BEERS #2 - Beyond the Pale

[Crenners]

[shoulders]

Aye, what a beauty

[Johnny Foreigner]

Ah, Watou, the seat of all delights, the jewel of the Flemish plains, where you can taste the cow dung everywhere.

[shoulders]

Pilgerstoff Vienna Lager from Will Brau tonight. Amazing.

Can of Leffe Brune in the fridge. Home Bargains are back doing 6 x 330ml cans for £6.99 which is a  steal.

[Ferris]

shoulders what is going on with your profile mate? State of it.

[shoulders]

Happy now bitch

[Ferris]

Even angrier, if anything.

[Crenners]

Had the Gouden Carolus Christmas stuff tonight, also nice. Lots of licorice and dandelion and burdock. Not something I want more than once a night/week/mayhem month, but very nice and quite different.

[Cuellar]

Where are you sourcing all these specialist Belgians from?

[shoulders]

Tremblingmadness.co.uk have an ok selection currently

[Cuellar]

Ah nice, not bad

[Johnny Foreigner]

Apologies; this is in Dutch and/or French and the website is quite amateurish: https://www.claryssedranken.be/nl/ons-aanbod

If you scroll down a bit, you will see a caption titled 'Felix'. Felix is a beer of the gods. It is dark red, very (verily very) sour and it tastes of rotten wood barrels and rusty nails. Happy are those who, at least once in their lives, have experiened the privilege of imbibing this divine nectar.



Note: I have no commercial affiliation with this beer. It is merely a fond childhood memory.

[shoulders]

Added to Wish List

[shoulders]

Newbarns Chevallier Malt Vienna Lager (4.4%) is fantastic.

With the dryness it absolutely could pass for Franconian beer.

Apparently uses a historic recipe, they are doing a heritage series currently.

Another cracking lager from the UK!

[Crenners]

Nice one, I'll try and get that. Cheers!

[shoulders]

Also Braybrooke Smoked Lager, the thing may as well be Spezial Rauchbier it's that good.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

picked meself up one of these! never had. hyped

[Ferris]

Cheerful chappy on the bottle - on to a winner there.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Cheerful chappy on the bottle - on to a winner there.

will report back over the weekend

kill jester

[Johnny Foreigner]

I know it well. Zot is Flemish for lunatic, or in this case, jester. Brugse Zot = lunatic from Bruges.

[chutnut]

Used to smash those Brugse Zots when me and the mrs used to go to Bruges pretty regularly, this was about 10 years now and my memory isn't great but I remember it being a good one

Got a St. Bernardus 12 in the fridge for tonight

[shoulders]

https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2021/12/14/trend-id-like-to-see-american-lager

[Crenners]

Nah fuckin off America is cunt

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Cheerful chappy on the bottle - on to a winner there.

It was a bit much. Very heavy, bittersweet and sort of reminded me of lebkuchen?

I love Belgian ales in gen, but it's deffo an acquired taste.

[Ferris]

I find them a bit too heavy going for me - sipping beers and nice to have one or two around Christmas but not something I'd ordinarily seek out. Good ones balance the carbolic bitterness against the sweetness and they're nice and cleverly done, but those are the exception rather than the rule in my experience and most are gloopy and not my thing.

Though I more or less exclusively drink pale ales which is the "favourite comedy is FRIENDS" opinion of beer so what do I know.

[king_tubby]

A pint of Barnsley bitter tonight. Reminded me of my youth, when I had time to spend an evening drinking session ales in a pub rather than getting a hoppy 6% IPA down me and going home.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

I find them a bit too heavy going for me - sipping beers and nice to have one or two around Christmas but not something I'd ordinarily seek out. Good ones balance the carbolic bitterness against the sweetness and they're nice and cleverly done, but those are the exception rather than the rule in my experience and most are gloopy and not my thing.

Though I more or less exclusively drink pale ales which is the "favourite comedy is FRIENDS" opinion of beer so what do I know.

The sour and wheaty end of Belgian beers is the one to go for, rather than the bitter end.

I wish I still liked pale ales since they're cool and refreshing. Basically since I started hormones I went from loving them to finding the taste to be primarily and overwhelmingly of iron; the same nauseous feeling one gets before sickness. It's the only major taste change I've had.

[Crenners]

Though I more or less exclusively drink pale ales which is the "favourite comedy is FRIENDS" opinion of beer so what do I know.

Wow, I always had so much respect and fondness for you, mate, but now no chance 😂😂😂

Framconio or ficken

[Ferris]

Oh how weird! I like some sours and ouds (rodenbach's flemish red being the one I remember) but we get fuck all European beers here because [ferris rants about Canadian alcohol import/distribution laws] so I have to stick to the local stuff.

It's fine most of the time but if you fancy something a bit outside the obvious you take a chance on a local brewery's equivalent at 4 quid a tin, or you go without.

Luckily I like pale ales but the limitations are frustrating sometimes. Sorry, won't bang on about it more than I already do.

[shoulders]

It was a bit much. Very heavy, bittersweet and sort of reminded me of lebkuchen?

I love Belgian ales in gen, but it's deffo an acquired taste.

Lebkuchen... Interesting. There's no ginger in it and Zot Blond isn't a Gruit beer as far as I know. I wonder what's putting that across. Yeast perhaps?

Anyway, I think that and the Zot Bruin are absolutely serviceable middle range Belgian ales, neither stand out as off the wall in any way, they have half an eye on the export audience.

The brewery's flagship beer Straffe Hendrick is one that grew on me, really too much initially, and even now can get too boozy, sickly, but at times it really hits the spot like few others.