If there was ever a week not to miss, this was it. We covered Belgian and French Ales (style 16) and Sour Ales (style 17). Belgian ales are always exciting in the sense that they are the antithesis of mass marketed beers. They can range from light and refreshing to heavy, dark and strong in alcohol. Sour ales on the other hand are justly named. They can be complex, light and effervescent to fuller bodied, pungent and face puckeringly tart. Not for the faint of heart, or tastes. So, let me get right to it.
| Style (Example) | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Mouthfeel | Overall Impression | Total |
| 16A Witbier (Hoegaarden) |
11/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 5/5 | 9/10 | 46/50 |
| Notes: I first heard about the witbier style on a podcast. They way the two fellas talked about it, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Now, the witbier style is one of my favorites and Hoegaarden (pronounced who-garden) is a classic example. The beer pours a cloudy, pale yellow with white head. I’m pulling off some citrus and yeasty notes supported by fruity esters with peppery undertones. There’s a mild malt sweetness, soft malt flavor but practically no bitterness. Slightly tart. The mouthfeel is a little dry, yet light and effervescent. Definitely makes my “deser island” list. |
||||||
| 16A Witbier (Spanish Peaks Summer White) |
8/12 | 2/3 | 16/20 | 5/5 | 7/10 | 38/50 |
| Notes: This beer pours surprisingly clear, something I find to be a slight defect for this style. The characteristic fruity esters, citrus and yeasty aromas are all very subtle and the flavors match the intensity of the aromas. This is a medium bodied, medium to medium-hi carbonated beer with slight astringency. Overall this beer is to style but when I compare it to Hoegaarden, it’s a little to subtle. |
||||||
| 16B Belgian Pale Ale (De Koninck) |
8/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 39/50 |
| Notes: I’m picking up some Munich malt aromas with subtle hop aromas. This beer is copper colored with a cream head. Hop flavors are muted and earthy with a smooth bitterness. Malt flavors are grainy with caramel notes. It’s medium bodied, medium carbonated with slight astrigency. It might be my allergies playing tricks with my nose but I’m having trouble pulling out some of the toasty grain character from both the aroma and flavor. Same goes for the floral and spicy hop characteristics as well as the apple, pear, citrus notes supposedly apparent in aroma and flavor. All that being said, 39 out of 50 is still a very good beer. |
||||||
| 16C Saison (Saison Dupont) |
7/12 | 3/3 | 15/20 | 4/5 | 6/10 | 35/50 |
| Notes: A spicy hop aroma is supported by rich, bready malt character with floral, spice and pepper undertones. The Saison Dupont pours a hazy, gold color with an ivory head that seems to last for days. A fairly balanced beer that leans more towards the hop side of the beer flavor spectrum. The light malt flavors are supported by the noticeable hop bitterness but not to the point of being overwhelmed. I was picking up the spicy phenolic character of the beer but not so much the fruit others did. |
||||||
| 16D Biére de Garde (St. Amand French Country Ale) |
11/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 42/50 |
| Notes: The name translates into “Guarded beer”, not in the sense that the recipe was to be kept secret but more as in “lets store it until it gets warm enough to drink”. There’s a good amount of sweet, toasty malt aromas with very low hop aromas. I get traces of dry, Asian fruit on the nose but most of these aromas are almost trumped by the musty, weedy, “pet store” aroma. This beer pours an amber color with cream head. Malt flavors come through predominantly in the flavor with a woodsy, musty hop flavor but little to no hop bitterness. I found this beer to be medium bodied with matching carbonation. Thank goodness it tastes better than it smells. |
||||||
| 16E Belgian Specialty Ale (New Belgium 1554) |
9/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 5/5 | 8/10 | 42/50 |
| Notes: The thing about this category is that it casts a wide net. An interpretation of this style could lean on the malty side while another on the hop side. At a competition, the winner of this style will basically come down to the one the judges feel has the best taste. New Belgium 1554 is a beer I featured at the last beer/food pairing. This beer is nearly black with a brown head. It has toasty, almost burnt malt aromas with little to no hop aromas. This particular example seemed to be slightly musty/dusty with soy undertones. It’s not really malt sweet but it has a lot of toasty, roasty malt flavor characteristics with almost no hop flavor or bitterness. It has a medium bodied mouthfeel at best with medium-hi carbonation. If I didn’t know any better, I may have mistaken this for a porter. |
||||||
| 17A Berliner Weisse (John Watson homebrew) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 3/5 | 8/10 | 43/50 |
