Open Brouwdag - Brouwerij Cantillon

Afgelopen weekend zette brouwerij Cantillon zijn deuren open voor het grote publiek. Het brouwseizoen voor het spontaan gegiste bier is namelijk begonnen en hoe dit gemaakt wordt kon je die dag meemaken. Een verslag hiervan vind je op mijn bierblog: http://bit.ly/1cjEria

Cheers

Kev 

Klein verzet - bier

Opgelet! Voor u verder leest moet ik opmerken dat dit geen origineel gebrouwen bier is maar een etiketbier. Een etiketbier is een reeds bestaand bier dat in een ander jasje wordt gestoken op aanvraag van een vereniging of firma.

Dit 'klein verzet' verbergt onder zijn slim vorm gegeven etiket(zie het dubbele logo) eigenlijk een Waaslander van brouwerij Boelens en werd op aanvraag van 'Het verzet' aangemaakt. Dit voor hun festijn georganiseerd ter ere van 'De ronde van Vlaanderen' waar ze een 60-tal gasten trakteerden op 2 bieren, Klein verzet en Groot Verzet gecombineerd met de keukenkunsten van HotCuisinedePierre.
Er was nog wat overschot van het bier en aldus kwam er een bakje bij mij terecht.

Klein Verzet, mijn impressie:

Oog:  Schenkt met een ferme witte kraag die mooi aanhoudt.De kleur is troebel blond, licht oranje met een fijne pareling in het glas.Gistrestant bijgieten resulteert in een wolkerig effect.

Neus: Exotische, licht peperige geur met noties van ananas en citrus. Aroma geeft ook wat indruk van gras en hars vrij.

Mond: Een mondvol exotisch fruit-ananas&mango- en koriander met een aangename, blijvende nabitterheid en een beendroge afdronk. Volmondig gevoel, volle body ondanks het laag alcoholgehalte. Het bijgieten van het gistrestant gaf het bij mij een ietwat onaangename smaak dus oppassen hiermee.

ABV 5.5%








Niet slecht, een goede doordrinker voor op een warme zomeravond.Aangenaam verfrissend, de droge afdronk doet naar meer verlangen en hij lijkt hoog in alcohol door zijn volle body maar is het niet.

 Nog te verkrijgen bij het verzet zolang de voorraad strekt (Ik weet niet of de originele 'Waaslander' nog beschikbaar is).

Indien interesse mag je mij gerust contacteren!

Cheers,

Kev

Baby Mammuth - Bier

Waar sociale media al niet goed voor is! Voor het ontdekken van nieuwe bieren bijvoorbeeld ,gebrouwen op een steenworp van bij je huis dan nog.....

De Oak brewery is gelegen in Tervuren en in de rangorde van brouwerijen is het een picobrouwerij wat eigenlijk neerkomt op een 'thuisbrouwerij. Met 2 man in dit geval maar daarom niet minder passioneel met bier bezig. Integendeel zelf, klein maar fijn.

Slechts enkele bieren in aanbod momenteel, Baby Mammuth en McMannus. De eerste een lichtere versie van de Mammuth, gebrouwen ter ere van de geboorte van het dochtertje/zoontje(?) van een van de brouwers en de tweede een stout gebrouwen speciaal voor afgelopen St-Patricks day.

Andere bieren worden gebrouwen naar goesting en gelegenheid. Momenteel zijn ze bezig aan een ware IPA en daar ben ik echt wel benieuwd naar!

Ik had de kans om van beide eerder genoemde bieren een kratje van 4 en 6 te bestellen die me door een van de brouwers aan huis werd geleverd.

Hier mijn impressie van de Baby Mammuth;

Oog: Schenkt vlot met een middelgrote witte kraag. Kleur van het bier is troebel donkerblond, licht oranje. Weinig activiteit in het glas, geen merkwaardige bubbels.

Neus: Ik merk pompoen op samen met graan en een licht rokerig aroma op de achtergrond. Ik merk met momenten nog een fruitige geur, ik denk aardbeien maar kan dit niet helemaal plaatsen. Eens navragen....

