Apparantly there's a new show coming on Discovery ... watch the ad ... I've always known: nothing, NOTHING has been more important than beer :)
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Beer Review #3: La Trappe Tripel
The La Trappe Tripel is brewed by Beer Brewery de Koningshoeven, the only Trappist brewery in The Netherlands. All beers are brewed in collaboration with the monks of the O.L.V. Koningshoeven Abbey. This monastery was founded in 1880 and is compared to the other trappist monasteries, relatively young. It was founded in The Netherlands after moving from France, where they were worried about the fate of the monks.
There are actually quite a few La Trappe beers: Blond, Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel, Witte Trappist, Bockbier, Isid'or, Oak Aged, PUUR and Real Trappist. Here at Bier Central we offer the first 4, and the Tripel is the first one I'll describe.
The La Trappe Tripel has an ABV of 8% (alcohol), and has a golden to light amber color. The firm white foamhead disappears quite fast, allthough there remains a very thin layer that stays on top of the liquid.
The smell is quite fruity and reveils the coriander, which definitely gives it a spicy character. The beer is well carbonated, but I found it to disappear quite fast, and made the it a bit flat if you don't drink it fast enough. I like my beers well carbonated.
The mouthfeel was well present, which wasn't the case for the aftertaste. It's taste reminded me of something roasted and also made me think about caramel. Bitter-sweet I'd say.
Allthough this is definitely not a bad beer, it's not one of my favorites, especially if you compare it to their Quadruple, which I like much more.
Don't try to compare it with the Westmalle Tripel, it's a complete different tripel, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. Where the Westmalle stands out in it's bitterness, the La Trappe Tripel is way more fruitier and sweeter.
My rating ... 6 out of 10.
There are actually quite a few La Trappe beers: Blond, Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel, Witte Trappist, Bockbier, Isid'or, Oak Aged, PUUR and Real Trappist. Here at Bier Central we offer the first 4, and the Tripel is the first one I'll describe.
The smell is quite fruity and reveils the coriander, which definitely gives it a spicy character. The beer is well carbonated, but I found it to disappear quite fast, and made the it a bit flat if you don't drink it fast enough. I like my beers well carbonated.
The mouthfeel was well present, which wasn't the case for the aftertaste. It's taste reminded me of something roasted and also made me think about caramel. Bitter-sweet I'd say.
Allthough this is definitely not a bad beer, it's not one of my favorites, especially if you compare it to their Quadruple, which I like much more.
Don't try to compare it with the Westmalle Tripel, it's a complete different tripel, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. Where the Westmalle stands out in it's bitterness, the La Trappe Tripel is way more fruitier and sweeter.
My rating ... 6 out of 10.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Beer Review #2: Achel Blond
The Achel Blond is, just as the Westmalle Tripel, a beer of one of the 7 trappist monestaries in the world. Achel Blond is brewed by the Saint-Benedictus Abbey "De Achelse Kluis", situated in the small town of Achel (B), near the Dutch border.
Just like most of the other trappist monestaries, it's roots go way back, back to 1656 to be exact. Since that time the "Achelse Kluis" is a center of prayer, spirituality and christian culture.
The Achel Blond is a tripel beer, with re-fermentation in the bottle, and has an ABV of 8% (alcohol), slightly less than the Westmalle Tripel.
The Achel Blond is again just as the Westmalle Tripel clear and yellow-gold of color, but slightly darker than the Westmalle Tripel. The foam-head is white and big, and lasts for a decent time. It is a bit more carbonated than the Westmalle, which you can see more clearly.
Just as the Westmalle it's smell reveals hop, but again a little explicit as the Westmalle. Mouthfeel is a bit lame, but the aftertaste is all about hop and bitterness.
In many ways you could say the Achel Blond is a slightly softer version of the Westmalle Tripel.
A very nice beer, which I surely will drink again, but personally I prefer the Westmalle Tripel, which is a bit more pronounced in all it's aspects.
