#Westvleteren 10

[acommonloon]

When G said we'd go to legendary Westvleteren Abbey to drink the famous trappist made beer at it's source, I was a little thrilled. I imagined a medieval setting, certainly a cloistered environment with a sense of Holy ground. Lolol. Yeah No

TLDR;

For years Westvleteren's 12, a strong spiced beer style know as a quadruple or quad, was recognized as the World's best beer. Recognized by who you ask?

Well there's an annual world beer competition judged by "experts" and this year, Taxman Brewing in Indiana and my personal favorite brewery, won for their Quad!

There's also websites that compile regular beer drinker "non-expert" opinions on thousands of beers throughout the year and award their own standings. The best known, Ratebeer.com currently lists the Westy 12 @ #3 in the world.

Really who cares what a beer tastes like to...anyone else?

Whether you'd like Westvleteren beer or not, in all likelihood, you've probably never had it and probably never will because t isn't distributed. They are said to only make enough beer to keep things going and the beer can only be legally sold at the abbey. In 2012 they needed to raise a bunch of money to repair the Abbey so they sent some beer to America for the first time and it was a frenzied spectacle in the beer world.

You can travel to their cafe and drink the beer there and even buy small quantities at the gift shop but on the day we were there, only the quad was available to take away. They hold an online lottery and if you manage to get a slot, you are allowed to drive there on a designated day and buy up to a case each of their 3 beers to take away. At one point, this beer was so coveted a New York man ran a scheme to get people to buy the beer for him so he could resale it at a huge profit.

We did see a few bottles on shelves in specialty bottle shops in large cities and they were always priced at least 10 Euros above the Abby price.

This might seem ridiculous (and is) but D and I just drove over 8 hours round trip to buy G beer from 3Floyds Brewing. This beer, called Dark Lord, is also only available through an on line lottery and in this case only once a year. The beer is $40 a 750ml bottle!

The things we do for beer love.

[meinbier]

Achthundertachtundfünfzigstes Bier:

Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus Westvleteren 12 10,2% vol. Vleteren, Belgien

Da ist es nun, das sagenumworbene beste Bier der Welt. Laut ratebeer.com jedenfalls. Achthundertsiebenundfünfzig Biere hat es dafür gebraucht. Schaumermal. Das Quadrupel fließt jedenfalls rotbraun ins Glas. In der Nase zunächst viel Malz, etwas Säure und Karamell. Am Gaumen dann recht viel Kohlensäure, weiterhin viel Malz und deutliche Kirscharomen. Erinnert doch irgendwie an EmEukal Husten Bonbons für Kinder. Im Nachtrunk kommt dann final eine leichte Hopfenbittere dazu. Der Welt bestes Bier schmeckt also nach Hustenbonbons mit Kirschgeschmack. Ketzerisch gesagt. Ich kann mir allerdings Schlimmeres vorstellen. 7/10

[thecraftbeerking]

We had a great beer afternoon. Took on the Westvleteren 12 against the St Bernadus 12. There is no comparison, the Westie 12 is unbelievable. Sweet, raisins and just a pure joy. We also had a go at the @pikesbeercompany Kriek selection. The 15 is so oaky and the 16 is still holding heaps of cherry. Finished it off with the @bridgeroadbrewers B2 Bomber Mach 10 and 9 comparison at the @thefranklinhotel. The 10 is super grassy, a fresh black IPA that is easy to drink. The 9 had some big oxidation aromas but was sweet and delicate. https://www.instagram.com/p/CCIgmGCpYny/?igshid=1em553i459xco

[tulsatrot]

A Pair of Westvleterens

Day #6 – Rochefort – Falmignoul – Dinant Number of Miles Cycled Today – 27.5 Number of Total Miles Cycled – 110.2 Number of Miles Traveled – 4,855

