How NOT to taste beer ...

Yesterday (Christmas day) I had to work. Not really a day I like to work, as I prefer to be with my family, but that's part of the job. So I'm not complaining.

From a professional standpoint, Christmas is a weird day to work on. During the day there wasn't that much work, as most people spend their time with family, but later in the evening people do come out and want to socialize in a pub. As I worked all day I could stop around midnight, and got to drink a couple of new beers with some colleagues.

We first tried the Ename Tripel. A rather pale blond but very clear tripel with white head. The taste was a bit disappointing. There actually wasn't much of it. It felt a bit as drinking water with alcohol. Very neutral, too neutral. The bottom of the bottle did add a little sweetness, which reminded me to a taste I sometimes find in some Duvels. Ename Tripel is brewed by Roman and has a ABV of 8,5%.

The next one was a Kapittel Abt. Kapittel is brewed by brewery Van Eecke. Van Eecke is located in Watou, a very small town in the West Flandres. Watou is also the home of another very famous brewery, Sint Bernardus. 

Just as the Ename, the Kapittel Abt is an abbey beer, refermented in the bottle. It's a bit darker than the Ename Tripel, and is also unfiltered. The foam-head is much nicer and solid. It has a much richer taste and I was really pleased with it ... a touch of bitternes makes it a very nice Tripel, one that I'll drink again, for sure. The 10% alcohol does find it's way in your blood, so beware ;).

After that my colleague, Mike, insisted to try a Watou Tripel, as this is his favourite. The Watou Tripel is brewed by the Sint Bernardus brewery, which is the only commercial brewery that also brewed the world-class West-Vleteren trappist beers (they had a license untill 1992).

The Watou Tripel is indeed a very nice abbey beer, which does have some nice aromas, that the Kapittel doesn't have, but it did miss a bit of the punch, probably because it's lighter in ABV (7,5%). 

Again, this wasn't really a real tasting ... we were just talking at the bar, having fun while enjoying some new beers. By the time we were drinking the Watou Tripel, another colleague joined us, and we were talking about the strongest beer we have at Bier Central ... we actually have a couple, all with an ABV of 13%. One of them is the Black Albert.

Black Albert is brewed by De Struise Brouwers and is a stout. As most of us aren't really fond of stouts (for me the reference beer in the stout category is a Guinness, and I'm not really fond about that kind of beer), but we were curious about the Black Albert's taste and we couldn't resist buying one and sharing it. It poors into the glass as thin black oil, not producing a lot of foam, allthough it eventually gets a thick brownish head.

To be quite honest, at that point I actually drank already too much, so I don't even remember the smell. I do remember that I was actually surprised by the taste. I still can't describe it, but it sure wasn't bad (or at least not as bad as I expected a stout would be). One thing I will remember for sure is it's strong after-taste ... the taste really lasts very long, and I do like that when drinking a beer. Definately a beer I'll drink again to examine the rich flavours it has.

Meanwhile my colleague was drinking a Floreffe Tripel, and I did take a sip of it. It has a stronger bitterness than the other Tripels we tried, and sure tasted good. But again, at that point I was getting wasted, so I'll have to taste it again to give a good opinion :).

The alcohol was really getting in my head and the ambiance was big fun :) ... so we decided to go upstairs to The Popcorn and have some fun on the dance floor ... no more beer for me, I started drinking Havana Especial 7 years old ... bad idea :) ... actually it was big fun, and we had a blast. But that much alcohol is a sure way to get a huge hangover the next day ... one I'm still struggling with right now :(.

Anyway, lessons learned: it was a fun night, but it's certainly not the right way to have a beer-tasting :) When you drink too much, you can't really make a objective opinion about a beer. And a beer-tasting should not lead to a hangover the next day :). I guess it's better to only taste half of each beer you want to taste and taste only 3 to 4 beers maximum. But I did get to know a couple of new ones I sure will drink again.

Enjoy the year-end, but do drink reasonably!

Greetingz,

Koen.