What do you love about Belgian beer?

A true Belgian gueuze is a thing of beauty and it is a travesty to lump it into the "sour" category with the plethora of poorly-made American Wild Ales. Quads, especially the Trappist ones, have always been one of my favorite styles. I feel the new breed beer geek isn't as appreciative of this style as some of us older folks. I am also particularly fond of Flanders Red.

I am lucky enough to live fairly close to Ommegang. While I am always expLoring new beer, there will always be a place in my cellar for their beer, especially Abbey Ale and Three Philosophers.

 

One of the few Belgian beers I've had is Lindemans Framboise. Wow - incredible flavor. Also interesting that I needed a bottle opener and a corkscrew to get at the goodness. Next thing to note other than it being an incredible beer, is that it is only 2.5% ABV. I appreciate that hey are not compelled to make all of their beers high ABV, giving more attention to balance and flavor. Then, after finishing the beer I noted that the bottle was about three times the weight of a normal beer bottle. Not going to be any accidental breakage here! I have two more of their beers queued up to try and really looking forward to it.

 

I love that I can get a benchmark for a style, something really outstanding, reasonably priced and no "shit show" to find it.

Westmalle Tripel immediately comes to mind.

 

The variety of Belgian beer.

They never had a Reinheitsgebot so anything that worked was OK.

 

Tripels, quads, strong dark and pale ales and finally wits...can't do any sours

 

The carbonation and mouth feel. In my beer ticking journey no other country can recreate these two attributes.

 

Though on the sour journey, which is something that particularly interests me right now, I feel like I'm in the early stages and not super knowledgeable, but the Geuzes I have liked (a Drei Fonteinin Oude Geuze best so far) have been terrific; and had my first Rodenbach this summer, which was fabulous. Rocherfort 8 and 10 were, years ago, my first "hey, there is great beer beyond American craft IPAs" beers. And had the Belgians only given us Saisons and nothing else, well, Dayenu. But I'm glad they gave us so many other things, too! I have a soft spot for La Chouffe's tripel/IPA--and, happily, it goes on and on. Want to go, just for beer.

 

One thing Iove about Belgian brewers is that they truly do not care about styles. They just brew the beer they want and let other people decide what to call it. I think in the US we get way to caught up in style designations.

 

Belgian Strong Dark ales/Quads do it for me. I love the combination of dark fruits with the cinnamon, allspice profile.

 

Not a lot. The common thread I see running through the variety of Belgian beer is that it's mostly sickly and heady.

 

One of the first beers I fell in love with was Ommegang Three Philosophers. It will forever have a place in my beer fridge. And who could every say anything negative about blue Chimay or Abt 12. These beers are staples for a reason. Though I do not find sours appealing it is hard for me to pass up on a good Belgian quad. The spice, balance, and complexity is second to none.

 

phenols! the clove spicy stuff. extravagance in malts like the pilsner, boastful hops like the tripel and belgian pale. I like the phenols. wits and even the hefe has to be somewhat spicy with hop AND spicy with phenol too or it's not the same style.

 

The yeast. It's all about the yeast.

 

Im a big fan of Lambics (thats all styles, Gueuze, Faro, staright, or fruited) as of the last few years. Became a fan of the lambics though already enjoying Belgium brews and wanted to expand the styles of beer I was drinking. All of these styles I mentioned have touched me one way or another. Personally I lean to more the fruit blended like the Kriek's and Fou. Can also never go wrong with any Hanssens.

Ommegang is doing good things. Im not a big fan on all there beers but the 2 you mentioned are good. I like them both with at least 2 years on them especially the Abbey Ale.

 

Admittedly didn't care much for belgian yeast strains when I was switching over from wine to beer but Three Philosophers was my gateway beer. The amount of flavor that was packed into that beer rivaled any wine I have had. Now almost 2 years in, I find that I have a belgian craving that is similar to craving fat (i.e. french fries). I now have several tripel's in my beer fridge at any time, along with several belgian IPA's which seem to be my new weakness. Love that yeast

 

I love Belgian Ales! There is a wonderful diversity of styles from Wits, Saisons, Lambics,... but my absolute favorites are the Abbey/Trappist style Ales: Pater, Dubbel, Tripel, Quad,...

As @bubseymour already mentioned: its all about the yeast!! My favorite yeast strain is the Westmalle strain which is available from Wyeast as the 3787 strain. I use this strain a lot in my homebrewing of Dubbels, Belgian Pale Ales, Tripels and Quads. This strain when fermented warm (e.g., 72 degrees F) produce a glorious combination of esters (fruity flavors) and phenols (spicy flavors).

This past weekend I attended Belgium Comes to Cooperstown beer festival at Ommegang Brewey. I had waaaaay more beers both from Belgium and US craft brewed than I should have but in all fairness when it comes to unlimited supply of Westmalle, Orval, Saison Dupont, Duvel,... it is just hard to say "No".

Cheers to Belgian brewed Abbey/Trappist Ales (and others)!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: For fans of Wild Ales I would strongly recommend Duncan's Abbey beers. The brewery is located in Tarrytown, NY. I sampled the two beers they had pouring and talked brewing with the owner/brewer. He really knows his stuff and he is producing high quality wild ales.

http://www.lohud.com/story/life/food/2016/03/22/exclusive-new-microbrewery-tarrytown/81877070/

 

Their "accent."