| Notes: Berliner Weisse is the first of the sour ales and I kick myself in the ass for not trying this sooner. The malt and hop aromas are very, very subtle with the tart, lactic acid aromas taking center stage. This beer pours straw colored with a white head. The sourness is very apparent with almost imperceptible malt and hop flavors. This beer style is very reminiscent of champagne mouthfeel as well as flavor. It’s light, effervescent, medium-hi carbonation with a dry finish. This is a very refreshing beer with champagne-like profile. |
||||||
| 17B Flanders Red Ale (Rodenbach) |
8/12 | 3/3 | 16/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 38/50 |
| Notes: This is where beers start to get really interesting. I am picking up some decidedly sour aromas. Some people think of ketchup, my tasting notes say I was thinking of saurkraut and pickles. This beer pours a hazy, brown in color with a beige head. Sourness is the star of this show. The malt flavors are sweet and the hop flavors and bitterness muted. The “pickle” aromas makes its way into the flavors as well. This medium bodied, medium carbonated beer will have a strong puckering effect from the lactic acid flavors. It’s tasty but it took me some time to get used to the sour characteristics. |
||||||
| 17C Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin (Goudenband Liefmans) |
11/12 | 2/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 43/50 |
| Notes: This is a brown colored beer with an ivory head. I see “chunks” of something floating about in my sample and despite that, it’s still clear. This beer smells like cola. Lots of the malt aroma is wide-ranging, sweet and complex with dark fruit. I wasn’t picking up any noticeable hop aromas either. Not surprisingly, this beer tastes like cola with its sweet, caramel malt flavors. I can taste dark fruit flavors as well but no hop flavor or bitterness. It’s medium bodied with matching carbonation. In this particular example, the sourness takes a back seat to the sophisticated malt aromas and flavors. The chunkiness of the beer throws me off but man does it taste good! |
||||||
| 17D Straight Lambic (John Watson homebrew) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 4/5 | 6/10 | 40/50 |
| Notes: This beer is only for the connoisseur. It takes a heady constitution to be able to drink this beer. Intense and extreme are mild adjective I can use to describe this beer. This beer pours a hazy yellow color with white head. Lactic acid and brettanomyces are noticeable in the flavor along with vomit and baby poo. Vomit. Baby Poo. Luckily this beer tastes much better than it smells, even then, it is overwhelmingly sour. This example is light in body and almost devoid of carbonation. Definitely a sipping beer. |
||||||
| 17E Gueuze (Morte Subite Gueuze) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 5/5 | 9/10 | 45/50 |
| Notes: Because the straight lambic can be a bit overwhelming, the gueuze (pronounced goo-zzz) style may have evolved. It’s basically a blend of lambics that range from 1 to 3 years in age. Similar to the lambic, I notice sour aromas immediately, followed by “barnyard” aromas. The malt aromas are low and the hop aromas lower. This beer pours out amber in color with an ivory head. This beer is more evenly balanced than a straight lambic but the sourness is still very much in the forefront. It’s medium bodied, medium carbonated with a strong puckering sensation in the mouthfeel. |
||||||
| 17F Fruit Lambic (John Watson Homebrew) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 42/50 |
| Notes: While I may not haver any concrete evidence, I’d like to believe this beer style developed as a way to make the straight lambic more palatable. In essence, this is a straight lambic with fruit added to it, in this case, raspberry. The aroma profile is still predominantly sour, still smelling of vomit and baby poo but with raspberries. This beer poured a reddish-purple, cloudy with matching head, yet lighter in color. Raspberry flavors are apparent but take a back seat to the characteristic lambic flavors. Interestingly enough, John said this was basically his lambic homebrew with raspberries added to it. |
||||||
| 17F Fruit Lambic (Lindemans Framboise) |
11/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 5/5 | 8/10 | 44/50 |
| Notes: I call this particular sample my “gateway” beer. It’s also a raspberry flavored lambic but the lambic characteristic aromas and flavors are more muted. The raspberry aroma and flavors are more upfront. The aromas in particular are very sweet smelling with matching flavors. This beer pours a cloudy reddish-purple with matching head. The sourness is the most muted of all the sour ales so far. I rated this beer pretty highly but when compared to a traditional fruit lambic, I feel this beer may have been brewed with mass public consumption in mind. I just doesn’t feel… authentic. |
||||||
Related posts:
- BJCP class week 6 It’s the 6th week of the BJCP study class/group session...
- BJCP class week 7 This past week the class covered the Amber Hybrid and...
- BJCP class week 4 I can’t believe a month has already passed by since...
- BJCP Class, Week 2 Granted it’s only the second week of classes but I...
- BJCP class week 5 Class this week ran long. We started a little after...
