So or local bottle shop carries Halen Dubbel and Tripel for around $11 a 750ml bottle. A few of us split a tripel (no one ever heard of this brewery before, expectations were low), and we were all blown away by how great it is. Right up there with St. Bernardus, Westmalle, Chimay etc. Looked up on BA and there is only single digits review/ticks over the last 2 years. What is up with this brewer? How does some jokers in central Maryland get this beer and hardly anyone else around the world not getting it in distribution (or is everyone just not aware of it and bypassing it)? All I can say is if you like big Belgian beers, this brewer is certainly flying under the radar.
It appears that Halen is a new import to the US; first imported in 2014. It is imported by Morandell Imports: http://morandell.us/company-information/news/14-welcome-to-morandell-us Cheers!
Gotta say I agree with you. One of my local bottle shops in L.A. got a few bottles of all three of their beers last year. After seeing them in the fridge for a few months, I tried whichever one was cheapest first, out of curiosity, rapidly followed by the other two. All of them were fantastic, and they're all a good value! Sadly, I haven't seen them restocked since then, so maybe they did not sell well, due to unfamiliarity. But I would definitely give a high recommendation to anyone else who comes across them.
Glad to hear someone else can vouch for them outside of our 3 beer nerd sample session just to make sure it wasn't group-think or peer pressure going on. But the other few ratings are high as well it seems. So is no one else around the US seeing these Halen Belgian beers on the shelves? I find it hard to believe that our little town in MD is getting them and hardly anyone else is on distro.
It's been over a month since last post and I see no one else on the world on Beer Advocate has reviewed this breweries beer since May. I'm still seeing them on the shelves in my area in MD. Anyone seeing these or are they rarer to get than Westy's?
I found Halen tripel at a shop in Annapolis and the dubbel and quad (grabbed the last quad) in my go-to store in Odenton. Hopefully they'll prove to be worth the $10-12 I paid for them. I checked ratings on another popular beer site and they are nowhere near as high as on BA. Downright mediocre, in fact. What's up with that?
I've yet to see these but this all sounds very intriguing Is that by chance Hops & Vines? Stopped by there once and thought it was a really decent place. Very nice and helpful fellow that worked there as well.
Yes, Hops & Vines. Probably the nicest liquor/beer store I've ever been to in terms of ambiance and it's within walking distance of me so I stop by often. Their prices are generally on the high side (with a few exceptions) but you can get just about everything in singles, which are not marked up.
