Belgian Pale Ale

With this bottle of La Trappe Isid'or I will have had at least one beer from each of the seven Trappist brewers. This is a fact that just now dawned on me... I probably should have built this event up a bit more, but there's really no pomp and definitely no circumstance. This bottle of Isid'or has been sitting in a cupboard for about two and a half months. I meant to get to it sooner because I'd never had it, not because it would complete some Trappist drinking achievement... Oh well, I'm glad to finally say I've had a beer from all of the Trappist brewers even if it were something I almost overlooked.

Belgian Pale Ales are something I've only started to really enjoy over the past year. The beer that convinced me I should drink more of this style was Poperings Hommel Bier. Since then I've been looking for other pale Belgian style ales with bright hops and sweet underpinnings. This Hommel Bier from Perenial in Saint Louis gives the style an American slant, with hops from the Pacific Northwest. It's evident when you drink this beer that it's hoppier and more bitter than something like Poperings, but shares a similar grain bill and yeast profile so you still get a touch of sweetness and a hint of Belgian character.

Scheldebrouwerij's Hop-Ruiter is a new beer for me. I've never seen this Belgian hoppy Blonde on the shelves and I've not tried this beer before. This particular bottle came to me about two weeks ago and I've been waiting anxiously to try it. This 750ml bottle has a label like a playing card, it has a mirrored shield which looks like a medieval coat of arms. The text dividing the two halves of this label says this is THE blond hoppy beer from Turnhout. I'm guessing Turnhout is a little more well known in Belgium...

Brooklyn beers have been out of reach for me until very recently. I stopped by a local liquor store to check out their craft beer selection and I saw this lonely bottle of Brooklyn Local 1 sitting at the end of the aisle. I'd always wanted to try the Local 1 so I didn't think twice about picking up this 750ml bottle. The bottle itself has a great style, it's modeled after New York Fire Department stations with their red, black and golden color. The style of beer inside the bottle is a Belgian Pale Ale, which can be a fairly nebulous term... I couldn't wait to get this bottle home and finally try it out.

My Russian River supply is dwindling as I pick up the pace and finally get around to drinking these beers. I'll be moving out east in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to get through as many beers as I can before the move. I'm not going to try and write about all of them, because that's kinda how I got into this mess of having a basement full of beer and no time to drink it all... I did think the Damnation was worth of an entry in the old blog, so I popped the cork on this 12.68oz bottle, grabbed my favorite tulip glass and waited for the suds to die down.

Goose Island's Belgian ales are by far my favorite beers from Clybourn. Goose Island's six pack offerings never really appealed to me, I found them pretty bland and uninteresting. The Belgians on the other hand were a lot more flavorful and just better beers. Tonight I'm sitting down to a bomber of Matilda, a Belgian style Pale Ale with Brettanomyces. Brett and I go way back, I'm a big fan of his work and we along really well. I've had the Matilda once or twice but I don't remember ever having a bottle and I generally like brett fermented beers better out of a bottle, so I'm excited to try this Goose Island Matilda again.