Samuel

Welcome to another edition of my Friday Tasting Notes, which are now being reposted in an entirely separate blog at beerispeople.blogspot.com. I may decide to stick to posting them just there at some point, but for now I’m doing double duty.

This week, I tasted (read: guzzled with relish) a beer by the Dupont brewing house in Belgium. The beer is the “Avec les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont”, which means “With the Best Wishes of the Dupont Brewery”. The Dupont website explains that beginning in the 1970s, this beer was produced in small batches annually for a select group of the brewing house’s best clients. Today, it is distributed more widely (although it is still somewhat hard to find).

When this beer was magically transformed into a human, the first thing I noticed about it was it’s jacket. It was wearing a very stylish gray jacket from the 1980s, part suede and part acrylic knit. Kind of like this;

Next, I noticed the shoes. They were very nice boat shoes, leather also. They were certainly casual, but suggested a little bit of a cosmopolitan attitude. Here’s a picture;

These things combined really started to give me an idea of the beer’s personality. As a beer, it was inviting but not overbearing. It is a Belgian Farmhouse ale in style, which suggests a rural and not at all pretentious drink. But it’s also clearly a craft beer, and it is conscious that it’s quality is appreciated far afield of it’s rural roots in the cities and the upper classes. Many things about this beer are suggestive of that same set of contradictions. The aroma, for example, is complex but not overwhelming. It carries suggestions of yeast, citrus, flowers, hops, and even some malt. But each of the scents is balanced against the others and the no part of the smell is in any way overpowering. Or the alcohol content. This is, by any account, a big beer at 9.5% ABV – but it is crisp, refreshing, and the sort of thing I could drink all day.

Let’s talk more about the Beer as a person. He drives a very sensible, very European car. Therefore, I picked a Peugeot. Also, the model year is sometime in the late 70s, early 80s. I’m not sure why it is that so many of the characteristics of this beer person are from that era, but they are. The jacket, shoes, and car are all from the same time period. It may be because that was a time when industrialization was giving way to informationalization, and the rural was giving way to the urban even further than it already had. Or maybe I’m having an 80s kick. In any event, that’s what came to me and it’s what I’ve written. Here’s the car;

As I’m thinking more about this guy, I’m realizing that he is pretty guarded. He’s complicated. The flavor has some fruity characteristics, maybe banana or even some peach, but very subtle. And combined with some sourness, some bitterness, and even a little sweetness. It’s thick, and hard to understand. But it’s still friendly. This guy doesn’t want anyone to get too close to him. In that sense, he’s not a dog person. The level of loyalty that a dog has makes him uncomfortable. He wouldn’t have a pet at all, except that a cat showed up at his house one day and being soft hearted, he fed the poor creature. And, of course, it stayed around. But it’s not a pet so much as a room mate;

I had a hard time thinking of this beer’s favorite album. It’s an unfiltered beer, and there’s a yeasty aroma and flavor to it. It’s primal, and it takes it all in. It’s not the sort of beer to have a clear favorite anything. I thought of Jazz albums, I thought of famous french singers like Jaqcues Brel, Edith Piaf, or Charles Trenet, I thought of albums that mix genre like The Art of Noise’s “The Seduction of Claude Debussy”. The truth is, this beer has a large record collection and all those things and more are in it. But the most valued record, I think, is something both classic and modern; Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin’”

The beer’s ideal weather is a fairly simple thing to talk about. It’s certainly a spring beer, and the weather in which it would be most comfortable is a wet but sunny, warm but cool, middling spring day;

Overall, I’d call this a dangerously drinkable beer. I hope that you’re able to find a bottle. The one I found was at the Willamette Street Market of Choice in Eugene. For a 750 ML Bottle, I paid $12 (steeeeep, but worth it!) It was a great beer, and it brightened an otherwise difficult evening.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!

Bottle and Beer

This is a Belgian style ale, and overall I was very pleasantly impressed by how true to style they managed to be. With most American commercial examples of Belgian styles, I have been underwhelmed by the nods they give to their European forebearers. A particular brewery in Colorado comes to mind whose products claim to be Belgian, but all taste the same. They just have a light version, a dark version, a strong version, etc…But I’m not going to name names.

My first impression was that this is a beautiful beer. It poured crystal clear with a wealthy, foamy white head. The beer is golden straw colored. The photo posted here makes it look a little orange, which is misleading because of the mash tun drying in the background. The odor is subdued, but complex. It’s somewhat bready, floral, and mostly fruity. The yeast character is noticeable in the smell.

This beer is very lightly hopped, so the flavor is immediately dominated by the malt as well as fruity characteristics imparted by the Belgian yeast (freakish little microbes, those Belgian yeasts). The hops come through after the initial hit of malty sweetness, and they are floral, spicy. The beer is nicely carbonated, and it bubbles around in your mouth. It’s sweet, a little heavier than I would expect, and it definitely coats the mouth.

Overall, for a 6.5% beer this is quite drinkable and tasty. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a session beer, but it’s very approachable and enjoyable.

It landed at 1.013 or so, which is right around where I wanted it. Tasty sample, no distinct off flavors. Lots of good notes too, but I’ll wait until it’s cold and fizzy to comment further.

Here’s the recipe for the beer that’s currently fermenting in my balmy guest room. I’m keeping it hot in there to encourage all the wonderful spicy, fruity flavors that the Belgian yeast I’m using is likely to produce.

After about two days of vigorous fermentation, and another two days of increasingly slow bubbles, the yeast stopped. It seemed quick, but I checked the specific gravity. It was 1.033; the yeast had stalled. On researching, I identified two potential problems. One; the temperature on my carboy thermometer fell to 21°C from the balmy 25°C at which fermentation had started. Two; the beer has a fair amount of sugar and honey as adjuncts, which don’t have the right mineral nutrients for yeast the way grains and malt extracts do.

The actions taken; I wrapped the carboy in a blanket and turned the heater up. The temp is now back in the 24°C range. I also pitched in some yeast nutrients. The bubbling has started again. I’m not sure if it was the temperature or the nutrients that fixed the problem, so I’m keeping the heat up. Better for esters anyway.

Lately I’ve been enjoying the New Belgian 2° ale. Tasty strong winter brew to warm your cockles. I also just got a sixer of Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve. I think it needs some pretty particular food pairing, as the spruce flavor is a little much.