My rating: 7 out of 10.
Just like most of the other trappist monestaries, it's roots go way back, back to 1656 to be exact. Since that time the "Achelse Kluis" is a center of prayer, spirituality and christian culture.
The Achel Blond is again just as the Westmalle Tripel clear and yellow-gold of color, but slightly darker than the Westmalle Tripel. The foam-head is white and big, and lasts for a decent time. It is a bit more carbonated than the Westmalle, which you can see more clearly.
Just as the Westmalle it's smell reveals hop, but again a little explicit as the Westmalle. Mouthfeel is a bit lame, but the aftertaste is all about hop and bitterness.
In many ways you could say the Achel Blond is a slightly softer version of the Westmalle Tripel.
A very nice beer, which I surely will drink again, but personally I prefer the Westmalle Tripel, which is a bit more pronounced in all it's aspects.
My rating: 7 out of 10.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Beer Review #1: Westmalle Tripel
In my previous post I showed you my first batch of beers I'm about to taste ... tonight I tasted my 2 first beers. I started with the Westmalle Tripel. Not actually the best choice as it is a very strong beer in it's taste and overwhelms other tastes. Using this as the first beer is risky, cause it's taste might stick and influence the taste of the next beer. But since I consider Westmalle Tripel as a reference beer, I thought it to be a good starter.
Westmalle Tripel is brewed by the Monastery of Trappists of Westmalle. The history of this monastry goes way back, back to April 22nd, 1836 to be exact. One constant in it's long history is that over the years they kept on investing in their manufacturing plant with only one aim: better quality of their Trappist beers. Better quality is truly the "leitmotiv" through the history of the brewery.
And it shows (or tastes in this case). The Westmalle Tripel is a true example of a high quality Trappist beer that has had this high standard for many years.
No need to mention that the Westmalle Tripel is categorized as a Trappist beer. Trappist beers are beers brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. To learn more about what exactly defines a Trappist beer (or Trappist monastery), check the International Trappist Association website.
The Westmalle Tripel is as a true Tripel should be, quite strong in alcohol. With 9,5% ABV this beer has a strong punch. If you plan to drink Westmalle Tripels for a whole night, beware! Believe me, I've seen very tough guys, who really can handle a lot of alcohol, go completely wasted after 5 or 6 of these. Personally I think this has not only to do with the alcohol percentage, but also because of the density of the beer. Trappist beers seem to be more dense than other beers, and as we say here in the Flanders: "die blijven aan de ribben plakken" (literally translated "they stick to the ribs", meaning they are stronger than what you're used to).
When pouring in the beer, you notice that besides the golden yellow clear color, you get a firm, white foamhead, which lasts for a decent time. The smell reveals a lot of hop. I noticed some "glue"-like scent. I recall that this smell is due to a particular sort of hop, but I can't recall which one (I'll ask my mentor one of these days). I also noticed some vanilla-aromas. Be sure when you first taste this trappist, not to pour everything into your glass. The bottom of the bottle holds a lot of yeast. If you add this to your glass the beer might get a bit cloudy and adds an extra punch of bitterness. It is also said that this last bit of beer holds a lot of vitamine E.
When tasting, I found the mouth-feel a bit disappointing, but the taste in the back of the mouth is quite the opposite and overwhelming. A strong bitter taste that lasts very long. Bitterness is the keyword for this beer.
The Westmalle Tripel is definitely one of my favorites, a beer I like to drink on a regular basis, and which is, here in Belgium, easily available in many stores.
Allthough there are numerous beers that have a more pronounced bitter taste, for me the Westmalle Tripel is about as high as bitterness of a beer should go. More bitterness would probably be too much. For me, the Westmalle Tripel is, as far as bitterness goes, the perfect match.
If you like bitterness and hoppiness, and you want to get to know what a trappist (tripel) beer tastes like, this is definitely THE beer to start with!
My rating: 8 out of 10.
