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[ziggy]

"The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers."

i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too  

[Version]

Tomas Danko wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 10:45

Well, I could go on for ages about Trappist and other Belgian beer.

Of all things, why did the Trappist choose brewing as a source of income? Aren't the shenanigans associated with drinking alcohol at opposition with the monk's lifestyle? Why not just bake bread and sell that?

[Version]

ziggy wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:01

"The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers." i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too

Well, music brought us here in the first place. I find that once the beer is opened and shared, the subject turns to music quickly.

[Tomas Danko]

Properly bottled ales should preferably have been bottle conditioned. So instead of using the same machine to carbonise Coca Cola, you prime the bottle with a hint of sugar (sometimes fresh vort, though) and fresh yeast. Then you stash away the bottles for a week or three at higher room temperature. The yeast will consume the sugars and create CO2. Natural bubbles, in other words.

What happens is that this does not end after just a couple of weeks. Instead, it can keep going for years and years. The small amount of captured oxygen in the bottle also helps the yeast cells stay alive. So the longer you store the bottles, the more the yeast can consume the residual sugars in the brew.

Practically speaking, the beer usually mellows out. The CO2 becomes more balanced and settled. The beer gets a bit less sweet, and the basic taste comes out better.

Don't try this with an American Budweiser though. It's been filtered and pasteurized to death, throw away the bottle after one year.

The Brettanomyces yeast strand in the Orval bottle is very potent and actually increases the alcohol content from 6.2% up to 6.9% in up to nine months (!). Hence, this beer really changes quickly the first half year.

Regarding Westmalle Tripel, you should try it with asparagus. Oh man what a tasteful combination! I have tried an awful lot of amazing beers that are much better than Westmalle Tripel, but they often wouldn't be something you'd like to drink on a regular basis. That's why Westmalle Tripel is such a great beer, because it always fits the bill. Oh btw, anyone recognize the logo I use for my avatar here at PSW? eh...  

Another huge favorite of mine is to have late breakfast eating Croque Monsieur with Westmalle Tripel. It's just way too good.

Oh, and Trappist breweries donate more than half of the income to charity.

So you should drink often and a lot, in order to make this world a better place. hehe

Lately, the larger monasteries (ie Westmalle, Chimay) started sending the money to the Vatican, tagging the money for use wherever there are chatastrophies in the world where children are suffering. They figured it does more good than sending smaller amounts around, or donating it to local charities. I mean, how bad can it be living in Belgium in comparison...

Westmalle primes their bottles with about twice as much fresh yeast compared to most other beers. So there's a lot of vitamin B and stuff in there, also if you warm up your glass before you drink it (so that it's a few degrees above the usual serving temperature) you will see a haze appearing that clouds the beer. Part of what happens is that proteins will reform. So there's a lot of good stuff in that beer!

The large 0,75l bottles of Westmalle Tripel are even richer in taste and they mature quite fast. 1-2 years and they get more mellow, deeper in taste with some kind of caramel tone due to the oxidation. Drinking it at cellar temperature (ie 12-14 degrees) turns it into something you drink during a late night conversation. Whereas the ordinary 33 cl bottles can be had with just about anything and you can still consider it regular beer.  

If you ever fly to and from Brussels or Charleroi, the tip is to enter the tax free store and buy as many of those 0,75l bottles of Westmalle Tripel you can carry. They sell them in cardboard tube gift packs, and you can easily buy six of them without struggling in and out of the plane...

Okay, I will try and stop now. Sorry! Combining my two greatest interests here at PSW is maybe too much for me.  

Cheers guys! I'll make sure to let you know should I ever be visiting your countries.

