The Good, The Great, and The Sublime: A Belgian Beer Primer
Oct 23 '01
The Bottom Line Lambic ales, Trappist dubbels and tripels, sour red ales, light wheat beers -- the world of unique Belgian beer styles is right here at your mouse-click...
The brewing world is a lot like any profession with its various camps and philosophies and cults. I think most brewers fall into roughly three different groups though: I'll call them the technocrats, the traditionalists, and the artists. All three camps have their strong points and all three contribute to the rich treasury of flavors that we can find each and every time we visit our local beer store.
Technocrats are very precise, controlled brewers who believe firmly in science and technology above all else. German brewers are the ultimate technocrats having been the guys who laid down their Reinheitsgebot formula almost 500 years ago. No surprise that it's also the Germans who pioneered lager brewing. American industrial brewers are technocrats too, in case you didn't guess from their perpetual glorification of lager, not to mention a devotion to micro-fine filtration, high-heat flash pasteurization, and of course, television commercials as a substitute for quality brewing. Technocrats have their downside, but they are also the brewing geniuses behind bock beers, maerzen, smoked beers, and all their assorted cousins.
Traditionalists brew beer the way their daddy did, and their grandaddy did, and their grandaddy's grandaddy did, and...well, you get the picture. British brewers are great traditionalists and sampling the best English beers can be like stepping into a time machine and seeing what our forefathers might have tasted a century ago. Pubs with hand-pulled engines, breweries like Samuel Smith with their antiquated stone fermentation system are not uncommon, and even in sophisticated London, one of the best breweries (Youngs) still delivers beer in some neighborhoods using horse-drawn carriages. I might call it "quaint" if it weren't for the fact that my taste buds dance for joy when I lift a pint of Youngs Old Nick to my lips...
And then there are the Artists -- the brewers whose vision of beer Nirvana is just a little bit off center from everyone elses. Belgian brewers are the world's ultimate beer artists. Who else would leave their roof open to allow whatever natural microflora is in the air to ferment their beer? Who else would sweeten their beers with candy sugar or fresh cherries? Who else would think it was cool to make beers look so light and refreshing and poundable, but yet pack a punch that would knock Mike Tyson to the mat?
Belgian brewers do all this and more in every glorious bottle. And it's refreshing that they do. It's like walking through a gallery filled with black velvet Elvises and predictable pictures of clowns and flowers, only to suddenly step into a hall of Picasso masterpieces. Sure the noses might be upside down, but isn't it refreshingly wonderful?
And wonderful indeed are the beers of Belgium...come...taste a few with me!
I Should Have Been a Monk...
There is a long tradition of religious groups in Europe brewing beer, either for their own consumption or for public sale. While the Belgium's Trappist monks are the most famous of these brewers, we can't forget that the practice isn't just confined to Belgium, after all Germany's Paulaner brewery was started by priests from the Pauline order, and there is also an order of Trappist monks brewing ales outside of Belgium (Beer Geek Trivia Time: Be the first epinionator to tell me the nationality of those other Trappists and the name of their brewery and win a fabulous prize -- post to Comments if you think you know!)
The term "Trappist" can only be applied to a beer that is brewed in a bona-fide Trappist monastery under the supervision of Trappist monks. There are six such breweries, and while each have their own distinctive beers with unique flavor profiles, there are certain commonalities in them.
There are also other breweries that have historic religious affiliations, possibly with orders other than Trappists, or maybe with a defunct church or monastery. These beers may share common stylistic signatures with the Trappist beers, but can not be called Trappist beer. They are usually identified as "abbey beers".
The most common styles of Trappist or abbey beer are called dubbel and tripel.
Dubbel is all things sweet and brown. It has a complex flavor profile of caramelized malt and sugar combined with a rich milieau of yeast-produced flavors and aromas, ranging from fruity esters (especially plum and raisins) to various spicy signatures, like those of cloves. Dubbel is a big beer with lots of very rich, smooth, sweet malt character. It can have fairly high alcohol levels, so watch out! Some of the best dubbels include Westmalle Dubbel and the widely imported Affligem Dubbel (although my personal favorite is my own award-winning homebrewed version).