Mond: Qua smaak valt hij mij nogal vlak uit maar dat ligt waarschijnlijk aan het lage alcoholgehalte, 3.4%, dat dit biertje een beetje een gebrek aan body geeft. Het rokerige dat ik in de neus al opmerkte komt wel terug in de mond, een licht geturfde smaak samen met een graansmaak en dat is best aangenaam.

Al bij al valt het nog mee voor zo een licht bier, het gebrek aan body speelt hem wel parten. Begint aangenaam maar bouwt niet echt op. Ik vermoed dat grotere broer 'Mammuth' mij iets beter zou bevallen maar dat zal voor een andere keer zijn. Het volgende op de lijst van deze brouwerij is de stout McMannus.

Een lovenswaardig initiatief van deze brouwers en ik hou hun brouwsels zeker in het oog!

Verkrijgbaar op eenvoudig verzoek bij The Oak Brewery

enjoy,



Kev

Brewdog - Tokyo Rising Sun / Higland cask aged

I allready tasted and approved the original Tokyo beer from Brewdog and this edition is a supposedly forgotten experiment in which they aged the beer on oak Highland casks. I say 'Supposedly'
 as word goes that it is just a small marketing stunt.
This beer however won't be forgotten that easily once tasted!!

Aged in limited quantities, this was bottle 2052 of 2237 bottled.

Pour: Dark/black beer with a cream/brown coloured head that quickly dissapears leaving some traces on the surface. Beer leaves a nice lacing on the glass.

Sniff: Intense smell of wood/oak, peat, whisky with hints of vanilla, dark fruit and liquorice and some smoke in the background

Sip: strong taste of wood and whisky and I had again a deep smokey/peatey flavour that lasted on the palate. A bit strange but certainly not unpleasant. I tasted also some cherries, like a cherry liquor.
Very complex tasting beer.

ABV: 13,2%

A very rich tasting complex beer but unfortunately my first and last as this beer isn't brewed/aged anymore.

Enjoy,


Kev

Jantje van Sluis

There's a nice story behind this beer.

 The person that gave his name to this beer was Jantje, the bell-ringer of the city of Sluis. The morning after the annual city fair he overslept cause he had one or two beers more than he could handle and so no bells were sounded that morning. The Spanish troops were waiting outside the city walls, ready to attack on the first bell to sound. A sound that never came cause Jantje was sleeping off his hangover and thus saving the city from the Spanish invasion.
At least so goes the legend.......

Now, the beer:

Pour: Misty blond/golden with a firm, thick head and a lot of carbonation in the glass

Sniff: Some yeast, floral and slightly fruity scent, a small hint of vanilla

Sip: Medium taste, not very pronounced. Some slight caramel malt and an overall sweet taste. Triple style.

ABV: 8%

Brewery: Van Steenberge Ertvelde

Not bad but not super, a good blond triple that will please most people.

Cheers,

Kev

Embrasse - peated oak aged Stout

What we have here is another fine example of Belgian craft beer, brewed with passion and treated with care.
At the base we have the 'Embrasse' full malt stout from the 'Dochter van de korenaar'-brewery. A tasty, dark, creamy and smokey stout, allready deserving your attention as it is.

This version however is aged in oak barrels during 3 months giving this allready rich beer a full peat, whiskey flavour. Not to be taken lightly!

Pour: Dark/dark red, cream coloured head, small bubbles, dissapears rather fast

Sniff: Aaaaahhhh, peat, peat and peat and some wood. A full impression in the nose of peatey Islay whisky, nice! Some hints of ripe, dark fruit - think prunes.

Sip: Peat is again prominent together with the oak so this will divide the lovers from the haters. mouthfull of dark fruit, chocolate with a slight pleasant sour in the back of the mouth. A full body and a lasting aftertaste, keeps building in the mouth. ABV is 9% but the alcohol is not that prominent.

A very nice beer from this small brewery. One to drink on cold winter nights in good company, one to 'embrace'!

