopers Dark Ale from South Australia. Haven't tried the Belgian beers and the Trappist brews seem worth a try.

[bruno putzeys]

Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:41

Haven't tried the Belgian beers

WHAT??!

[Hallams]

Bruno Putzeys wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 21:42

Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:41 Haven't tried the Belgian beers WHAT??!

So many great beers here it seems a waste of time and beer money trying those fancy European beers........they can keep their ski jumps too!

[malice]

Bruno Putzeys wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:42

Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:41 Haven't tried the Belgian beers WHAT??!

What he means is : he doesn't know what real beer tastes like, yet.

malice

PS: that cooper dark has a nice look though.

[Hallams]

malice wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:04

Bruno Putzeys wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:42 Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:41 Haven't tried the Belgian beers WHAT??! What he means is : he doesn't know what real beer tastes like, yet. malice PS: that cooper dark has a nice look though.

A fine example of waving a red rag at a bull.

In my case, ignorance is bliss.....

[Tomas Danko]

I like Weihenstephaner. If you like it, be sure to try the Paulaner Hefe. I think it's even better. I've had it on tap in Germany a few times where it was almost like drinking a freshly baked loaf of bread.

It is also rather evident the next morning, but hey it's worth it!

Rogue knows how to make proper beer. Their XS series of large bottles is very good indeed, especially the Imperial Stout:


I actually keep a bunch of those in my beer cellar that is 99% Belgian beers.

[Tomas Danko]

Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:02

Bruno Putzeys wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 21:42 Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:41 Haven't tried the Belgian beers WHAT??! So many great beers here it seems a waste of time and beer money trying those fancy European beers........they can keep their ski jumps too!

Okay, so once you've sampled all beers from Coopers then what?  

[Tomas Danko]

Orval is quite the acquired taste kind of beer, with several different strands of yeast including a cultivated wild one for second fermentation. It's kinda funky. And they also dry hop the beer.

I find it too fizzy when it's brand new. 6-9 months later it's brilliant. And I don't feel it benefits from further aging, actually.

Just buy'em, stack them away and drink'em when they're half a year old and keep restocking your stash. Easy.

The more beers I try, the more I understand that Westmalle Tripel is my favorite. Soon I'll be reaching the 1200 mark of different Belgian beers that I've tried, and I feel this to be true more than I ever did before.

Give me one beer to drink for the rest of my life, and I will choose Westmalle Tripel right away!

It's actually the original tripel style beer, every other "tripel" is a copy kind of. Westmalle were also responsible for setting the "standard" that a dubbel should be dark, a tripel amber as well as the names dubbel and tripel.

It's odd that you're having trouble finding the Westmalle Tripel, since Westmalle has the highest output among all Belgian Trappist breweries and the Tripel is 70% of that production.

Early this year they had some trouble with infested barley causing several February batches (they brew four times a day) of the tripel to gush like crazy when opening the bottles. It seems it's back to normal since April though.

I've heard Westmalle is going to decrease their annual output, which I think is a good thing.

The Chimay Bleuw you should age for a couple of years, it benefits greatly from this. Actually, I find the small bottles to get a lot more interesting after fifteen years (!). The larger 0,75l bottles will mature a lot faster. 3-5 years and they are a lot better. Drink them at 12-14 degrees celsius together with some dark chocolate truffles.

I've got a bunch of large Chimay Bleuw (Grande R

[bruno putzeys]

Tomas Danko wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 15:02

Give me one beer to drink for the rest of my life, and I will choose Westmalle Tripel right away!

I can sympathise with that.