Three Belgians in Texas
On our most recent trip to Texas, we spent some time getting to know some Belgians a little better. Connoisseur Tom picked out a trio of Belgians from the HEB grocery store, and we broke out the Uno and discussed them.
We started with Tripel Karmeliet, an offering from Brouwerij Bosteels in Belgium. This beer was bottle-conditioned ale made with oats, barley, and wheat (the three grains are where the “Tripel” comes from) and weighs in at 8% ABV. It also boasted being 100% natural. Fantastic.
This ale poured a golden cloudy color with amber highlights. The head was big and fluffy with tight bubbles and an off-white color. One could feasibly do the patented Dr. Evil Belgian Dip with this head being so pronounced. It smelled of pleasant fruit, perhaps bananas. This ale had a full-bodied feel in the mouth. It was very smooth and rich, except for a numbing tingle on the tip of the tongue. Flavors of spices and toasty grains abounded, along with some sweet notes and a hint of bubblegum in the finish. This ale had all the qualities of good cereal, with the fruit smell and the toasty sweet flavors, and it would make a great dessert beer or sweet white wine substitution. This was The Connoisseurs favorite of the night. We picked up this bottle for 15 bucks.
Second on the docket was Terrible, a Dark Ale-on-Lees by Unibroue of Canada that weighed in at a hefty 10.5% ABV. This was a Belgian-style dark ale made in Canada, and for all of you who, like myself, have no idea what the “ale-on-lees” B.S. is, I looked it up. It is just a fancy way of saying that it is bottle-fermented ale and that there will be yeast in the bottle.
This ale poured a dark brown with a tan head. Immediately, we noticed the smell of the beer. It had a sour, fruity smell like that of old orange rind, and that sweet and unpleasant smell of rotting food. Bottoms up…
The taste brought a mixture of flavors, and after a lot of forehead wrinkling, we realized flavors or orange, maple, molasses, and toasty malt. The body was lighter than expected, and it had a very sticky mouthfeel. We found that the flavors in this beer did not go together pleasantly, and as the beer warmed, it took on characteristics of ham. The sweet, salty, and smoky flavors reminded us of ham. The molasses flavors also picked up, but they were accompanied by an unsettling sweet taste reminiscent of rotten food. We had all had enough of this beer and finished it off, but it is not one that we would seek out. That beer rang in at $12.
The final beer we had was called Satan Red. This Belgian beer was 8% ABV and right off the bat, we noticed a few derailers. The first was the synthetic cork. It smelled like rubber, and when you can smell the cork, you can guarantee that the beer absorbed some of that taste.
Secondly, there was a bit of a beer crust around the top of the bottle that we had to wash off. Unsettling, but we pushed onward.
The beer poured an amber hue, with soda bubble carbonation creating a quickly dissipating head. Upon close inspection, we saw that the yeast was present in the beer in the form of uniform floaties throughout the liquid. This beer had hints of cheese and old socks in the nose, and yet we pushed on. The ale tasted coppery, almost bloody, but finished dry with a burnt toast flavor. This ale also had a sparkling mouth feel. The Connoisseurs do not recommend drinking this beer.
Throughout the tasting the ales regressed, from best to worst, and we all wished for another bottle of the Tripel Karmeliet as we rinsed our glasses. Thus ended another educational tasting, with one winner and two losers. Do yourself a favor, and find yourself a bottle of the Tripel.