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Cisse

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Public Service Announcement

Starting next Thursday, 21 April, Lidl will have the Belgian beer boxes on sale again (Bornem Dubbel, Bornem Tripel, Gulden Draak Classic, Gulden Draak Quad, Piraat and Piraat Tripel Hop) on sale at £11.99. They will also have Cuvee Des Trolls, Bornem Blond and a couple of others. I'm not in the area next week, so you can be sure there will be a few left.

I'm down to my last 6 boxes, so I shall be picking a few up in King's Lynn.

 

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1 hour ago, dog said:

Really don't understand sour beers. How can I get educated?

Good question.

It's actually very difficult to define a 'sour' beer beyond 'a beer that tastes acidic'.

Technically, a fruit beer would be classified as sour, especially if the base fruit is cherry or raspberry, and of course 'dry' ciders could at a pinch satisfy that simple criterion.

Belgium (you just knew I'd mention my favourite brewing country, didn't you?) is home to several 'sour' beer styles, notably gueuze, lambic and Flemish red beers. Basically the sourness from those comes from the yeasts used in the fermentation process. Although the Flemish red beers are fermented using a cultured yeast, the lambic beers ferment spontaneously via atmospheric yeasts (I mentioned ciders earlier - they are fermented using the yeasts that live on the outside of the skin of the apples, which is why when they fall off the trees and start to rot, wasps get a bit loopy and drunk from feeding on them). You might hear sour beer enthusiasts refer to 'Brett' - this is short for Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, the 'natural' atmospheric yeast found in the Brussels region in winter and spring.

To me, a really good lambic or gueuze (a mix of several years of lambic beers which are blended together) is every bit as good as a classic Champagne.

I would recommend the following if you want to try some...

Gueuzes: Boon Gueuze Mariage Parfait, 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze, Cantillon Gueuze Lou Pepe (the last two are probably difficult to get in the UK, but Boon Gueuze is sometimes to be found in Waitrose.

Flemish/Flanders Reds: Rodenbach Grand Cru, Bourgogne Des Flandres, Duchesse De Bourgogne

Fruit beers: If you can get them, 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon brew some utterly magnificent fruit beers, again using the 'traditional' spontaneous fermentation process. Boon Kriek (cherries) is on sale at Tesco - 4 x 25cl bottles for £6. They also sell Bacchus Kriek, and Morrisons and Sainsburys sell Bacchus Framboise (raspberries) at about £2.50 for a 37.5 cl bottle.

Some beers which are not normally referred to as 'sour' also use 'Brett' in their brewing process - usually an injection of 'Brett' is made during the secondary fermentation process in the bottle. This is true for Orval, and it is also true for Straffe Hendrik Wild. This starts life as Straffe Hendrik Tripel (ask @sage - he loves that) - then an injection of Brett and 3 months later, you get Straffe Hendrik Wild (and I love that, but @sage hates it). It's the same basic beer, but the 'souring' effect of the Brett is quite striking. 

 

 

Edited by Eddie
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Lidl Day passed without drama.

I picked up 4 boxes from Sandiacre and 4 from Chilwell, plus a load of Piraat Triple Hop, Cuvee Des Trolls, Bornem blond and Leute Bokbier (pictured).

The latter is lovely - beautifully malty. (Apologies for the glassphemy - I don't have a Leute glass so a Chimay one had to do).

1323156236_20220422_224442leute.thumb.jpg.7ab5d4ab803ab6fb5234eeae063f9237.jpg

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23 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Lidl Day passed without drama.

I picked up 4 boxes from Sandiacre and 4 from Chilwell, plus a load of Piraat Triple Hop, Cuvee Des Trolls, Bornem blond and Leute Bokbier (pictured).

The latter is lovely - beautifully malty. (Apologies for the glassphemy - I don't have a Leute glass so a Chimay one had to do).

1323156236_20220422_224442leute.thumb.jpg.7ab5d4ab803ab6fb5234eeae063f9237.jpg

They had sold out of the Bokbier at Chadd. Got all the other ones though. 

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I’m having a couple of weeks off booze, so I’m currently enjoying this. It’s really very good. I had 3 months off last year and found some decent alcohol free beers, and this Coast stuff is right up there - and it’s brewed in Belgium. I’ll have a Lucky Saint after this.

I’m having my willpower tested though - I picked up 3 Belgian boxes on @Eddie’s recommendation and they’re calling me from my beer fridge!

AF96466C-09F1-457F-AF7F-E984E9F9698E.jpeg

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9 hours ago, Steve How Hard? said:

20220425_185141.thumb.jpg.26ca7843ddecd287046b3272f917fb4e.jpg

Picked some of these up from Tesco the other day. Very good imho. Went back for some more yesterday and they'd completely sold out so they are obviously popular. 

That looks tasty, what strength is it? Tho I prefer a straight glass mesen.. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
11 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Tried one yesterday.

The kindest thing I can say is that I will never write those three words again.

Wasn’t impressed, tried it and I’ll move on also 

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19 hours ago, TexasRam said:

Let’s see what all the hypes about then 

B05936DD-E3A4-489E-BDA3-6EFF93E65AAE.jpeg

I tried one of these on draft while working away last year, I assumed with it being a Spanish lager it wouldn’t have wheat in it.

I left an apology for the room cleaner in the morning.  #flockofstarlings

 

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Had a few cans of it the other month. Just your generic, easy-drinking macro lager from the kings of bland, Molson Coors.

You can't call it a bad beer, just one that doesn't really need to exist and doesn't justify any sort of hype the marketing team have created for it.

Edited by Coconut's Beard
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10 days in Prague, 63 new beers, 25 new breweries plus numerous past beers and past breweries, 1 beer festival (Karlstejn) and 1 impromptu brewery tour (Cobolis). Time to come home for a rest ???????????? Standout beer of the trip Rodinny Pivovar Vik Wildberry Sorbet 13⁰ 4.9%. Award winning (3rd place at XXXI. International Beer Festival Golden Beer Seal 2021) imgly_1907665161126119334.thumb.jpg.e25d9d099c55b25af99644664710f973.jpgBerliner Weiss style beer, full of strawberry, blackberry and raspberry flavours which come together nicely to balance the acidic sourness. Probably the easiest drinking sour that I've ever come across.

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