Brasserie Caracole and Vending Machines

Inside Brasserie Caracole

Adolphe Sax, the error-prone inventor of the saxophone and other musical instruments, was from Dinant. We headed there from Rochefort. Before our arrival to the fortified city that overlooks the Meuse River and is located only 14 miles from the French border, we made a detour. It lead us to the 18th century Brasserie Caracole in the town of Falmignoul. We parked our bikes across the street from the brewery and we strolled up to its entrance in the early afternoon sun. It was similar to many of the Belgian breweries we had encountered on this trip. From my American background, where buildings are new with modern architecture, the Belgian breweries in general had looked tired and worn out, as if they had been closed for decades. I ambled up to the green wooden door under the same bright green Brasserie Caracole sign. It was locked. It was 2:00 in the afternoon. Around the corner I found a young guy working hard unloading bags of yeast or flour, or some other integral beer ingredient, into a rotating sifter making clockwise revolutions. I asked in French if we could explore the interior of the brewery interestingly named after a snail. He graciously allowed us inside the hazy and venerable bar. This bar opened in 1765. Remnants of the wood fire oven, used to brew their classic beers like Nostradamus, floated inside the bar. Next to the dimly lit bar stood an original wooden beer barrel from 1766. I checked, there was any beer left in it.

A 1785 Brasserie Caracole Beer Barrel – Older than Scuba Steve

After a few Saxo beers under the trees by our bikes, we figured we should find more substance before finishing our ride into Dinant. We found the empty Moulin du Falmignoul café replete with warm baked goods of which we ordered our fair share of sandwiches, croissants, and pan au chocolat. Interestingly enough after lunch, we sauntered outside to find a bread vending machine. I’ve seen Coke machines and candy machines, but I’ve never seen, or even thought about the need for a bread vending machine. I can only assume the French have their own baguette vending machine. Honestly, I guess there wouldn’t be a bread vending machine if folks in Falmignoul didn’t need their warm bread at all times of day. “Zut alors Charles, this bread is 14 hours old! Get your ass to the café and get us a fresh loaf of bread!”

Inside Smokey Brasserie Caracole

It’s Westvleteren Time!

The sax museum honoring Adolphe Sax, Notre Dame de Dinant, not to be confused with that famous Parisian one, and the Citadelle de Dinant hovering over the town highlight any visit to Dinant. Yet as we strolled down Rue Grande, the main downtown thoroughfare, I noticed an unusual concentration of bottle shops. We passed A c’t’heure dînant and I curiously poked my head in while the rest of the group marched on. It was here that I slowly admired the present atmosphere and my current situation that I found myself along with a wide array of Belgian beers sitting against one wall, wine on the opposite, and tea on another. Considering the reason for this trip, my attention gravitated towards the beer. A steady flow of patrons continued in and out of the shop. I studied each bottle with the same discriminating detail an archeologist looking for the secret path to unearthed Egyptian antiquity, except I didn’t know what the hell I was trying to decipher. The shop finally cleared out and I approached the counter to explain my quest to a cheerful Guillaume. With unaltered gusto and pride, I described my expedition to bike across southern Belgium tasting the finest beers Belgium had to offer. His reaction differed. He was excited. I also explained how unfortunately our group wasn’t actually going to visit Westvleteren in western Belgium, home of the beloved Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, brewers of the Westvleteren 8, 10, and 12.

Belgium Beer at its Finest

He retorted in perfect English, a common skill among multilingual Europeans, “Oh, I just got some in today. It’s really hard to get, even for me here in Belgium. This beer has become one of the most sought after beers in Belgium. It has a cult following.”

For the next hour, we discussed Belgian beers, life in Dinant (this particular interaction had probably been his most exciting to date), the necessity to learn English and other languages, and living and traveling abroad. Finally, I broached the subject that had weighed on my mind since I entered the shop, is there any chance I could buy a bottle of Westy? Like a timid freshman asking out his senior crush to prom, I stammered, “You think that maybe, if you’re alright with it and your parents don’t mind, could I buy a bottle or two of your Westys?”

“Sure, I don’t have many to sell, as you know, the monks only allow people to buy two cases at a time every six months.”

Half expecting him to offer a maximum of two bottles at 25 euros a piece, “Sure, no problem! Whatever you’re willing to sell, I’ll buy them.”

“I’ll be back. I keep the really good stuff down here.” As he walked around back behind the white wall behind the counter hiding the stairs to his cellar.

Three minutes later, he exited with a cardboard box full of brown bottles without labels and just yellow and blue caps, a renowned sign of a Westy. The blue cap topped the Westy 8 and the Westy 12 had the yellow cap. Westy 10s were absent.

