Trappist Westmalle in Malle, Belgium brews Trappist Extra, which is the beer the monks drink, ‘monks beer’. This beer is 4.8% ABV and is brewed by Trappist Monks. They also make cheese which I had with their flight. The flight also has really pungent and delicious mustard. I brought home two jars of it. Unfortunately, I could not get this Trappist Extra at the Westmalle shop, but it is sold at my local Total Wine. This beer pours a cloudy golden yellow with a creamy three-and-a-half finger white head. The aroma is semi-sweet, and fruity, with light bitterness/hops, and a bit of yeast. The taste is fruity with a light sweetness/bitterness, it is clean and light-bodied with some hop notes. This has a light mouthfeel. Then it finishes with a light fruit sweet yeast note. The aftertaste is semi-sweet with a clean and refreshing light bitterness. This is a beer that goes excellent with foods like cheese, fried foods, and some meats. I give this Westmalle Trappist Extra and A+. It is delicious and one that I highly recommend. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
This beer from Bruge, Belgium is Brugse Zot Blond from Brouwerij De Halve Maan. This beer is 6% ABV. I did not bring this back from the brewery, I bought it just over the South Carolina border at Stateline Elite. I returned with a 750ml of Straffe Hendrik Wild, a wild yeast variety of De Halve Manns Tripel. That will be reviewed soon. This Blond pours a blond-orange color with a two-finger steady white head. The aroma is fruity with oranges. It has a light bitterness too. The flavor is fruity with orange, light-bodied, and light bitterness. This Brugse Zot Blond has a light to almost medium feel in the mouth. Then this beer has a tiny bitter, and fruity finish. The aftertaste is void of bitterness but has a light orange taste. This beer is good. It was a little better at the brewery. Maybe that is a fresher beer. But this example was an A. I really recommend Brugse Zot Blond. This beer is delicious and refreshing. It is different from all the beer in the US. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
This beer is an Abby Dubbel from Trappist Westvleteren, St. Sixuth Abby. They call this beer Trappist Westvleteren 8. This Belgian is 8% abv, from Westvleteren, Belgium. This and their other three beers are nearly impossible to find outside the brewery, let alone in the US. I bought three six-packs while on the Belgian Beer Me Trappist tour. They also make a blond, and a Quad, which is the 12. These are highly rated and sought-after beers. I tried them all at their restaurant. This Dubbel pours a deep brown with a thick and creamy beige head. The head never seems to dissipate. The aroma is dark, and malty, and has a light scent of dark fruit. The flavor is smooth, rich, dark sweet, and malty. This has a fuller mouthfeel. Then it has a smooth dark and malted finish. The aftertaste is rich, and creamy, with a lighter malt note. This beer does have yeast still in the bottle. That is because its last fermentation is in the bottle. You can either pour that bit of yeast into the beer or not. I usually do. This beer was delicious and flavorful, but I don’t think it lives up to the hype in my book. It is hyped up because it is hard to get and delicious. With that said I give this an A+. This is a good beer with a meat dish, like a good steak (like I did last night) chicken, or pork. Well, this Westvleteren and any of their beers are hard to recommend, due to availability, but if you’re there in Westvleteren then have this beer. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly. Cheers!
We are back after more than a week of Belgian beers. On the internet search, my father and I found BBM Belgian Beer Me tours, run by Stu Stuart. He is very knowledgeable about Belgium and its beers. I have always loved Belgian beer, the first Belgian I fell in love with was Chimay Grand Reserve or Quadruple Ale. This was a group tour. Everyone was great. We went to four different cities, Gent, Bruges, Bastone, Malle, and Mechelen. We went to the Huyghe Brewery (Gent, Belgium) which brews Delirium and Guillotine. This is one of my favorite beers, Delirium.
