So what beers are we talking about?
Bier Central is about Belgian beers. Belgium has a rich and long tradition when it comes to brewing beer. More so, Belgian beers are seen as the standard and reference worldwide when it comes to brewing high quality beers (see this article for example).
Having that in mind, Bier Central choose to focus just on beers brewed in Belgium. With over 750 different kinds of beer (probably even more actually) it's not easy to make a good selection of what to serve and what not (ideally we'd like to have them all of course). To make a clear overview of all the beers we serve, we categorized all our beers into categories.
Here are the categories as used in our "Bier Encyclopedie" (our beer menu):
- Beers on tap
- Large bottles
- Trappist beers
- Abbey beers
- Gueuze and Lambic beers
- Kriek beers
- Fruit beers
- Special Belges or amber ales
- Flemish Browns
- Belgian golden ales
- White beers
- Bière brut
- 'Saison' beers
- Specialty beers
- Seasonal beers and beers that are hard to get
Trappist beers
There are seven Trappist breweries in the world, 6 in Belgium, one in the Netherlands. We serve all but one (but, if you read my previous post, that may change in the future :).
Abbey beers
Abbey beer is a term associated with beer brewed by non-monastic types, frequently under such a license. These beers cannot be clled "Trappist", but usually derive their name from shrine or some other religious icon. It is typical for abbey beers to mimic the styles of Trappist beer. Doubles and triples, such as appear in Westmalle's line, are very popular.
Gueuze and Lambic beers
Lambic is one of the oldest beer styles in the world, only to be found in Belgium. Lambic requires several years to come of age.
Kriek beers
Kriek is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries (with the pits).
Fruit beers
Fruit beers combine the character of gueuze with fresh fruits and pit aromas, most of which are extra flavoured with syrups.
Speciale Belges (amber ales)
Speciale Belges or amber ales are mostly pleasant easy drinking beers, not particularly high in alcohol and are not at all sour.
Flemish Brown beers
A Flemish Brown - or Oud Bruin - can boast the same boldly lactic character of the lambic family but generally without the horsey character.
Belgian golden ale beers
Belgian golden ale is characterised by a very high ABV, around 9%. It resembles to the abbey style tripel, but has several significant differences. tripels are frequently cloudy where for example Duvel is quite clear. It has a cleaner taste, revealing malt and hops.
White beers
White beer is made of pale malts and unmalted wheat and lacks filtration.
Bière brut beers
Bière brut, one of the newest styles, is a top-shelf crossover beer. The few Bière brut beers, all brewed in the same city, typically undergo a lenghty maturation. Typical features are: high in alcohol, highly carbonated and sometimes spiced.
Saison beers
Saison is referred to as "country beer", designed to be medium in alcohol and refreshing and strongh enough to survive the winter when there were no fridges or cooling systems.
Specialty beers
Beers with a specific, pronounced taste or extraordinary brewing process that can't be put inside a different category.
Seasonal beers
There are a number of 'seasonal' beers that are best enjoyed and sold at the appropriate time of the year, as an ideal accompaniment to the weather mood and fare of the season.
As you can see the list of categories is already quite long. In future posts I'll go deeper into some of these categories and actually sum up some of the actual beers.
Greetingz,
Koen.
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