malice wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 20:32

Tomas, I would love to drink beer with you. Several remarks makes me think we have trully common taste. Tomas Danko wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 15:02 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. So true. My father bought an hotel that he transformed as a Week end residence. It was a very small hotel though with no more than 12 rooms. They had a stach of Orval that was untouched for a year and a half and perfectly conserved in the basement. The best Orval ever. I agree totaly with the fizzy part going away with age. Quote: 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! Again, I totally agree, it miht be my favorite. The Orval is far more easy to find, that is why I put it in first place, but frankly, nothing like a triple Westmalle. It's trully a religious experience. Quote: 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. Can't find it in France. Everytime I'm giging in Belgium I make a stach. maybe it is better exported to Sweeden, I don't know. Quote: 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 "T(Z)= (n1+n2*Z^-1+n2*Z^-2)/(1+d1*z^-1+d2*z^-2)" - Mr. Dan Lavry "Shaw baa laa raaw, sidle' yaa doot in dee splaa" . Mr Shooby Taylor C.Cash Hero Member Offline Posts: 1889 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) MMM BEER ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< malice Hero Member Offline Posts: 799 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) ziggy wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:01 "The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers." i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too   Not every kind of music. The blues is universal. Like beer. As predicted, you can have both in the same place. Coincidence ? I think not malice http://www.isabelleantena.com http://myspace.com/isabelleantena http://womb.mixerman.net malice Hero Member Offline Posts: 799 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) My new Guru says : Quote: The large 0,75l bottles of Westmalle Tripel are even richer in taste and they mature quite fast. Oh, yeah, so true ... 0.75l are the ones I'm bringing home malice http://www.isabelleantena.com http://myspace.com/isabelleantena http://womb.mixerman.net Version Hero Member Offline Posts: 845 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) malice wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:43 ziggy wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:01 "The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers." i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too   Not every kind of music. The blues is universal. Like beer. As predicted, you can have both in the same place. Coincidence ? I think not malice I'm just glad the monasteries are focusing on beer and not on turning out "remix of the week" techno/mash-ups. Hallams Hero Member Offline Posts: 1067 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) malice wrote on Tue, 01 July 2008 05:36 Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 14:15 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..... Hey, I would love you to guide you to belgian beer anytime. I was just teasing. As a matter of fact, this beer of yours looks great. Would love to give it a try. If you're comming to Europe, and Brussel in particular, give me a shout. Not kidding malice No problems. Thanks for the invite. All in good fun. I will be using this thread to try some European beers as it is winter here now so i can take a trip to the snow and pretend i'm in the northan hemisphere for a while. Room temp beer is a foreign concept though. Chris Hallam. Melbourne, Australia.   Hallams Hero Member Offline Posts: 1067 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) Tomas Danko wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:41 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?   Thought you would never ask The Tasmanian beers are next on my favorites list. For a light beer, Cascades Premium Light is hard to beat. Cascade is the oldest brewery in Australia, Located in Hobart, and ther has been a serious rivalry between them and Boags Brewery in Launceston, the 2nd largest city in Tasmania. Their website is worth a visit: http://www.boags.com.au For me their full strength beers win over Cascades. These are a must to try befor any REAL beer drinker passes from this life to the next: Wizard Smith's Ale Strongarm Boags XXX Ale Chris Hallam. Melbourne, Australia.   Tomas Danko Hero Member Offline Posts: 4733 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) Boag is owned by San Miguel and they're together with Carlsberg. Cascade seems interesting, their draft and lager beers tend to get great reviews. For bolder and darker beer it still seems as if Coopers is the best one from down under. Thanks for the info! "T(Z)= (n1+n2*Z^-1+n2*Z^-2)/(1+d1*z^-1+d2*z^-2)" - Mr. Dan Lavry "Shaw baa laa raaw, sidle' yaa doot in dee splaa" . Mr Shooby Taylor sui-city Sr. Member Offline Posts: 330 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) At yeast this thread is getting some attention... sorry, wrong discussion. ssltech Hero Member Offline Posts: 4780 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) Barry Hufker wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:24 As you may know, InBev made an offer to purchase Anheuser-Busch here in Saint Louis.  What first seemed possible (snip) has now turned into a fight as A-B makes plans to (snip) improve the company. Interesting to note that they have no plans to improve the PRODUCT... Good lord, I was at my cousin's place this weekend. -Later on Saturday afternoon I settled down to watch the European international soccer final on TV, and he called out from the kitchen "there's plenty of beer in the fridge if you'd like one". -It was a little early really, but I thought I'd show willing. -There was in fact about a dozen of various Anheuser-Busch product. -I opened what seemed to be the least offensive, but -to be frightfully honest- I couldn't even DRINK it... the taste was simply apalling, and by the third mouthful the 'scent' as the glass approached my nose made me really not want it. -Couldn't do it I'm afraid... and I really don't know WHAT it is, but just about all the A-B product range has a slightly repulsive 'scent' to me... I do like the occasional English or Belgian ale though... lighter Pilseners can be very crisp and refreshing as an occasional summer treat, but lord alone knows what the major American breweries have done to mess up their versions of 'beer'... Keith MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36 I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics.. Tomas Danko Hero Member Offline Posts: 4733 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) sui-city wrote on Tue, 01 July 2008 13:57 At yeast this thread is getting some attention... sorry, wrong discussion. Let's pitch some fresh yeast into this thread then!   Here's a picture from when I cultivated yeast from Rochefort. It was very potent and tasty. "T(Z)= (n1+n2*Z^-1+n2*Z^-2)/(1+d1*z^-1+d2*z^-2)" - Mr. Dan Lavry "Shaw baa laa raaw, sidle' yaa doot in dee splaa" . Mr Shooby Taylor sui-city Sr. Member Offline Posts: 330 Re: It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry) I have to ask you guys for some assistance please: Do any of you know of a place i can order Xingu and Maker's Mark online? Neither are available in South Africa, and I have a penchant for dark beer and great bourbon. Thanks Print Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 ... 13   Go Up « previous next » R/E/P Community > R/E/P > R/E/P Archives > R/E/P Saloon > It's the saloon, let's talk about beer (sorry Terry)   SMF 2.0.19 | SMF © 2021, Simple Machines | Terms and Policies XHTML RSS WAP2 Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc. Page created in 0.132 seconds with 20 queries.