They have a big brewery and brew beer that travels all over the world. During this BBM tour at no point did I feel like I’d had too much beer, sometimes you can’t have enough, and I didn’t feel overly tired by the end of each day. We saw one or two breweries/monasteries(Abby) and day with sometimes a ‘company lunch’. Then we had the late afternoon and evening free. We saw the Flanders American Cemetery, which was very moving and educational, not far from Bruges. Then we hit Trappist Westvleteren, Abby of the St Sixtus. They had a Blonde, a Dubbel, and a Quad which are only sold at the gift shop. I bought a six back of each. I only came home with four of each. Westvleteren 12 (Quad) is one of the most highly sought-after beers. The quad and the dubbel were excellent and the blond was just as tasty. They had an ice cream sundae made with their quad beer, which was delicious. While in Bruges, which is lovely, we walked to Brewery De Halve Maan. We had a tour of the brewery. It was a lot of climbing, and backward down some ladders. The pipe beer from there to the bottling plant through pipes under Bruges. I highly recommend eating and drinking here. They had a fabulous Wit and Wild Tripple. These two were my favorite on the tour. We also went to Chimay, near Bastogne. The beers were good, but I was a little underwhelmed. The gift shop is a place not to be missed. Lots of good barrel-aged beer and other goodies. Bastogne is small and historic due to the Battle of the Bulge. Then we saw Trappiest Abby of Rocheford. That was a bathroom stop to see their tiny display of a gift shop. We drank Rocheford outside in the parking lot. Their Tripple, Dubbel, and Quad were delicious.
Then we went to Orval and toured the Abby. We were able to sit in on the Monk’s prayer. We had lunch at Guardian Angle Taproom. Now Ovral has a really fabulous beer, one not to be missed. Then we toured the brewery. Excellent tour! Then on to Trilburg, Netherlands for Achel Brewery, where they have a bottle shop. We had lunch there and they had amazing beer. I recommend the Superior Blond and Superior Dark. You can share these with the table. Still, in Trilburg, we went to La Trappe Brewery, where I had their classic flight and thought these were okay compared to others. But they were better than most American offerings. Then the next day was Mechelen and Trappist Zundert, only ten years old. Their Quad is so good, that I bought their tenth anniversary Quad. Then one to Trappist Westmalle for lunch. I had a flight (monks beer, trippel, quad) They have the best mustard there. Don’t leave without a jar or two. I really loved the monk’s beer. The hotel in Mechelen was at the Het Anker brewery where Goulden Carouls and other beer. These beers are awesome, especially their Christmas Ale. That one is sold year-round. We had a walking tour the next day and a bottle share, which was epic. Overall Stu does a fabulous job with the tour. I can’t find anything wrong. I would say that you should bring a water bottle. Got to stay hydrated. I didn’t find it easy to get a bottle of water. But I would highly recommend BBM tours, Stu Stuart does a fabulous job! Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly!
I usually don’t drink many macro-brew beers. But this, Miller High Life from Miller Brewing in Golden, Colorado is being reviewed because I don’t want this blog to seem like I am anti-macro beer or a craft beer snob, plus I am tired of every beer being an IPA of some sort. I like IPA just fine, and they can be quite delicious. I am just what you would call burned out on them. This brewer, Miller Brewing was established in 1903, and Miller High Life, The Champagne of Beer is 4.6% ABV. This beer pours a golden/yellow color with a foamy one-finger sticky head. The aroma is sweet, metallic, and has a grainy smell. The flavor is light-bodied and full-bodied. There is a sweetness, warm, smooth taste, and a light metallic note. This has a light feeling in the mouth. Then it finishes with a sweetness, and this beer has a sweet, and warm aftertaste. Miller High Life was as bad as I expected, it was not great, but decent. I give this beer a C-. None of the flavors really stood out and nothing was offensive tasting. But I don’t think I could recommend this beer. After drinking Mill High Life it isn’t memorable. But it’s a good/better choice over other American macro beers. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
