Belgium, delivered to my door. At 10pm.

Peter, I admire your tenacity. Not only do you write up a synopsis of Belgian beer, you also go so far as to put on a taste test at my house that very night. And boy howdy. On the docket: Trappistes Rochefort 8, Delirium Tremens and Chimay Ale ? Trappistes and Chimay are actually 2 of the 6 official Trappist ales in the world. How intent was Peter on getting this taste test just right? He brought his own official Belgian drinking glasses. I got to use the Chimay glass. Here’s a pic of Peter drying said glass:

The beer was astounding. All three were very complex and all three had strong fruity notes in them. The Rochefort was the most interesting to me. It was definitely a dark beer. It was full-bodied with a hint of chocolate. While it didn’t necessarily look like a heavy beer, it most definitely tasted like one. All three beers were actually high in alcohol content (8-10%), but the alcohol taste wasn’t overpowering in any of them (unlike the Whiskey Porter). I also noticed that all three were strongly carbonated. The Delirium actually reminded me of a Belgium high-gravity Boddington’s. So. To sum up. Peter was right about Belgian beers.

I still stand behind my review of Ommegang. Ommegang was much thicker and darker than any of these. I would definitely put it into a different category of beers. The edible chocolate category.

Ommegang… the rebuttal

An unedited email from a fellow brewer and supplier of pot (brewpot) by the name of Peter:

Fellas, sorry I couldn?t make it last night. Dad was in town for a funeral, and we ended up spending the evening with him. Hope the double batch went well!

Now, as to the real business at hand ? Jonathan, I wanted to address your posting on Ommegang. Although Ommegang is a good beer, I have something else in store for you, my friend. Contrary to the label?s impression, Ommegang is not a Belgian-made beer, but a Belgian-style beer that?s brewed in Cooperstown, NY. This is a very important distinction ? in truth, Ommegang (as you shall see on a taste test in the near future) is a far cry from the ales of the true Belgian Trappist breweries, of which there are 6 in the world, and which, in my opinion, make the finest beers known to man.

Here?s a quick rundown of the Trappist style.

Now, I can realize your delight in Ommegang, having never tried a Rochefort 8, for example, or a Chimay Red. But once you try the real deal, I?m pretty sure you?ll have a hard time with Ommegang brews, with the important exception of the Three Philosophers ale, which is the best they make. The advantage to Ommegang is the price ? they usually cost only 50-75% of a Belgian import. However, a much better compromise than Ommegang, if you want to get the Belgian taste, is to go with a beer made by Unibroue in Canada ? they don?t have the off flavors of the Ommegang, I think because their water is more similar?and because they speak French.

Belgian ales have a lot of variety, but there are similarities, too. For example, most breweries have a Dubbel, a Triple, and sometimes a Quadrupel ? other styles include Saison (a very light, crisp beer), a Dark Ale (some bitterness, but fruitier than its English/Scottish counterpart), etc. It?s good to stack up one brewery?s Dubbel against another brewery?s Dubbel ? the complexity is astounding. You can taste 10-15 different flavors in a good Belgian beer; it?s almost the complexity of wine.

Ommegang, Ommigosh

A good friend Simon turned me on to a good friend/beer Ommegang. It is… how you say in the mother country… delicious. According to the label it is from Belgium, but imported and distributed by Brewery Ommegang out of Cooperstown, NY. True to its Belgian roots (and everyone knows I’m the resident expert on Belgium), it’s a dark, hearty beer that looked just delightful in the glass.

Ommegang had a deep brown/amber color. And it tasted like drinking the darkest alcoholic chocolate in the world. It was amazing. True, I’m easy to please when it comes to stouts and stout-like substances, but this one was right up there with Samuel Smith Imperial Stout (another fave). To give you an idea of the unbridled enjoyment, take a gander at Simon going to town on that sweet sweet Ommegang. It’s almost thick enough to crunch. And I know for a FACT that you can find it at the Toco Hills Package Store.

Pirates were a noble people

From another friend… All pirates had discrete goals for every voyage, decided in a democratic fashion before leaving port. An example:If you need any pirate gear, check out the Valencia store.

The Swashchuckler personified

Check out this clown. He’s totally Monday Night Brewery material.

Thanks to my roommate Scott Stephens for the pirate love. Speaking of Swashchuckler, Scott also told me why pirates wear eye patches. They wear a patch so that they can be “night-vision-ready” when going below deck. They just switch the patch over to the other eye and BAM. They can see in the dark. Keep in mind that Scott is a dirty dirty liar so I have no way of verifying this. But it makes sense.

The (not so) Holy Grail Ale

Last night I supped at TWO: Urban Licks for the first time. Great restaurant and some fabulous food (though I think I may prefer ONE overall). As TWO is known for their kegs of wine (upon first entering I hoped they would be beer kegs) I opted to take a break from beer and order a wine portion to share with Mary Stuart. We happened to have the waiter who wanted to ID both of us and when Mary Stuart didn’t have her ID, she was denied service. I decided I’d just go for beer instead.

The beer list had most of the domestic and international standards but the one that stuck out to me was Monty Python’s Holy Grail Pale Ale from Black Sheep Brewery in England. It’s a great movie and I expected the same from the beer. Unfortunately the Pale Ale tended to taste a lot more like a lager albeit a not too impressive one. It had some decent body to it but not really any complexity and a lack of interesting hops from what I could tell. Mary Stuart took a sip and said it “tastes like a slightly stronger version of the beers my dad drinks” (Coors and Bud) which was actually a pretty accurate characterization of what I was thinking. Overall they’ve got great marketing (hey, they got me to pick it from a list of 20 beers), a great bottle (pint sized with a unique shape) but unfortunately a lackluster beer. In the end I guess it’s not “all about the brand” Jonathan, it’s “all about the beer” (and having sweet business cards).

Spreadsheets and art

Last Monday was our second attempt at a partial mash, this time the goal was 5 gallons of the “Breakfast Stout.” After spending the previous week pouring over Ray Daniel’s “Designing Great Beers” I had begun constructing what is evolving into a true work of art – the beer spreadsheet. Just enter a few parameters, and it spits out water volumes, GU’s, IBU’s, etc. For some reason, I never looked at an Excel spreadsheet as a blank canvas, begging for life and meaning. But there’s something about a table which automatically populates my grain bill that has changed all that.

In all seriousness, it has become clear to me that making beer is a remarkable balance of art and science, and I have much to learn about both. And I think that’s why I’m having so much fun brewing.