Check out my Dutch review of this beer on this Belgian foodie blog: http://www.legourmandbelge.be/bier-embrasse-peated-oak-aged-brouwerij-de-dochter-van-de-korenaar.html

Cheers,

Kev

Paradox Jura - Brewdog

Another brew by these Scottish rebel-brewers and not the easiest one!

Name: Paradox Jura
Type: Oak aged Imperial stout
ABV: 15%

Pour: Pitch black with a thick brown/creamy head with big bubbles.
Sniff: Roasted aroma's, dark fruit, wood.
Sip: Complex, again dark fruits and some oak. Caramel, coffee and a hint of alcohol. Sweet impression and a small bitter, roasted/burnt ending. Flavour keeps building in the mouth with a long pleasant aftertaste.

Overall another very complex but tasty beer from Brewdog , not for the faint of heart. To be savoured with ease and approached with caution or it will bite you in the tongue!!

Enjoy,

Kev

Brewdog - Tokyo

What the .....??!! Eh,excuse my language but with an ABV of 18.2° few other words came to mind when I bought this bottle.

This is the (in)famous 'Tokyo' beer from the (in)famous anarchy brewers of 'Brewdog' in Scotland. Brewed for the first time in 2009 and at that time being world's strongest beer. They had their share of trouble with this beer as it was considered too strong for something as 'normal' as a beer but it gave them a fair share of publicity and got them were they stand now....A brewery defying all limits of brewing as we know it, they're truely not afraid to mix things up.

I ordered some of their core beers and some specials, I'll be reviewing them soon here.

But now, this baby......




Tokyo:

Imperial stout, ABV 18.2°, IBU 90

The beer poured pitch black with a medium thick, brown head. First scent gave away some roasted coffee and dark fruit. At the first sip I still had the roasted coffee note with some chocolate, prunes,cranberries and other red/dark fruit on the palate. Some vinous notes and some oak. Full body and velvetty. Surprisingly very little alcohol in the mouth, with an ABV of 18.2° I was afraid of this but it melts right away between the rest of the tastes.

But sill at 18.2° having a 33cl bottle is guaranteed to give you a good night's rest and so it did!
This Oak aged Imperial stout might be one of the best I ever had, nice mixture of rich tastes and very satisfying but to be enjoyed with ease!!






And no better ending to this review than the words that you can find on the bottle:

'The irony of existentialism, the parody of being and the inherent contradictions of post-modernism, all so delicately conveyed by the blocky, pixelated arcade action have all been painstakingly recreated in this bottles contents.
This Imperial stout is brewed with copious amounts of speciality malts, jasmine and cranberries. After fermentation we then dry-hop this killer stout with a bucketload of our favourite hops before carefully ageing the beer on French toasted oak chips.
It is all about moderation. Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. What logically follows is that you must, from time, have excess. This beer is for those times!'


To be continued.......

Kev

Duvel Tripel Hop 2013 - Avant première

Yes, it's that time again.....
My favorite brewery Moortgat/Duvel is launching the new Tripel Hop again, version 2013. Every year they select a new kind of hop to add to the beer giving it another flavour without losing touch with the original Duvel. This years version is upgraded with the distinct Sorachi hop, an old hop originating from Japan with a rather high alpha level. 2012's version had American Citra hop as flavouring agent. I allready tasted the Sorachi hop in the Xtrem Hop series of Delhaize so I knew I was in for a very bitter, fruity/exotic flavour bomb!

The event was held in Brussels in the Chinese pavilion next to the Japanse tower, see the link?? ;) It's a beautiful place with an impressive ornamental decoration, fit for the star of the evening. The first thing we received upon entering the place was of course....a Duvel Tripel Hop 2013. What else?

