I received a gift pack from my uncle who lives in Belgium. I also bought some Belgian inspired ales from a local brewery, Honingklip Brewery. And then I had the stupid idea of doing a massive Belgian Ale Beer Tasting. The tasting panel consisted out of family and friends (because nine or so big Belgian beers like this would have probably knocked me into the next century). So then it began...
Over the years, we have been collecting various Belgian beer glasses. I know it is quite serious in the Netherlands and in Belgium that you drink the right beer from the right glass. You will never get a Duvel in a Liefmans glass, that would be absurd.
I even know that some breweries or bars will take your shoe in return for the beer glass! I think this is the Kwak beer...
(I even had a Belgian lady take my shoe in Hermanus South Africa when I ordered a Kwak, so they uphold the tradition even 10 000 km or so away...)
In any case, I packed out almost every Belgian beer glass that we had, with their corresponding beer as best as I could.
Obviously, I could not do this for every single beer. But I tried.
South African craft breweries has been making some of the best, if not best, beers in the world. This is a tall statement to make, but our craft beer scene has been brewing up a storm.
Honingklip Brewery in their own turn has felt inspired by the Belgians, and they have been brewing some incredible beers the last couple of years. So, I just had to buy their whole Belgian range, from a Blond, to a Bruin, to a Trippel, and ending with a Quadruple.
Some Drunk Tasting Notes
I have to be honest, this was one of the best beer tastings we did. We paired it with bar styled food, and the food complimented the drinks beyond this world. But the beers were heavy, and some people left early, so we had to drink the rest. Here follows this slight drunken experiment's drinking notes.
Liefmans: On the Rocks Fruitesse
This "beer" is my guilty pleasure. It is one of those beers where you ask, "Is this beer?" But when I get the pleasure to drink it, I like it. My fiance loves this beer, so I always give it to her. Let her have it all!
Honingklip Wit Beer
I obviously had to pour the wit beer in the Hoegaarden glass!
The beer had a nice yeasty nose and taste. Unfortunately, it was not full bodied, as my first taste was a but watery. Nonetheless, very refreshing and a good brewed beer.
Coming back to this beer after all of the others, it was and remained very light and weak with only about 4,5% ABV.
Duvel Strong Blond
This was a heavy one with about 8.5% ABV. It was nice and had fruity nose. The first smell was strong, but also the first taste. Nice and fruity and strong with the alcohol warming me up nicely. Awesome beer as always; a fruity bomb ester notes; with some hops as the beer warmed up a bit.
Honingklip Blond
In between the two strong blond beers, I had to bring in the much tamer 5% ABV blond from Honingklip. It was so similar to the other blond beers, which was my goal of the whole tasting!
It had the same esters on the nose, no real bitterness. The taste was incredible; subtle blonde flavours. Compared to the Duvel, it was much more subtle and not as strong. It was much more similar to Leffe blonde.
I like to rant about blond beers in South Africa, and that craft brewers don't know how to brew blond beers in South Africa. This beer proves me wrong in all of the best ways!
La Chouffe Strong Blond
Here was my first sin, pouring a La Chouffe in a Mort Subite glass!
Even though it was 8% ABV, I did not get too much alcohol on the nose. There was some malt but also very fruity. The taste confirmed the mild alcoholic smell, especially compared to the Honingklip blonde.
Honingklip Dubbel
This was one of the best beers for the night. (The best one still to come.)
It had a rich nutty chocolate flavour on the nose, yet no real alcohol on the nose (even with a 7% ABV). The first taste was a bit alcoholic, nice and warm as I swallowed. It was incredibly full bodied and reminds me of belgium dubbels. All in all, this was an incredible beer.
De Koninck Strong Ale: Tripel D'Anvers
This beer was definitely for my father. His first experience with Belgian Ales was a De Koninck, and since then that is all he wants to drink. Luckily I could pair it with its own glass!
The first smell was fruity, some esters, with nice bitterness, and some malt. It had nice blonde flavour and it was slightly alcoholic on the taste. It was a nice beer with about 8% ABV.
As soon as my father had this beer in his hand, no one could take a sip! Small pleasures in life is what makes it worth it.
Honingklip Trippel
This was also one of my favorite beers for the night.
Even though this was the second highest beer by ABV (9% ABV), it did not immediately smell of alcohol. There was a slight caramel note at first. My first sip was quite alcoholic, but it also had a nice bitterness to it. The beautiful balanced maltiness that came through was perfect. It was full bodied and just an incredible beer overall.
Honingklip Quad (quadruple)
The clear winner in my opinion, by far, was the Honingklip Quad (quadruple). Even though it is unfair to compare a blond with a quad, I did not have other similar beers there that evening.
The first smell was incredible. It had a strong alcoholic smell, which worked out so well paired with the almost liquorice smell. Even though it had a high ABV (10.5%) it was not too strong on the nose. The taste was warm, full bodied, and just incredible. (I think I was a bit drunk when I wrote these notes! But can you blame me?) There was a complex dance between the malt and liquorice taste; it was just an amazing beer.
Postscriptum, or Ready, Set, Drink!
This was a once in a lifetime experience. Not because of the beers themselves, but because I had them all in my fridge at once, and having enough people to share it with. I won't on a regular night open 9 or 10 beers at once. But for this occasion, it was called for. Sharing a beer or 10 with friends and family is something special, and then being able to compare various international beers with local ones was just incredible. I know I really enjoyed it.
Hopefully you have some beer to share with friends.
Keep well!
All of the musings and writings are my own, based on my own drunken opinions. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300.