Love for Belgian beers

I need a new twist on my beer drinking, I stopped in for a beer and was overwhelmed by multiple Sculpin beers. I don't like Sculpin, not for free. 6-7 mediocre IPAs on tap, very disappointed. Not a decent Pils on tap, only Guinness on the dark side. I'm actually happy to back track to AAL sometimes. Never had a Belgian anything. I had some funky New Glarus which I likes quite a bit, it was an Ode Bruin. I don't like Gose, so where would one start? It has to be a smaller bottle, I don't want to buy a big bottle and hate it.

 

Saisons are definitely worth looking into. Awesome avatar by the way

 

I'm a Lutheran pastor.

I love Trappist Ales. For the price and the availability I think Rochefort 10 is one of the best beers on the planet.

The Roman Catholic Church might declare us Lutherans heretics - but I'll drink the beer made by the monks any day.

 

Jupiler in cans was sold in vending machines in the train stations last year in Brussels! Belgian styles have always been, and continue to be my favorite beers, especially tart & funky ones.

 

Drinking a Rochefort 10 right now. It's still easily my favorite all time beer

 

Yea verily!!

"Did you see a lot of folks drinking Jupiler in the cafes like I did?"

Cheers!

 

HIGHLY recommend it. It is a tripel, has similarities to a saison, a little cleaner though. Grab it, you'll like it

 

Get a 750ml bottle of Avril from Dupont. It's ABV is 3% its a high quality belgian table saison/table beer that will be easy to session the entire bottle while cooking dinner and while eating dinner.

 

Hate to buy a 750 if I hate it.

 

You probably wont hate it. I have shared Avril with many people who have never drank a belgain beer in thier life and they give it rave accolades. And a 750ml bottle of Avril should cost you 8.99 plus tax which is pretty reasonable in cork and cage format & cheap for the fact that its a belgian beer!

 

Sold

 

If you like an oud bruin you'll love Flanders Reds. If you can get Cuvee des Jacobins as a single, that's the place to start.

 

Shopping at Bestway tomorrow.

 

Cool. Imo, Duchesse du Borgogne would make a worthwhile '2nd best', if that's available as a single. Happy shopping, and post back. Cheers!

 

Quads. I have a small shrine in my basement dedicated to Abt 12 which consists of my last empty bottle sitting on top of a small cabinet, only to remind me to buy another bottle. Worship the goddess of Quads. If it wasn't for her, I would never have found salvation in craft beer.

 

Gulden Draak or Piraat are my first choice.

The ABV and crazy drinkability of all Belgian beers begs the quote from Austin Power's father (his "farrrjer"): "Belgians; they're just so damn evil!"

Drink up! I home brew Belgian style beers and haven't looked back in years. Belgians do it right; but a few examples here and there stateside represent a true Belgian style!

Cheers!

 

I absolutely love Belgian beer. Doubles, Tripels, Quads, Saisons. Makes me want to go grab a Westy 12 from the basement.

 

My People! *single tear drips down face in joy*

I could not live without belgian beers. Honestly. From belgian pale to tripel to gueze i cant get enough. For the past 6 months its all i look for. If it says "farmhouse" on it its immediately a purchase from me. I couldnt name the exact beer that hooked me but i know Heavy Seas Riptide caught my interest in going from ipas to belgians being a belgian ipa. Soon to try my first quad and dark ale. Sure to be great. I had my first gueze tonight and i really enjoyed it.

NJ put out some really good examples. Some may say Carton this Kane that and i respect and enjoy them. But also. Forgotten Boardwalks Belgian Wit is awesome and tart. Flying Fishs Abbey Dubbel, Saison and Strong Pale all great. River Horse Farmhouse Saison one of the best US examples I've had to date plus they do a good tripel not to mention in PA Weyerbacher, Victory and Round Guys doing great examples also. Ommegang is everywhere here and are beasts. Im really enjoying this belgian ride. You can't go wrong. Light, dark, funky, bitter, sour, even hoppy if you cross into ipa territory.

 

I agree with @JackHorzempa in that there are a lot of American brewers making exceptional saisons. There are plenty of great Belgian examples, but also too many quality domestic ones to ever grow tired of and many of these US brewers are doing great things with saisons via fruit additions, funky yeast and barrel aging. Similarly, there are many quality sours being produced in the US, they just tend to be a bit different from lambics.

Where I think North American brewers fall short, with a few exceptions, is with Trappist/Abbey-style beers and other strong Belgian ales. For example, I'm drinking a Duvel right now and struggle to think of an American beer that quite matches it.

 

I'm on board with that line of thinking, too, but I consider them 'American' styles at this point; much like we have American Pale Ales, IPAs, Stouts and such. Their inspiration may have come from Belgium, but there is sufficient divergence to call them their own thing.