“Didn’t get any Westy 10s this time. So, what do you want?” He asked me happily.

Not really thinking he would sell me all of them in the cardboard box, I eagerly responded, “What are you willing to sell?”

“Anything in the box.”

I tried to be civil and hide my juvenile excitement at this moment. This was the stage where I ultimately acquired the Holy Grail of beers in its homeland. Practicalities briefly returned to my senses. “How much are you willing to sell them for?” Knowing full well that he could easily gauge me on the price. He had the upper hand. He knew I purchased a plane ticket and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to get this particular beer, and he was the first one who actually had it up to this point.

“9 euros a bottle.” Two days later I would find out that this would be a great price.

Huh?!?! That’s it? Trying to act cooler than I actually am, I calmly responded, “Hmmmm, sounds good to me. I’ll take three of the 8s and three of the 12s. I’ll try a few of these new ones as well. (For the author’s safety, the accurate number of bottles purchased has been changed to safeguard the state of his marriage. If my wife is still reading this, I only bought two bottles and savored each swig.)

I left A c’t’heure dînant an hour later with a silly grin on my face, my blue backpack strapped tight to my back, and two hands transporting a cardboard box full of highly coveted clattering brown Westvleteren glass bottles down along Rue Grande back to my IBIS hotel 15 blocks away. My arms burned, my wallet was a bit lighter, but I didn’t mind one bit.

Like a kid at Christmas time and without pause, I enthusiastically shared the story and my newfound spoils to the crew. With great care and respect, I opened the first bottle of Westy 8 like a bottle of 1999 Rene Engel Clos Vougeot (I dare you to look up the price of that bottle of wine). Like wine, Westvleteren is actually supposed to age. That might explain the fizzy, juvenile maturation and flavor of it, kind of like one of Pepper’s jokes. We followed the Westy 8 with the better acclaimed Westy 12. The Westy 12 had a fuller, more robust flavor. And just like that, I drank Westvleteren in Belgium. The remaining beer would travel back with me to the American midwest in the classiest of Igloo coolers and duct tape.

Unexpectedly, Dinant marked our sixth day of this adventure and my real introduction to Westy. Tomorrow consisted of, shocker, cycling to Chimay, home of the beer that indirectly championed this trip all the way back in Spain in 2000.

Previous Stop: Day #5 – Bastogne – Nassogne, France – Mochamps, Belgium – Rochefort

Next Stop: Day #7 – Dinant – Mariembourg – Fagnes – Chimay

A Pair of Westvleterens

Another Closeup with Westvleteren 12

Scuba Steve in front of Summer Home

Start of the Journey Outside Rochefort

Giving Pepper the Bird!

Route de la Bière – Yes Please!

Desolate Road of Houyet

How much Sax in Dinant? A lot

Inside Brasserie Caracole

L’Entrée de la Citadelle de Dinant

Meuse River Outside Hotel IBIS

Lone Silo

Rest Stop in Houyet

Cycling Dinant

A 1785 Brasserie Caracole Beer Barrel – Older than Scuba Steve

Inside Smokey Brasserie Caracole

Brasserie Caracole

Just Happy to have the Bird

Which way to Finnevaux?

Belgium Beer at its Finest

A Closeup with Westvleteren 8

Finding Westvleteren Beer on a Saxy Dinant Street Day #6 - Rochefort - Falmignoul - Dinant Number of Miles Cycled Today - 27.5 Number of Total Miles Cycled - 110.2…

[anythingbeer]

About last night: Rochefort 6&10, Westvleteren 12, Spanish sQuad, Westmalle Dubbel, homebrewn Chocolat Abbye Ale and some pils to wash it all down

[jeffreyjdavis]

If you ask 1000 beer nerds what "the best beer in the world" is, probably more than 950 of them would say Westvleteren 12 without missing a beat. This Trappist quad is truly exceptional with excellent complexity of flavor and a super sexy mouthfeel. This is my last bottle from the 12 12.12 release, thanks @kkdavis for standing in line for me ❤️. At 8 years old, a few years past prime, but still exceptional. Still well carbed, plenty of toffee, raisins and fruitcake flavor. Mouthfeel very supple and velvety. I've had this beer quite a few times, world class, but not on a different level altogether than Rochefort 10, St Bernardus ABT 12 or Pannepot Grand Reserva, which are all much more accessible. Cheers, Kids! #craftbeerjunkie #craftbeercommunity #craftbeerlife #craftbeer #trappistbier #belgianbeer #trappistbeer #trappist via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CDQCH-7j_3t/