And it shows (or tastes in this case). The Westmalle Tripel is a true example of a high quality Trappist beer that has had this high standard for many years.
No need to mention that the Westmalle Tripel is categorized as a Trappist beer. Trappist beers are beers brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. To learn more about what exactly defines a Trappist beer (or Trappist monastery), check the International Trappist Association website.
The Westmalle Tripel is as a true Tripel should be, quite strong in alcohol. With 9,5% ABV this beer has a strong punch. If you plan to drink Westmalle Tripels for a whole night, beware! Believe me, I've seen very tough guys, who really can handle a lot of alcohol, go completely wasted after 5 or 6 of these. Personally I think this has not only to do with the alcohol percentage, but also because of the density of the beer. Trappist beers seem to be more dense than other beers, and as we say here in the Flanders: "die blijven aan de ribben plakken" (literally translated "they stick to the ribs", meaning they are stronger than what you're used to).
When tasting, I found the mouth-feel a bit disappointing, but the taste in the back of the mouth is quite the opposite and overwhelming. A strong bitter taste that lasts very long. Bitterness is the keyword for this beer.
The Westmalle Tripel is definitely one of my favorites, a beer I like to drink on a regular basis, and which is, here in Belgium, easily available in many stores.
Allthough there are numerous beers that have a more pronounced bitter taste, for me the Westmalle Tripel is about as high as bitterness of a beer should go. More bitterness would probably be too much. For me, the Westmalle Tripel is, as far as bitterness goes, the perfect match.
If you like bitterness and hoppiness, and you want to get to know what a trappist (tripel) beer tastes like, this is definitely THE beer to start with!
My rating: 8 out of 10.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
First batch ... trappists ...
Hi there,
here is the first batch of beers I'll taste and review. Contrary to what I said before (tasting all the beers from page 1 to 86), I will start with the first category after the large bottles ... the trappist beers, Belgiums glory :)
Below a picture of all the beers I have here at home.
Shown above are:
here is the first batch of beers I'll taste and review. Contrary to what I said before (tasting all the beers from page 1 to 86), I will start with the first category after the large bottles ... the trappist beers, Belgiums glory :)
Below a picture of all the beers I have here at home.
Shown above are:
- Achel Blond
- Achel Bruin
- Chimay Bleue
- Chimay Rouge
- La Trappe Blond
- La Trappe Dubbel
- La Trappe Tripel
- Orval
- Rochefort 6
- Rochefort 8
- Rochefort 10
- Westmalle Tripel
There are missing a couple however: the Westmalle Dubbel, the Chimay Tripel and the La Trappe Quadruple. The 2 first ones (Westmalle Dubbel and Chimay Tripel) are on tap, so I'll have to taste those in Bier Central, the last one (La Trappe Quadrupel) is currently out of stock, but should be here anyday now (chances are it's back in stock by the time I post this).
Of course there is missing one very important one (3 actually) ... the West-Vleteren trappists. But since we don't serve these (West-Vleteren is not commercially available), I do not have them at my disposal. I will ask my mother to go and get some for me one of these days (she lives very close to the monestary).
Stay tuned for the next updates ...
Greetingz,
Koen.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tasting Notes ... the format ...
Hi there,
I'm about to start tasting all our beers listed in the "Bier Encyclopedie". I just need to bring the first batch of beers home and start doing "the hard work" ;) ... if all goes well and I don't feel sick tomorrow (today was/is horrible ... some kind of nasty flew), I'll go and pick up the first beers and all the glasses that go along with it.
But what exactly will I describe/write about each beer? Again, I consider myself a beginner when it comes to tasting beer. Sure, I can tell if I like a beer or not, but what does that help you? Your taste is probably completely different than mine, and what I like, you might dislike (or vice versa). And the goal after all is to have a collection of tasting notes that helps you and me make better choices when selecting beers.
So what things will I write down? For each beer I will first start to write down some very objective criteria: name, brewery, category, ABV, and a picture. Next come the tasting notes themselves: the aroma/smell, color and density of the foamhead, color and brightness of the beer, first impressions of tastes and the after-taste.