Yuzu Lager is another beer I purchased from the Super G International Supermarket. This beer is from Hitachino Nest Beer, brewed by Kiuchi Brewery in Nakai Baraki Perfecta, Japan. This beer is 5.5% and brewed with Yuzu fruit. The best way to describe this is a lemon and a persimmon had a baby. Yuzu Lager pours a yellow color with a one-finger fizzy white head. There is no head retention on this Lager. The aroma is sweet, fruity, citrus, lemon, and orange. The taste is fruity with light lemon and decent orange flavor. This lager is slightly sweet with a tiny tartness. This had a light feeling in your mouth. Then it has a citrusy finish. The aftertaste is somewhat crisp with just a faint tartness. This beer is good but I was expecting it to be better than it was. I give This Yuzu Lager A B-. On the side of the can they said that this beer is crisp several times. I found it to be a little bit of that. The Yuzu is the more dominant flavor of this beer and kind of hides the lager-ness of the beer. But I found it to be good. I would recommend this Have I had better citrus lagers? Yes, I have and this wasn’t bad. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
From the brewery of Delirium Tremens, Brewery Huyghe in Mette, Belgium brews Delirium Red. This Belgian Ale has cherry and Elderberry. This beer is 8% ABV. I purchased this at the Super G International Grocery Store. This ale pours a deep red color with a two-finger pink-ish head. The aroma is cherry, berry, tart/sour, and sweetness. The flavor is sweet with cherry and some berries. This beer is tart but lightly tart, and it is fruity-sugar sweet. This has a medium mouthfeel. Then it comes to a sweet cheery/beery finish. The aftertaste is like sweet cherry cola with some tart notes. This was fabulous, and I give Delirium Red an A+. Later this month I will visit Brew Huyghe and others while on a beer tour in Belgium. I will be posting throughout the tour. This beer is not overly sweet, it has just the perfect amount of sweet and tart notes. I highly recommend Delirium Red. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
This Belgian Quad or Quadruple Ale is 10 from Trappistes Rocheford in Rocheford, Belgium. This Belgian Ale is 11.2% ABV. Brewed by Trappist monks, this ale pours a deep brown/chestnut color with a slow two-finger beige head. The aroma is dark, rich, a little boozy, and sweet. The flavor is dark, sweet, rich, smooth, and alcoholic. There are some licorice notes too. This has a full mouthfeel. Then this quad comes to a dark, sweet, molasses-like finish. The aftertaste is semi-sweet. Somehow the sweetness falls a bit. The aftertaste is rich and boozy. This is good, I think this Quadruple Ale is a B+. It is not as good as Chimay or St. Bernadus Quad. I recommend this one and compare it to others of that style. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
Juice Force IPA is a Hazy Imperial IPA from New Belgium Brewing. This beer is part of their Voodoo Ranger brand. This beer is 9.5% ABV. This beer is the last of the Voodoo Ranger IPA mix-twelve pack. This beer pours a light orange-hued yellow with a one-finger head of white. The aroma is juicy with citrus, orange, and boozy bitterness. The taste is orange citrus, light grapefruit, and again boozy bitterness. This has a medium mell in the mouth. Then it has a boozy orange finish. The aftertaste is bitter orange and some alcoholic notes. This beer is better than the rest from this mix-pack. But I would call Juice Force IPA great. I barely give this IPA a B-. The orange flavor is good but when it meets the alcoholic flavor it is not as good. I don’t think those two do well together. I would really recommend this, but it’s not terrible. The New Belgium Brewing Voodoo Ranger IPA mixed-pack is not that great. For the entire pack, I would give a D+. I have had much better IPAs. I think these are trying to be more mainstream, which didn’t work. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
This is an IPA from Aslin Beer Co. Washington D.C. This IPA is Power Moves purchased from my local Whole Foods. This IPA is 5.5% ABV. This New England IPA has Chinook, Simcoe, Citra, and Mosaic hops. This IPA pours yellow with a one-finger fizzy white head. The aroma is soft/juicy pineapple and some bitterness. The flavor is juicy pineapple, bitterness and some light melon, This is light on the palate. Then you get a light tropical bitter fruit finish. The aftertaste is bitter but just enough for you to know that it’s there. This Power Moves is good. and I give this a B-. At first, it was average, but the more I drank the better it got, and yeah I recommend this. But I don’t see much of Aslin Beer Co.’s products. Also, I don’t see many New England IPAs with an ABV as low as 5.5%. I think that’s good. I find most to be 6.8% to 7.8% ABV. With that and the flavor not so much, it makes this a good session beer. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!
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