[peckhampeculiar]

A recipe from The Beer Lover’s Table

Roast Quail and Squash with Yogurt Sauce and Hazelnut Gremolata 

Recipe from The Beer Lover’s Table by Claire Bullen with Jen Ferguson 

I love the look of quail on a plate: each small bird resembles a perfect, miniature chicken. Quails are juicy when cooked right, but—as a lean meat—become dry when overcooked. Two ways to increase their succulence are marinating them overnight (I favour a Middle Eastern-style marinade here, rich with spice, piquant pomegranate molasses, and zesty orange juice) and spatchcocking (or butterflying) them: by removing their backbones and pressing them fl at, they roast quickly and evenly. Make a feast of it: serve your quail with roasted winter squash, and top with a browned butter yogurt sauce and hazelnut gremolata for freshness.

INGREDIENTS

4 quails

1½ tsps fine sea salt

5 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp ground cumin

2 tsps ground coriander

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsps pomegranate molasses

1½ tbsps clear honey

2 tsps rose water

Zest and juice of 1 orange

2 tsps sambal oelek hot sauce (optional)

 FOR THE YOGURT SAUCE

1½ tbsps (20g) unsalted butter

½ cup (115g) Greek yogurt, at room temperature

2–3 tbsps cold water

Pinch of flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

 FOR THE SQUASH

1 small kabocha, red kuri,or baby hubbard squash (or another similar, thin-skinned variety)

3–4 tbsps olive oil

Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 FOR THE HAZELNUT GREMOLATA

2 tbsps blanched hazelnuts

Large bunch of fresh mint leaves

Large bunch of cilantro (fresh coriander)

Zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, peeled

½ tsp fine sea salt

SERVES 2-4

PAIR WITH... 

A dark Belgian style, like a dubbel or quad. Belgian yeast is known for its fruity, spicy characteristics. Here, those traits play well with the deeply spiced marinade, while the dark malt profi le picks up the roasted notes of the quail and squash.

THREE BEERS TO TRY 

Brasseri de Rochefort Trappistes Rochefort 8 (Belgium); Brouwerij Westvleteren Westvleteren 8 (Belgium); Deschutes Brewery The Stoic (US)

METHOD 

1. Begin prepping the night before cooking. First, spatchcock the quails: use kitchen shears to snip all the way along one side of the spine and then the other. Discard the backbones (or save for a stock), fl ip the quails over, and fl atten by pressing gently on the breastbones. Generously season both sides of each quail with sea salt. Set aside.

 2. To make the marinade, whisk the olive oil and all the spices together in a large nonreactive bowl. Whisk in the pomegranate molasses, honey, rose water, and orange zest and juice. Mix in the sambal oelek hot sauce (if using). Transfer the quails to the bowl and arrange so they are as submerged in the marinade as possible. Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

 3. The next day, remove the quails from the fridge about 1 hour before cooking to come to room temperature.

 4. Meanwhile, to make the yogurt sauce, add the butter to a small skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Cook for approximately 3 minutes, or until the butter has melted, turned dark amber, and smells nutty (watch closely as the butter will brown quickly). Once the butter is browned, remove from the heat and transfer immediately to a heatproof bowl. Chill for 30–45 minutes, or until cool but not solidified.

 5. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4. Next, prepare the squash. Wash off any dirt and pat dry. Slice off the stem and then cut in half (no peeling necessary). Scoop out the seeds and gunk from the cavity, and discard. Slice the squash into roughly 1-inch (2.5cm) crescents.

 6. Line a large baking sheet with parchment (baking) paper and arrange the squash in a single layer. Drizzle over the olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Flip the slices over and season on the other side. Drizzle over several spoonfuls of the marinade.

 7. Line a second large baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top. Remove the quails from the marinade and arrange on the rack; they should be breast-side up with legs splayed (this helps them cook quickly and evenly). Spoon over more marinade.