Tripel might be bigger in strength than dubbel, but it often tastes lighter, and is certainly lighter in color -- most brands are almost pale golden.
Being a monk may have its downside. After all, you've got to get up at all hours of the night and morning for prayer services, and of course, sex is out. But look at the bright side: you get drink dubbel and tripel every day -- and it's on the house -- woo-hoooo!!
What are the Trappist brands to look for? Glad you asked: Orval, Chimay, Rochefort, Westvleteren, and Westmalle -- enjoy 'em faithfully!
If This is an Asylum, LOCK ME UP!
The first time I saw a bottle of Belle-Vue I was wary. "Belle-Vue, eh? Isn't that the lunatic asylum that's always featured in old movies?" Maybe so, but if it is, then I say, "Lock me up and throw away the key!" Belle-Vue is tasty stuff, and it's typical of the lambic style of brewing.
If ever there was a style of beer that earned Belgians the right to be known as the "artists" of the beer world, it's lambic. The beers are weird. Or more precisely, bizarre. They taste sour -- strongly sour -- as in you would throw it away if you didn't know better. Not only that, but they have strong aromas and flavors that would indicate a serious brewing flaw in any other style -- things like the smell of old horse blankets or an outhouse that could use a good flushing. Hang with me...I'm serious! These are good things!
Want to know the best way to judge how good a lambic is? Give a glass to your mom, your neighbor, or maybe a poor unsuspecting co-worker. What happens?
A) S/he takes a sip, makes a face, and hands it back. (Average lambic)
B) S/he takes a sip, gags and spits in your face. (Good lambic)
C) S/he takes a sip, face turns red as a radish, falls over on floor with legs in air looking like an armadillo on the side of I-10, erupts in explosions of uncontrolled flatulence (Excellent lambic)
D) S/he takes a sip, smiles, dances for joy, kisses you, downs glass, proposes marriage, asks for more (God I hate those smartass beer connoisseurs)
So where was I? Oh yeah! Weird. Lambics are weird and they're sour. They get that way because of the way they're brewed.
Lambics are made near Brussels in the Senne River valley. The mash uses a proportion of unmalted wheat (typically about 1/3) in the grist and the hops that are used are old, aged hops that often smell of stale cheese. When hops get too old, they lose their ability to contribute floral aromas to the beer, but they still contribute bitter flavor that can counter-balance the sweet flavors of mal. That's just want lambic brewers want! Hence, the older the better.
The real trick of lambic brewing isn't in the brewing though, it's in the fermenting. After the brewing stage, the unfermented wort is piped into large open fermentation vats and the roof of the brewery is swung open to let all of the naturally occurring yeast and other microflora that nature cares to provide in to ferment the beer. After the beer ferments, it is aged in wooden barrels, further contributing microflora that can potentially ferment out any remaining sugars. While most of the world's breweries are clinically sanitized and sterilized to limit microflora only to pure strains of saccharomyces cerevisae, the natural spontaneous fermentation is caused by a range of different micro-organisms, including brettanomyces, pediococcus, and lactobacillus. This is what gives the beer so much complexity and what creates the bizarre mix of aromas and flavors that would mean a spoiled batch of beer in any place in the world.
Knowing that lambics aren't a flavor that most drinkers will easily adopt, Belgian brewers temper the flavors by creating different sub-styles and varieties.
The least common of these is the unblended (straight-up) lambic. Usually available only in cafes in Brussels, you might someday bump into a bottle of Cantillon Grand Cru.
Only slightly more common is a geuze (or gueuze), which is typically a blend of older and younger vintages (Michael Jackson claims 70% young to 30% old is most common) and is intended as a smoother, more drinkable beverage than the rough unblended varieties. No matter how the blend is done though, the beer is still sour. Still weird with an unmistakable essence of horse sweat. Still delightful! The most common bottled version in the U.S. is probably Geuze Boon, although many lambic brewers have bottled guezes. One exceptional geuze in my opinion is Boon Mariage Parfait.