After that I'll try to list some other beers that can be compared to the beer tasted, and where possible maybe add some background information about the beer, it's history or other trivia. And I'll also try to give each beer a rating from 1 to 10.
This is of course an initial set-up, and as my tastings evolve there might be some changes, but at least it's a start.
If you have any suggestions/comments, please feel free to let me know, using the comments below!
Greetingz,
Koen.
I'm about to start tasting all our beers listed in the "Bier Encyclopedie". I just need to bring the first batch of beers home and start doing "the hard work" ;) ... if all goes well and I don't feel sick tomorrow (today was/is horrible ... some kind of nasty flew), I'll go and pick up the first beers and all the glasses that go along with it.
But what exactly will I describe/write about each beer? Again, I consider myself a beginner when it comes to tasting beer. Sure, I can tell if I like a beer or not, but what does that help you? Your taste is probably completely different than mine, and what I like, you might dislike (or vice versa). And the goal after all is to have a collection of tasting notes that helps you and me make better choices when selecting beers.
So what things will I write down? For each beer I will first start to write down some very objective criteria: name, brewery, category, ABV, and a picture. Next come the tasting notes themselves: the aroma/smell, color and density of the foamhead, color and brightness of the beer, first impressions of tastes and the after-taste.
After that I'll try to list some other beers that can be compared to the beer tasted, and where possible maybe add some background information about the beer, it's history or other trivia. And I'll also try to give each beer a rating from 1 to 10.
This is of course an initial set-up, and as my tastings evolve there might be some changes, but at least it's a start.
If you have any suggestions/comments, please feel free to let me know, using the comments below!
Greetingz,
Koen.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Bier Central beer reviews ... we have a plan!
Hi there everyone!
First of all, I wish everyone a very happy new year!! May you all get what you wish for, and a little more (of the good things)!!
I hope everybody enjoyed the new years'eve parties, we sure did!
Remember one of my earlier posts, in which I pointed out my new years resolution for 2011? In that post I said I wanted to taste (and describe) every beer we offer in Bier Central. All those beers are described in the "Bier Central Bier Encyclopedie".
The "Bier Encyclopedie" is our 86-page beer-menu that every visitor to our pub uses to make his choice of drink. Customers can also buy our "Bier Encyclopedie" for a very reasonable price, if they want to have a thorough look at it at home.
By now, we're already 4 days in the new year, and it's time to get started. But tasting 300+ beers is not an easy task :) ... Where do I start and how do I continue to bring it to a good ending? Honestly I was a bit confused and overwhelmed. Should I taste beers per category, or should I taste several types of beers of each style per tasting-session? How much beers should I taste per session? Where, and when should I taste them? It all seems very easy, but I promised myself to do it thorough, and as objective as possible.
This morning I had a quick chat with one of our beer-experts, Hans Bombeke, president of the "Antwerps BierCollege" (Antwerp Beer College). Hans gives us (the Bier Central staff) regular updates/workshops about beer and everything that comes with it. Presenting him the question in what order I should taste beers, he advised me to keep it simple, and just start tasting from page 1 to 86, in that order, so that you, the reader, can easily follow each tasting, using the "Bier Encyclopedie" (if you have it of course :).
Luckily our "Bier Encyclopedie" is already categorized, and is not an alfabethical list of all our beers.
A short recap of the categories, listed in the order as printed in the "Bier Encyclopedie":
So, using the list above, I should start with the beers on tap ... However, I will not :) ... As I want to start my tastings at home (as the tastings evolve, I will do them at the pub in the future), I have to start with bottled beers. So my first category will be the beers bottled in 75cl bottles.
As I've already learned the hard way, you should limit the number of different beers per tasting, and thus I can not taste one category in one tasting (20 beers is just too much :). So I will take one page per tasting max (each page has a maximum of 6 beers, some have less). One tasting per week, 50 weeks in the coming year ... that is about 300 beers ... It's gonna be tight, but we sure will try :).