 8. Roast the squash in the oven for approximately 20–30 minutes, or until fork-tender. Halfway through, add the quails to the oven and roast for about 18 minutes, or until the marinade has darkened and they are just cooked through (it’s fi ne, even preferable, if they’re a little bit pink in the center).

 9. Meanwhile, to make the gremolata, add the hazelnuts to a food processor and pulse until fi nely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until finely mixed and uniform. (You can also use a mortar and pestle, if you prefer.) Set aside.

 10. When the quails and squash are cooked, finish the yogurt sauce by adding the yogurt to a bowl and pouring in the cooled browned butter in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly to combine. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk between additions, until the sauce reaches your preferred consistency—it should be thin enough to drizzle. Season to taste with the flaky sea salt.

 11. To serve, divide the squash slices between plates and allocate one quail per person (two if you’re especially hungry). Drizzle over the yogurt sauce and top with the hazelnut gremolata.

The Beer Lover’s Table by Claire Bullen with Jen Ferguson, published by Dog ‘n ’Bone Books (£16.99) 

Photography © Dog ‘n ’Bone Books

https://rylandpeters.com/

[michaelhein]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀10 delicious beers in July.🍺 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With Westvleteren Abdij Sint-Sixtus (Trappist Westvleteren XII), @cloudwaterbrew (Bellini Slushie), @thewhitehag (Beann Gulban Irish Heather Sour Ale), @cloudwaterbrew (DIPA), @omnipollo (OMNIPOLLOSCOPE #2 SUPERSTITION STRAWBERRY BOURBON MEAD BARRELS, SUPERSTITION APHRODESIA SYRAH MEAD BARRELS, VANILLA BOURBON?BARRELS and BUFFALO TRACE BARRELS BLACK BARLEYWINE🤪), @cascade.brewing (Cuveé Du Jongleur 2017), @wylam_brewery (NLM), @bullfrogbrewery (Le Roar Grrrz Blackberry), @de_moersleutel_craft_brewery (Going Real Nuts) and @branta_brauerei (Wilde HefenTraubenmost). Good job guys!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #CraftBeer #Beer #Bier #belgian #belgianquadrupel #trappist #sour #fruited #sourfruited #sourale #dipa #ipa #barleywine #cuvee #vintage #newenglandipa #neipa #lambic #stout #imperialstout #BeerWineHybrid // All beers bought at @beyondbeer (Germany) & @mikkellerwebshop (Denmark) (hier: Hamburg, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0vVRIVI2hi/?igshid=kmai5565iskw

[wineanddinosaur]

‘World’s Best Beer’ Westvleteren Now Has a Web Store

St. Sixtus Abbey of Westvleteren, a Trappist brewery known for producing the best beer in the world, Westvleteren 12, is dipping a toe into the digital age: Westvleteren 12 will have its own web store launching Tuesday morning, the Guardian reports.

Beer geeks with a passion for Belgian brews will know of the highly-sought-after, almost mythical beer: a Belgian quadrupel ale brewed exclusively by the St. Sixtus Abbey in Vleteren, a farming town in Flanders, Belgium. Such geeks (this author included) will also know of the painstaking process required to get the beer.

Previously, one could touch their lips to a Westvleteren one of two ways, if they were following the rules: by visiting St. Sixtus Abbey and buying a glass at the tourist-friendly Westvleteren Cafe; or by placing an order by phone to pick up the beer by car.

That phone call required reaching the abbey on a hotline that receives as many as 85,000 calls per hour, according to the Guardian. If one were to get through, information required included name, date, time of pickup, and license plate number. Those lucky enough to make such a pilgrimage were limited to a maximum of two crates of the beer, with 24 beers per crate. (In retrospect, this sounds generous compared to today’s IPA releases. But we digress.)

The launch of the online ordering system does not mean one can simply buy the beer online, however. Buyers still have to drive to the brewery to pick up the beer. What’s changing is the infamous, and nearly impossible step of the phone call. The Westvleteren web shop will similarly require customers create a profile with their name, date of birth, address, mobile phone number, email address, and yes, license plate number.