[C.Cash]

MMM BEER

[malice]

ziggy wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:01

"The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers." i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too

Not every kind of music.

The blues is universal. Like beer.

As predicted, you can have both in the same place.

Coincidence ?

I think not

malice

[malice]

My new Guru says :

Quote:

The large 0,75l bottles of Westmalle Tripel are even richer in taste and they mature quite fast.

Oh, yeah, so true ...

0.75l are the ones I'm bringing home

malice

[Version]

malice wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:43

ziggy wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:01 "The universal common denominator is beer. Cheers." i always thought it was music, but beer is allright with me, too   Not every kind of music. The blues is universal. Like beer. As predicted, you can have both in the same place. Coincidence ? I think not malice

I'm just glad the monasteries are focusing on beer and not on turning out "remix of the week" techno/mash-ups.

[Hallams]

malice wrote on Tue, 01 July 2008 05:36

Hallams wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 14:15 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..... Hey, I would love you to guide you to belgian beer anytime. I was just teasing. As a matter of fact, this beer of yours looks great. Would love to give it a try. If you're comming to Europe, and Brussel in particular, give me a shout. Not kidding malice

No problems. Thanks for the invite. All in good fun. I will be using this thread to try some European beers as it is winter here now so i can take a trip to the snow and pretend i'm in the northan hemisphere for a while. Room temp beer is a foreign concept though.

[Hallams]

Tomas Danko wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 22:41

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?

Thought you would never ask
The Tasmanian beers are next on my favorites list. For a light beer, Cascades Premium Light is hard to beat. Cascade is the oldest brewery in Australia, Located in Hobart, and ther has been a serious rivalry between them and Boags Brewery in Launceston, the 2nd largest city in Tasmania. Their website is worth a visit:
http://www.boags.com.au
For me their full strength beers win over Cascades.
These are a must to try befor any REAL beer drinker passes from this life to the next:

Wizard Smith's Ale
Strongarm
Boags XXX Ale

[Tomas Danko]

Boag is owned by San Miguel and they're together with Carlsberg.

Cascade seems interesting, their draft and lager beers tend to get great reviews.

For bolder and darker beer it still seems as if Coopers is the best one from down under.

Thanks for the info!

[sui-city]

At yeast this thread is getting some attention...












































sorry, wrong discussion.

[ssltech]

Barry Hufker wrote on Mon, 30 June 2008 13:24

As you may know, InBev made an offer to purchase Anheuser-Busch here in Saint Louis.  What first seemed possible (snip) has now turned into a fight as A-B makes plans to (snip) improve the company.

Interesting to note that they have no plans to improve the PRODUCT...

Good lord, I was at my cousin's place this weekend. -Later on Saturday afternoon I settled down to watch the European international soccer final on TV, and he called out from the kitchen "there's plenty of beer in the fridge if you'd like one". -It was a little early really, but I thought I'd show willing. -There was in fact about a dozen of various Anheuser-Busch product. -I opened what seemed to be the least offensive, but -to be frightfully honest- I couldn't even DRINK it... the taste was simply apalling, and by the third mouthful the 'scent' as the glass approached my nose made me really not want it.

-Couldn't do it I'm afraid... and I really don't know WHAT it is, but just about all the A-B product range has a slightly repulsive 'scent' to me...

I do like the occasional English or Belgian ale though... lighter Pilseners can be very crisp and refreshing as an occasional summer treat, but lord alone knows what the major American breweries have done to mess up their versions of 'beer'...

Keith

[Tomas Danko]

sui-city wrote on Tue, 01 July 2008 13:57

At yeast this thread is getting some attention... sorry, wrong discussion.

Let's pitch some fresh yeast into this thread then!  

Here's a picture from when I cultivated yeast from Rochefort.


It was very potent and tasty.

[sui-city]

I have to ask you guys for some assistance please:

Do any of you know of a place i can order Xingu and Maker's Mark online?

Neither are available in South Africa, and I have a penchant for dark beer and great bourbon.

Thanks