We missed part of the speech of CEO Michel Moortgat and head brew master Hedwig Neven due to the traffic inferno around Brussels but I remembered the brew master promising us a lot of exotic flavours like coconut, mint, citrus and the CEO telling that they are a company that like to keep the customers close. The origin of the Duvel Tripel Hop is a perfect example of their bond with their fans/customers. When the original Duvel Tripel Hop was brewed back in 2007 it was limited to 20.000 bottles and sold out very fast leaving a lot of people with a taste for more.  A bet between some fans, de 'lambikstoempers', and Duvel was made. If they were able to get 10.000 fans on a facebook page Duvel would start brewing the beer again! And the rest is history......

I had a short chat with the director of quality, Dimitri Staelens who is in charge of the quality of your brew. A nice person with a heart/passion for his job. He previously worked at Inbev,one of the biggest brewers worldwide, and he said that the passion/effort for creating a perfect beer is big at Moortgat and that is something that I taste in every Duvel  I drink. Inbev brews lemonade,they really do, Moortgat creates beers with soul. My opnion!




This Years Tripel Hop has a nice floral,fruity nose and on the palate it delivers a nice explosion of lemon, lemongrass and other exotic fruit ending in a nice dry bitter aftertaste.This beer is surely going to give me a lot of pleasure this year.

As a food pairing they offered some sushi, there is that link with Japan again but unfortunately the good people of Duvel forgot one thing....A Duvel Tripel Hop can make up a big appetite and all the sushi were gone in about 20 minutes leaving us no choice than to still our hunger with another Duvel. The consequences were for me an earlier visit to my bed ;)

Had a real great evening and looking forward to more Duvel Tripel Hop 2013.



Special thanks goes to Jo Lories, marketeer@Duvel for inviting us and my wife for going the extra miles to get us there!!

Kev

Xtrem Hop - Delhaize

Delhaize, big mogul on the retail market here in Belgium recently launched a limited series of U.S.A. inspired beers. I say US inspired cause all the hops used in this series came from the US yet the beer was brewed in Belgium by the 'Proefbrouwerij'. Also the trend of brewing beers searching for a more extreme bitterness is something coming from US hopheads. A trend that I personally welcome cause I really like some bitter in my beer.

3 varieties were offered with every time the same brewing process but with the use of a different hop variety;
 Columbus, Citra and Sorachi Ace. All in 75cl bottles at the more than reasonable price of 3,50€ the bottle together with a small booklet with some info.

Xtrem Hop Columbus:

This rather young American hop variety promises to deliver a high EBU-EuropeanBitterUnit- of 75 so I was quite looking forward opening this bottle. It poured a nice golden/orange coloured beer with a nice head and a lot of carbonation going on.

 First scent was soapy,dry and some citrus. You could really smell that it was going to be a bitter beer. First sip immediately awakened my tastebuds giving me a tickle in the back of my mouth and leaving a nice dry, bitter aftertaste. I loved it a lot, could be a real good beer before dinner to make up an appetite. The bitter was prominent but not overwhelming.

Xtrem Hop Citra:

This is a new American hop variety but for the Duvel lovers a known one as it was used to brew the Duvel Tripel Hop2012 so I knew what I was going for!

Colour was clearer than the Columbus and the scent gave more exotic,fruity aroma's.

The taste was with an EBU of 59 again bitter but wasn't as prominent as with the Columbus due to the more floral/fruity character of the Citra hop. Again a very nice beer and the most 'open' beer of the 3. I could easily see this paired with some fish or seafood.

Xtrem Hop Sorachi Ace:


The Sorachi hop is an old forgotten Japanese hop that has recently been given attention again by some American hop cultivators and is really unique, like nothing I tasted before.

It doesn't have the same high EBU(68) as the Columbus(75) but I found the bitter being more prominent in this beer together with an exceptional floral, exotic taste...Coconut, mango, herbs(lavender, pine) in the nose and an absolute floral explosion in the mouth together with that typical soapiness of hoppy beers and even some wood. Truely the most Xtrem one of the three! I absolutely loved it, my wife didn't so this beer will surely divide opinions.




Nice effort of Delhaize to bring this limited series of beers on the market, I think all bottles have allready been sold, and for keeping a close watch on the general trends in the market. These beers could easily take a permanent position on the shelves with their exceptional taste and high quality.

Kev