In case you’re thinking the monks finally decided to cash in on their world-famous brew, think again. According to St. Sixtus abbot, Brother Manu van Hecke, the abbey is modernizing to prevent resale and price hikes of its prized beer. As the Guardian reported last year, Dutch supermarket chain Jan Linders was caught selling Westvleteren’s beers — which include Westvleteren Blond, Westvleteren 8, and Westvleteren 12 — without permission, and at about five times the price.

(At the abbey, Westvleteren 12 is sold by the case for €45, or about $50.50. Jan Linders was selling the beer for about €10 or $11 per bottle, which equates to about €240 or $264 per case.)

“The new sales system meets the needs of many Westvleteren enthusiasts,” van Hecke said. “We have thought long and hard about a good and customer-friendly alternative. Beer sales at the abbey will remain exclusively aimed at private customers. The web store is therefore only accessible to consumers, not to professional buyers.”

He continued, “We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to purchase Trappist Westvleteren at the correct price. Anyone who does not adhere to the sales rules and abuses the system will be denied access to the online store.”

Update: This article originally linked the Westvleteren web shop to westvleterenbeers.com. The correct website is trappistwestvleteren.be.

The article ‘World’s Best Beer’ Westvleteren Now Has a Web Store appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/booze-news/westvleteren-web-store/

[reinnier]

O Ser Brejeiro on Instagram: “Westvleteren - Westvleteren 12 - Quadrupel”

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657 Likes, 10 Comments - O Ser Brejeiro (@oserbrejeiro) on Instagram: “Westvleteren - Westvleteren 12 - Quadrupel”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt58p_xg-lK/?utm_source=ig_web_button_native_share

[joukesp]

#firstbeer #stbernardus #abt12 #beerlover #strongbeer #belgianbeer #notforthefaintofheart #trappiststyle At 10%ABV, this clone of the famous trappist of Westvleteren is worth a try! Delicious, slightly herbal yet powerful barleymalt. Refreshing mouthfeel belying it's strength in alcohol. With an ever so slight mellowness that makes this an ideal wintery afternoon drink. Highly recommended! (at Zemst) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsTLDAMHc-9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1420u514w6yo4

[abbygkane]

lol how many types of Belgian beers have you drunk?

How long do you have? Like, I’m not even kidding. We have over 1000 original beers. Of course, some are only available for a limited period but still, we have a lot of beer.

Belgian beers I’ve consumed in my life:

Stella

Maes

Cara pils

Jupiler

Belle-vue (kriek and extra kriek)

Westvleteren (all three types)

Leffe (blond, bruin, royale)

Orval

Chimay (goud, tripel, blauw)

Westmalle (dubbel, tripel)

Cristal Alken

Boerke (blond)

Brugge (blond and tripel)

Cambrinus

De Koninck

Natte Lore

Delirium (red and tremens)

Duvel

Gentse tripel

Geuze lindemans

Grimbergen (blond and dubbel)

Gulden draak

Hoegaarden (regular + rosée)

Hopus

Kasteelbier (blond and bruin)

Kriek lindemans

La Chouffe

Ops-ale

Omer

Pax pils

Rochefort (6°, 8° and 10°)

Troubadour blond

Vicaris tripel

This took longer than I’m comfortable admitting :D and also makes me look like I have an alcohol problem which I don’t have btw

[anythingbeer]

5 year old Westvleteren 12 VS Fresh Trappistes Rochefort 10

[merelygifted]

Even at £9 a bottle, beer from Saint Sixtus abbey was flying off the supermarket shelves. Until the monks found out.

Angry Trappists from the 19th-century Cistercian monastery in Westvleteren, west Flanders, have accused the Dutch supermarket brand Jan Linders of a breach of their “ethical values” for selling the brew.

Under the abbey’s rules, the beer, produced on-site by 20 monks, is only available by the glass at a “meeting centre” or by the crate under strict conditions. Indeed, according to the Saint Sixtus abbey’s website, those seeking to buy bottles of Westvleteren in bulk must have “a lot of patience and luck”.

...  A spokesman for the abbey said: “A price of nearly €10 per bottle goes against the ethical standards and values that the monks face. Every beer lover knows that the Trappists of Westvleteren do not pursue profit maximisation, they only produce as much beer as is necessary to provide for their livelihood. All the profits made go to the abbey charity.”