Most common among the lambic beers are the flavored varieties. Knowing that casual beer drinkers will be turned off by intensely sour beers, Belgian brewers often add fruit to lambics and do a second fermentation. The sugars and sweet flavors of the fruit helps temper the rough lambic. Lambics labeled kriek are flavored with cherries, framboise with raspberries, peche with peaches. Other fruit flavors may be available, but these three are the most common. Look for these varieties from Liefman's, Timmerman's, Cantillon, and Belle-Vue, to name but a few.
What Color is the Sky in YOUR World?
With all the patriotic fervor in America these days, it seems like you can't pass an hour without seeing the old red, white, and blue! Well, if I was drinking beer, I'd rather see the old red, white, and brown...here's why.
Wit means "white" when you're talking to Belgians, and the color lends its name to a wonderful style of wheat beer that would have been extinct today but for the heroic efforts of a brewer named Pieter Celis. The story I heard (from Celis himself) was that the style was common in his town when he was a boy. As he grew older, brewery consolidations happened, breweries closed, tastes changed, and there came a time when the last wit beer brewer closed its doors. Being a man of action, Celis didn't just cry about the situation -- he bought a brewery and revived the style! The brewery was Hoegaarden and their beer is today regarded as the yardstick by which any other wit is judged.
Not that there are many other wits to judge, although you could look for Blanche de Bruges. There are also wit beers made in the United States (I'll get to that at the end).
The red I talk about is, of course, Rodenbach and its kin and imitators. This beer is very special in that it is a normal (but lightly hopped) ale brewed with vienna malt and about 20% corn that is brewed and fermented normally, but that is then aged in wooden vats. How long? Well, I don't know exactly...Michael Jackson says it is "a couple years" and that the oldest of the aging tanks is over 125 years old! My guess is that the brewmasters at Rodenbach don't want to be precise on the aging time because they don't want to give away the keys to their unusual beer. The flavor is quite sour, but pleasantly so, like about to the degree you find in Sweet Tarts or Lemon Head candies -- it is not at all like the sourness bludgeon of a lambic.
Oud Brouin is the brown I mentioned. While I listed Liefman's among the fruit lambics, their Goudenband is the classic example of a Belgian brown ale. A wonderful beer with a caramel sweet flavor, strong body, and a balance of slightly puckering sourness, the beer is a real delight to drink slowly with a hearty meal.
Good for What Ales Ya!
Belgium also produces a range of ales that are closer to the mainstream of what today's international beer community expects from products called "beers". Some of these are quite ordinary indeed, while others are distinctive with complex signatures of various yeast-produced aromas and flavors. I like DeKoninck.
Most interesting of the Belgian ales are the strong ales. These are often called stealth beers because they taste so smooth and light, yet they pack wallops of 7 percent or more alcohol, which is what earns them their evil names -- like Duvel and Lucifer.
Out with the Old, In with the New...
Some of the young microbrewers in the United States have had remarkable success emulating Belgium's finest beers. In most parts of the country you can now find some incredibly accurate locally made renditions of Old World favorites, made fresh daily for you right down the street!
Some of the brewers whose work I recommend seeking out include Ommegang (made in New York) and New Belgium (made in Colorado). Sadly, the Celis Brewery (Texas), which was one of the pioneers in the U.S. craft beer market, is now defunct (although some reviews live on here at epinions). Various other lager and ale breweries have experimented with Belgian styles (such as Stoudt's Dubbel), and you do see them from time to time, but I don't think it will ever be a common practice because brewing Belgian styles requires unique yeast strains and most professional brewers are reluctant to introduce new strains into a brewhouse because of the possible risk of it contaminating their house strain.
If you are ever in Baltimore, I also recommend a visit to the Brewers Art brewpub on Charles Street which specializes in Belgian styles (they do a great job with their Rodenbach clone).
Best in the World?
Other brewing nations may yell and scream, but I think most serious beer connnoisseurs will agree -- the best beers in the world come from Belgium. The country has more brewers per capita than any other nation, and more uniquely distinct styles than any other nation. By the way, according to Michael Jackson, Gambrinus, the legendary King of Beer, was probably a Belgian -- how fitting!
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