Now that the Belgian beer tasting is over, I thought I would do a little review of how it went.
The only hiccup was that one person brought 2 different bottles instead of 2 bottles of the same thing, so we had to pour smaller samples of that.
The lineup ended up being the following:
Delirium Tremens
Ommegang Rare Vos
Goose Island Matilda
Captain Lawrence Birra DeCicco
Victory V12
Pauwel Kwak
Chimay Grand Reserve (Blue)
There were 9 dedicated tasters, and about 5 or 6 other people that tasted here and there.
We drank them in that order, if I could have adjusted it I would move the matilda in front of the rare vos, move the Kwak after the Vos, and move the V12 to last.
Delirium Tremens was considered the odd ball as it was crisper, had more apple and pear flavors, and was a Belgian Tripel style ale. It was still a crowd favorite.
Ommegang Rare Vos was liked by all tasters but was not considered the best of the group. A nice middle of the Road Belgian Style Ale
Goose Island Matilda was one of my favorites as it offers something unique to this tasting: wild yeast. In general it was hit or miss with the rest of the tasters. Some liked the hint of funk, some did not. Some liked how it was a lighter style and not as heavy/robust as the Rare vos, Birra DeCicco, Pauwel Kwak, and Chimay Grand Reserve.
The Birra DeCicco was the most talked about and most interesting beer of the tasting. Two or Three tasters want me to get more of it. They loved the maltiness and the nice sour notes that accompany its robust flavors. The yeast flavors that make Belgian style ales what they are was not that apparent in this brew, that was my biggest issue with it. One or two tasters did not like it because it had sour notes in it. The sourness was not from lacto/pedio or wild yeast but from the fruit jam additions. This ended up being a great conversation piece within the tasting.
Victory V12 was the bomb of the group. Almost no one liked it. One taster had it as their favorite, everyone else had it as their worst. Once again Victory put a bunch of un-needed hops in this brew. A perfectly good Belgian strong base here, but the hops killed all the wonderful flavors that Belgian style ales offer. They did the same thing with their “Wild Devil”. My opinion of Victory in the Belgian arena is sinking and my just avoid any other Belgian beers they produce. If your going to add hops to your Belgian ale, classify it as a Belgian IPA so I know that I should avoid it.
Pauwel Kwak kind of got lost in the mix. Tasting it right after having a beer with sour notes and a beer with lots of hops, made the Kwak seem almost flavorless. Some of us that didn’t down our entire sample immediately revisited this after some palet cleansing and its flavor became more forward and alive; still not an amazing brew, but a good example of its style.
Last, but not least, was the Chimay Blue. This beer was something everyone at the tasting had tried before and were all comparing to. I think this beer still reigns champion as the best beer on the table. It went without a lot of talk though and was slightly ignored due to everyone already having sampled its greatness in the past.
My order:
Chimay Blue
Matilda
Ommegang Rare Vos
Delirium Tremens
Birra DeCicco
Kwak
V12
Consensus order
Chimay Blue
Delirium Tremens
Birra DeCicco
Rare vos
Matilda
Kwak
V12
It was a fun night and our guts busted with laughter as the night went on. More beer poured late into the evening as we got more rowdy. We had some perre Jacques, new Belgium blue paddle, bells batch 9000, deschuttes black butte porter, and schells schmaltz alt. A success I would say for sure.
Up next: Sour beer tasting in August?
Brown ale tasting in September?
Until next time….