Ok, we have a plan ... what's the next step? The first tasting!
Let's have a look at the first category: large bottles.
We have 20 different beers listed in that category. Wherever possible I will taste from a small bottle, rather than a big bottle, it's simply no use to drink 75cl of each beer to taste it. Taking the first page of that category, we see the following beers:
These will be the first beers in my "Bier Central beer reviews"!
Stay tuned to read the first tastings in the coming days!
Greetingz,
Koen.
First of all, I wish everyone a very happy new year!! May you all get what you wish for, and a little more (of the good things)!!
I hope everybody enjoyed the new years'eve parties, we sure did!
Remember one of my earlier posts, in which I pointed out my new years resolution for 2011? In that post I said I wanted to taste (and describe) every beer we offer in Bier Central. All those beers are described in the "Bier Central Bier Encyclopedie".
The "Bier Encyclopedie" is our 86-page beer-menu that every visitor to our pub uses to make his choice of drink. Customers can also buy our "Bier Encyclopedie" for a very reasonable price, if they want to have a thorough look at it at home.
By now, we're already 4 days in the new year, and it's time to get started. But tasting 300+ beers is not an easy task :) ... Where do I start and how do I continue to bring it to a good ending? Honestly I was a bit confused and overwhelmed. Should I taste beers per category, or should I taste several types of beers of each style per tasting-session? How much beers should I taste per session? Where, and when should I taste them? It all seems very easy, but I promised myself to do it thorough, and as objective as possible.
This morning I had a quick chat with one of our beer-experts, Hans Bombeke, president of the "Antwerps BierCollege" (Antwerp Beer College). Hans gives us (the Bier Central staff) regular updates/workshops about beer and everything that comes with it. Presenting him the question in what order I should taste beers, he advised me to keep it simple, and just start tasting from page 1 to 86, in that order, so that you, the reader, can easily follow each tasting, using the "Bier Encyclopedie" (if you have it of course :).
Luckily our "Bier Encyclopedie" is already categorized, and is not an alfabethical list of all our beers.
A short recap of the categories, listed in the order as printed in the "Bier Encyclopedie":
- Beers on tap (20)
- Large bottles (26)
- Trappist beers (20)
- Abbey beers (54)
- Gueuzes and Lambics (22)
- Kriek beers (20)
- Fruit beers (18)
- Speciale Belge beers (4)
- Flemish Brown ("Oud Bruin") beers (10)
- Belgian golden ales (8)
- Belgian White beers (8)
- Biere Brut beers (Champagne beers) (3)
- Saison beers (5)
- Speciality beers (119)
- Saisonal beers (and beers hard to get) (20)
So, using the list above, I should start with the beers on tap ... However, I will not :) ... As I want to start my tastings at home (as the tastings evolve, I will do them at the pub in the future), I have to start with bottled beers. So my first category will be the beers bottled in 75cl bottles.
As I've already learned the hard way, you should limit the number of different beers per tasting, and thus I can not taste one category in one tasting (20 beers is just too much :). So I will take one page per tasting max (each page has a maximum of 6 beers, some have less). One tasting per week, 50 weeks in the coming year ... that is about 300 beers ... It's gonna be tight, but we sure will try :).
Ok, we have a plan ... what's the next step? The first tasting!
Let's have a look at the first category: large bottles.
We have 20 different beers listed in that category. Wherever possible I will taste from a small bottle, rather than a big bottle, it's simply no use to drink 75cl of each beer to taste it. Taking the first page of that category, we see the following beers:
- Chimay Bleue
- Westmalle Triple
- Dominus Triple
- Ename Triple
- Gueuze Fond Girardin
- Iris 2007 Cantillon
These will be the first beers in my "Bier Central beer reviews"!
Stay tuned to read the first tastings in the coming days!
Greetingz,
Koen.
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