AndyinLiverpool Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Okell's IPA. on my 6 th now Neo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Today's second beer is the world-renowned Achel Blond 8 from the St Benedictus Abbey located just inside Belgium but only a few miles South of Eindhoven - one of the truly great beers of the world. The Achel monastery produces the smallest quantity of beer of all the Holy Order breweries, but of all of the Trappist beers, this one is my personal favourite. It doesn't have the bewildering complexity of some Belgian tripels and blond beers - instead you get a yeasty, slightly tart and hoppy offering that tastes faintly of peach and cloves yet is instantly drinkable (highly carbonated though so make sure you serve it in a massively oversized goblet). Lovely dry finish on the tongue - the only cure for which is to have another sip. Cloudy, so Boycie isn't going to pinch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boycie Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Have you ever tasted a beer from Belgium that made you grimiss? There must be some, do you give any a swerve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Have you ever tasted a beer from Belgium that made you grimiss? There must be some, do you give any a swerve? Yep. Stella Artois for a start. Also I don't like many of the fruit beers (framboise being the exception), some of the saisons are too horsey and some of the gueuzes I find too sour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Anyway, on to tonight's third very pleasurable experience. Gulden Draak is a dark tripel at around 10.5% alcohol, brewed by Brouwerij van Steenberg in East Flanders. The Golden Dragon on the motif is a reproduction of the one on the top of the belfry in Ghent. I first tried this beer, funnily enough, when I went over to Dublin to see Derby play Bohemians. My friend Liam Lahart who owns the Porterhouse pub in Dublin is a fellow enthusiast of all things Belgian and they had a few bottles in that week. The bottle is white - the only time I've ever seen a white beer bottle. Dumpy (sort of like a Duvel bottle). The beer is dark brown and pours with a huge head. The aroma is faintly of toffee and that's about it - perhaps a bit yeasty but not overpoweringly so. The taste is sweet, but not overly so. Caramel very much to the fore, banana, cloves - very typically Belgian. Of course with a beer this strong there is a preponderance of alcohol, but it's warming as opposed to burning. Only the third bottle I've ever tasted, and the first since that great weekend in Dublin, but it won't be the last by a long chalk. Quite expensive though at a fiver a bottle. As Lawrie McMenamy used to say in the god-awful Barbican adverts 40 years ago - "It's great, man". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Today's second beer is the world-renowned Achel Blond 8 from the St Benedictus Abbey located just inside Belgium but only a few miles South of Eindhoven - one of the truly great beers of the world. The Achel monastery produces the smallest quantity of beer of all the Holy Order breweries, but of all of the Trappist beers, this one is my personal favourite. It doesn't have the bewildering complexity of some Belgian tripels and blond beers - instead you get a yeasty, slightly tart and hoppy offering that tastes faintly of peach and cloves yet is instantly drinkable (highly carbonated though so make sure you serve it in a massively oversized goblet). Lovely dry finish on the tongue - the only cure for which is to have another sip. Cloudy, so Boycie isn't going to pinch it. Dont you ever get the urge to just neck it? instead of tasting it? Boycie and froggg 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Contain Nuts Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 It would take some drastic circumstances for someone to go necking 10% beers, I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 It would take some drastic circumstances for someone to go necking 10% beers, I think! Why? have you never necked a shot ? at 40% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Contain Nuts Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 <edited out> I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make, because what I just wrote means nothing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 <edited out> I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make, because what I just wrote means nothing! correct answer do not pass go ,straight to the drunk thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Dont you ever get the urge to just neck it? instead of tasting it? At a fiver a pop? No, I prefer to savour them - happy to nurse one for an hour. Regarding the parallel with necking a shot - again, not really. Let the beer warm slightly as you drink - see how the flavour and aroma profiles change with temperature. 40 years ago my first thought regarding booze was 'how cheaply can I get drunk'? That's why I started home brewing (buy kits, throw in an extra 2 pounds of sugar above the recommended amount, ferment, 8% oblivion juice). As I got older I started to pay a greater emphasis on the taste, mouth feel and aroma and cared less about the alcohol content. Whiskys (and whiskeys) are another love of my life - again, the quality is paramount. I could not bring myself to neck a glass of Bowmore, Highland Park or Lagavulin - especially when paying up to £20 a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Contain Nuts Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Hah Neo, wasn't drunk, it's just that my brain likes to twist and turn in on itself, disrupting logical thought and putting doubts in every word I think, say or write, causing a mess of panic and confusion and an outward display of idiocy! It's pretty broken. Anyway my point was that the small bottle of beer in question contains more than double the alcohol content of the single UK shot in your post, more than triple if it's only a 25ml shot. It'd take something drastic to down 3 double whiskys in half an hour, yeah? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gritstone Ram Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Starting off with an Old Crafty Hen. Then a Goliath from wychwood brewery then going to try a Kentish Ale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srg Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Just the Coors Light and Grolsch tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Tonight's first offering (27 minutes later than last night) is another Trappist classic - Orval. It's surprisingly difficult to get hold of - I've never seen a supermarket stock it, but thankfully the specialist Belgian beer shops are usually to be relied on. The Orval Monastery brew a surprisingly large 2 million gallons of it a year - you'd think that there would be plenty to go around. Anyway, on to the tasting notes. I've had this one in the beer fridge upstairs at 12C all day - this is considered to be the perfect temperature for a mature bottle, whereas 7C is considered the best serving temperature if the beer is young. That's because Orval undergoes a secondary fermentation using bacteria as well as yeast (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis) so the beer changes significantly over time - I think very much for the better. This one is a couple of years old so the smell is of dark fruit - figs, raisins, plums - and a slight farmyard pong that some refer to as 'wet leather' or 'horse saddle' but I think is more 'earthy'. The taste is tart to the point of being sour - perhaps pineapple, orange or tangerine, a little spicy with perhaps hints of aniseed, and very hoppy. Not strong at all - just 6.3%. Personally I think that it is unbelievably good, but my wife despises it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cisse Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Just had my second beer. Before that I enjoyed the first one and next I will gulp down the third. Names of those beers ? Who knows ? It's a party time ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NottsRam Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 5 litre cask of Blue Monkey Infinity is tonight's tipple for me, though the missus has taken a liking to it and already helped herself to two halves Boycie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Contain Nuts Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Pretty decent, I've enjoyed what I've found from them on nights out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I have opened the first of the fruit vodkas I have been fermenting since the summer. Raspberry first Stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dabber Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I have opened the first of the fruit vodkas I have been fermenting since the summer. Raspberry first Stunning. Stop farting and start drinking! Boycie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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