I stopped by Wine Affairs, my local wine bar, because they were holding a Special Belgian Ale Tasting featuring the beers from Duvel. Or at least they were supposed to. The Duvel rep who was supposed to host the event called in an had to cancel. Instead we were treated to the beers mainly from Abita Brewing Company out of Louisiana. While not exactly an artisal Belgian brewery, I have never had any of the Abita beers and was curious to see how they were.
Not having been to any of the beer, or wine, tastings at Wine Affairs before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. By the time Sammy and I had arrived, there was already a group of about 5-7 guys already in the middle of their tasting. The host for the evening was Ed Chainey who represents the Chimay, Abita and Schneider brands of beer. The set-up was pretty basic: in front of Ed were the beers we’d be tasting this evening and as people came in, he poured a 1 to 2 ounce sample. As he poured, he gave a brief explanation of the style of beer we were drinking, compared it to a more well known brand when applicable and answered any questions. As you can imagine, people came in and out in different stages but Ed handled it like a pro. After a while, the pace was much more leisurely and everyone was eventually all at the same level.
Here’s a list of the beers we had in the order we had them, I think:
- Purple Haze, Abita – Session-strength raspberry wheat ale. Not bad but I like my own better.
- Organic Weissbier, Schneider – An organic version of a hefeweizen. It’s lighter than the original in color, aroma and flavor.
- Chimay Tripel, Chimay – Lightly sweet, moderate fruit esters and flavors with a spicy/earth yeasty finish.
- Amber, Abita – Comparable to Samuel Adams Boston Lager. I thought it was malty sweet with a hint of roastiness. Not bad but I’ve had better.
- Andygator, Abita – Helles Doppelbock. Not too bad. Light pils malt flavor, slight hop spice.
- Original, Schneider – A typical German hefeweizen; light on the banana, medium/medium-high in clove character.
- Hopfen Weisse, Schneider/Brooklyn Brewing – Probably the most interesting beer of the evening. Imagine a hefeweizen brewed to imperial-strength and then aggressively dry-hopped for a robust hop aroma without the bitterness. That is basically what Hopfen Weisse is. It’s also a damn good beer.
- Jockamo IPA, Abita – I was a little disappointed by this beer. Not enough hop aroma or hop bitterness.
- Abbey Ale, Abita – Dubbel from Abita. Malty sweet with hints of dark fruit. Not bad.
- Chimay Red, Chimay – Dubbel from Chimay. Odd but I don’t remember contrasting this beer with the Abbey Ale from Abita.
- Adventinus, Schneider – Doppelbock offering from Scheider. Sweet malt aroma with chocolate undertones and flavors. Pretty good beer.
- Chimay Grand Reserve, Chimay – A fine example of a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. Not much to say about this beer. It’s rich, tasty and ubiquitous.
- Adventinus Eisbock, Schneider – Take your Adventinus, freeze it, throw out the ice and now you’ll have a 14% beer also known as the Eisbock.
- Root beer, Abita – It’s root beer.
For a mere $6, you were able to sample 12 different beers and one root beer. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself. You were also welcome to seconds as long as there was enough beer to do so.
While there, I saw Derrick from Bay Area Beer Runner. I met Derrick at Wine Affairs during my Beer & Dessert event for SF Beer Week earlier this year. He’s a great guy, easy to talk to, and open-minded about beers. If you have the chance, and like to run, go and check out his blog. You might find me there in a discussion about cycling.
All in all, it was a very low key event. The staff at Wine Affairs were friendly as usual and I found Ed to be a wealth of knowledge. What I also found interesting about Ed was how he continually kept referring to more well known brands of beer when talking about the Abita brands. It’s a great way to set a level of expectations for the casual beer drinker. While I was a little bummed that the Duvel guy cancelled, Ed more than fit the bill and I even learned of a couple new things.
Related posts:
- Abita Beer Tasting at Wine Affairs Update: I just got a phone call from Wine Affairs...
- Winter Beer Tasting at Wine Affairs Wine Affairs in downtown San Jose will be having a...
- Beer and Dessert Event at Wine Affairs Update: I’ve set up an event’s page for the Beer...
- Spring Beerfest at Wine Affairs It certainly helps to be on a business’ mailing list....
- Beer and Dessert Tasting Event Recap I would like to thank everyone who came through and...
