Flanders Red Discovery

The "classic" is too sweet for me. And after 3 trips to Belgium I still haven't made it to Brussels.

 

Yeah, I got two of them just in case I was going to share some.

 

I love this style of beer. One of my favorites in fact. Duchesse is a classic, but the same brewers also have another outstanding alternative, Vichtenaar. Of course Rodenbach's selections are top notch too. One more suggestion...if you're ever in Philly...you may want to head to the Monk's Cafe (https://www.monkscafe.com/)....awesome selection of beers including the Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale on tap! It's one of the very best bars...see selection of bottles: https://www.monkscafe.com/bottles/

 

Possible you are confusing Pepe Nero with one of the GI Sister beers? I believe Pepe Nero is a dark Saison with peppercorns. I remember it being interesting in a good way.

 

As much as I’m stick in the mud, I love Flanders Red, and Ode Bruin, and Lambics..., the fruited New Glarus. I love a bit of funk. A bit like over ripe fruit, or fruit turned hard. The sweaty socks, horse blanket, cat pissy stuff, no.

 

All good points. I certainly agree that there’s limitations with what’s available so it may be hard to fully explore some of these styles, and in that sense we are at the mercy of what’s available which could lead to the sampling bias you note. On the other hand, I do firmly believe that your “hit rate” on getting a very good beer would be higher if you grab a random bottle from say, the Germany or Belgium section of the bottle shop than if you just grabbed a random bottle from, say the IPA section (the beer stores i go to are usually set up this way, imports by country, American craft by style). Which I think speaks to my point that much of what we get are excellent imports; or perhaps it just speaks more to the ever progressing dilution of quality of American craft (which, of course is just my opinion and other may disagree).


I know we have a constituent of European BAs on this site, wondering if they can chime in. Is there a primarily Euro equivalent website to BA, where people are raving about small brewery Doppelbocks, Czech Pils, and Vienna Lagers? Are things like Aventinus, Weinhenstephaner Hefeweissbeer St Bernardus Abt 12, Tripel karmeliet consider some of the “best” beers of their style for those who live local to the region? Or have we in the US been mislead by our limitation on availability?


BTW, fully agree with you Zid on Torpedo.

 

You can get some of their opinions here:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...an-beers-according-to-a-few-europeans.644168/

You'll probably find a lot of common thinking on both sides of the pond. One of the notorious examples of the opposite is the reputation of Samuel Smith over there vs here.

@Shanex

 

Yes, regarding Samuel Smith, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out as usual that each country are basing their opinions on completely different products (the dark bottled beers here vs. the cask bitter there).

Speaking of English bitter, just last weekend I was enjoying a nice growler of Marston's Pedigree. It's showing up a lot at Cable Beverages lately, probably because the kegs don't make it to as many bars due to covid restrictions.

 

Jealous. Cable is the only place where I’ve seen that stuff in ages... going back well before the pandemic.

 

You could be right. Beer and I got a divorce about 3 years ago and that bottle has been languishing with the bottles of sour beers my daughter bought for me about 6 or 7 years ago when she worked for me(sucking up to the boss).

 

Russian River Consecration and Supplication are worth checking out as well.

Tough to top either Rodenbach or the Duchesse though. Somehow the American versions haven’t managed to match the originals but still, in many cases, charge far more per oz