One of the Trappists’ offerings, a dark heavy beer with a 10.2% alcohol volume, has been repeatedly voted as the best beer in the world.  ...

Belgian monks round on supermarket for selling their brew at £9 a bottle | World news | The Guardian

[georgeoliver]

Aspects of Brussels/Belgian life: Drink

There's only one drink I'm going to talk about in any depth in this blog: beer. You can get other drinks in Belgium, obviously, but only beer occupies such a central place in Belgium's identity. In fact, Belgian beer was recently added to UNESCO'a list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. There are around 1150 different varieties of beer brewed in Belgium, ranging from the six certified Trappist breweries, to abbey beers, blondes, tripels, brunes and ambrées, wit beers, geuzes (blending lambics), fruit beers (gueze + fruit during the fermentation process) and lambics (sour beer made with wild yeast).

Whenever I go to a bar, café or restaurant for a drink, I try to have a new beer. Even if I managed this every time, I wouldn't have made a dent.

I like quite a wide range of Belgian brews, particularly chewy brunes and some blondes: Orval, Omer and La Chouffe are some of my easily accessible favourites.

Belgian beers are generally stronger than UK equivalents – from 5 to 10% - and served in smaller volumes (33cl is a normal size). It's very important that you get the right glass with your beer (servers at the bar are often very apologetic when they don't have the right receptacle). A handy tip for anyone visiting Belgium is that the wider the glass opens at the top, the more flavourful it is – weedier beers (standard lagers like Jupiler, Maes and Stella Artois) have narrower openings to concentrate their limited flavour in small spaces.

Last weekend, I, along with some friends, visited the shyest and most retiring of the six trappist breweries. Westvleteren, made at the abbey of Saint-Sixtus, near Poperinge, is, to put it mildly, not widely sold. It is only possible to buy the beer directly from the abbey itself, or from the visitor's centre across the road. To collect any beer from the abbey one has to reserve it by phone and each buyer is limited to 1 or 2 cases of 24 bottles every 60 days.

Just 5 monks (+ 5 more to help with the bottling process) produce only 475 kilolitres (60,000 cases) per year, which is the same as they produced in 1946. They make three beers: a blonde, the 8 (which is 8%) and the 12 (which is just over 10%). The 12 was recently rated the best beer in the world by ratebeer.com which, combined with the limited supply, resulted in even greater interest in the beer. The monks still refuse to increase their production to meet the frenzied demand, insisting: “We are not brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.”

The abbey itself, with a stern sign directing you elsewhere (Image credit: Joscha)

So we got the train out to Poperinge, and walked to the visitor centre in the Belgian, freezing grey. There, we installed ourselves, trying all three of the beers, their cheese, and even an ice cream made with the 12. It was good, though inevitably all the hype around the “best beer in the world” meant perhaps we had built it up a lot. For those who are interested but don't have the time to make the pilgrimage to Poperinge, St Bernadus, also brewed just outside Poperinge, is meant to taste quite similar to the 12, and is much easier to get hold of.

The following day, we visited the De Plukker Brewery, where they make organic beer with hops from their own farm. We had a tour and a tasting (I had already inadvertently tried two of their 5 beers in the local Irish pub). 80% of Belgian hops are grown in and around Poperinge, and so De Plukker decided to make their own beer from their yield. De Plukker = the plucker in honour of the workers who used to harvest the hops. The brewery hopes to start using its own organic malt in the beer soon, and makes some very tasty beers.

De Plukker’s beers, and stretching Hop fields (Image credit: Radhika)

So come to Belgium, and enjoy the intangible liquid heritage of its land! (If you don't like beer.. sorry)

[beerandpresentdanger]

Golden Pints 2016

2016 was an odd one. I don’t just mean politically, historically, environmentally - I mean on a personal, more human level, down in the trenches where I can be found crawling around. It was touched by grief and by joy - a bereavement and finding out I was going to be a dad, respectively - and besides those things, everything else seemed slightly greyed out in comparison, like the softly-blurred middle distance of a photograph, focused on something else.

Blogging took a back seat, unfortunately, as the slowly diminishing archives of BAPD shows - even if the drinking didn’t, what with it being there to comfort you in the down times and toast you in the good. In fact, I can say without a doubt that 2016 was my best drinking year ever - for quality, for diversity, maybe even for volume, though maybe not that, since I was a student once. Quite literally, from the moment the clocks chimed midnight and ushered 2016 into being, I have been drinking good beer - I started with Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout 2015, and the as final vengeful seconds of 2016 ticked away, I was sipping a Trappistes Rochefort 10. The pace and the pleasure rarely let up. Hopefully that been reflected in the blog, even if not as regularly as I would have liked.

The accepted way to celebrate the year in beer on the internet is in the form of Golden Pints - a kind of communal awards, shouting out all the things you loved most from the past 12 months. Having gone right over the year end, just in case anything was going to sneak in under the wire, here are my prize winners, in whatever categories I feel like recognising:

Beer of the Year - Cloudwater DIPA V10

It feels like Cloudwater’s evolving DIPA series has become almost emblematic of UK craft beer and the culture surrounding it - a high ABV your dad would wince at, scarcity in the select bottle shops it turns up in, and a series of eye-catching designs meaning the bottles are as satisfying to look at as they are to open. But despite its cultural dominance, it’s barely been 12 months since the first iteration appeared and made everyone lose their collective shit. Now on a monthly schedule, and harnessing the accumulated experience of nine past iterations, December’s DIPA V10 saw the addition of alchemical hop powders and oats to the grist, for their most billowingly fruity effort yet. DIPA defined the year. Bring on the cans.

Brewery of the Year - Brew by Numbers

It feels almost impossible to pick a brewery of the year when there were so many good breweries making great beer this year - the aforementioned Cloudwater, Magic Rock and Siren all made strong showings - but ultimately I picked Brew by Numbers because I couldn’t think of another brewery making such strides with such diverse styles as they have this year. From barrel-aged imperial stouts to semi-legendary saisons, via hazy pale ales and sticky IPAs, there isn’t a dice roll of digits that hasn’t worked for them.

Venue of the Year - waterintobeer

Sometimes, you just get lucky. This year, my sleepy corner of south east London discovered, in the space of a few days, that it was getting two bottle shops. Both turned out to be excellent, and I maintain Salthouse Bottles may be the most pleasingly laid out shop in the capital. But waterintobeer has a special place in my heart, thanks to a) having seats allowing you to sit in and drink b) playing excellent records and introducing me to bands like Martha. It’s a home away from home already.

Location of the Year - Brussels

I’m almost embarrassed (humblebrag!) by the number of places I went this year where beer was a centrepiece of the trip. I did a cask ale crawl round the charming pubs of Derby. I drank my way through the dankest offerings Brooklyn’s Other Half had to offer. I crushed cans of Jai Alai in the Florida sun, and crammed in as many bars as Manchester and Leeds had to offer. All of these are worthy beer trips to make, but nothing else quite matched up to my first trip to Belgium. After a bad teenaged run in with a bottle of Leffe, I’d never truly come to appreciate Belgian beer, but a weekend in Bruges and Brussels soon changed that. Sitting in the sunny yard of a puppet theatre drinking Westvleteren XII was close to a religious experience.

Writers of the Year - Matthew Curtis / Will Gordon

Whether on his own site, Total Ales, or doing beautifully illustrated stories for Good Beer Hunting, I’ve loved reading Matthew Curtis’ work this year. He writes with passion and precision, and an uncommon clarity about the broader industry that always makes me pause to consider the bigger picture. Meanwhile, Will Gordon remains the chief inspiration for me bothering to tell other people what I like to drink, with a voice that combines humour and insight in equal doses. I hope they both keep up the good work.

Moment of the Year - The British Guild of Beer Writers Annual Awards

This is shamelessly self-obsessed, but after two years of writing a blog read by a small circle of family and friends (usually during their toilet breaks, I’d imagine), being named runner up in the Best Young Beer Writer category at the British Guild of Beer Writer Awards was overwhelming. On top of that, it was a cracking evening, with friendly, welcoming company, (especially the team at Hall & Woodhouse who kindly hosted me), top notch food and plenty of beer. It showed me, as much as anything else, that the world of beer is a good place to be, whatever year it is.