So Yeah, Dood…

We had yet another round with evil Miller Lites this past week. Again, we got to try the horrible flavors that may inhabit your beers that I discussed in my last BJCP post. We finally received our sensory kit from BJCP partner, Siebel Institute. The kit included additional flavors to the previous session’s nastiness; isolations of Acetaldehyde, Almond, Butyric, Mercaptan, etc. Some of the flavors were described as “sewer-like,” “Farm/Barnyard,” “Soapy/Fatty/Goaty,” “Cheesy/Old Hops/Sweaty Socks.” My favorite descriptor is “goaty.” How would you even know what goaty smells or tastes like?

Les lined up all 24 flavors in doctored Miller Lite in a random order numbered from 1 to 24, and it was our job to attach the corresponding number to the flaw on a sheet. I was suffering worse than usual from my normal seasonal allergies, and I only got four right. Pretty bad. I hope when we take the exam in August that I am not suffering similarly.

Next we tasted Belgian Strong Ales, as presented by CSI member Greg Thompson. Greg put together a nice lesson on what makes a Trappist Ale Trappist — it has to be brewed in a monastery and actual Trappist Monks must somehow be involved in the process. Otherwise, if it’s produced in a monastery or convent by non-Trappists, the ale is merely an Abbey ale; which is still pretty freakin’ good.

There are seven breweries that are allowed to call themselves Trappist:

• Bieres de Chimay
• Brasserie d’Orval
• Brasserie de Rochefort
• Brouwerij Westmalle
• Brouwerij Westvleteren
• Brouwerij de Achelse Kluis
• Brouwerij de Koningshoven (which is actually in the Netherlands)

The distinction amongst singles, dubbels, and tripels was made clear, and then we got to taste.

I particularly enjoyed the Troubador Blond — a single. I enjoy Dubbels, but I definitely recognize that they’re dessert beers. Tripels are just plain dangerous, they go down relatively smoothe, but they absolutely punish you in the morning. I was also really into the Rochefort 8 Belgian Strong Dark Ale.

Next class is the last class, May 31st. We do recipe formulation with Tom Davidson, and we taste the Belgian Sour beers. Lambics, and Geuzes, and Krieks. Oh my.

We tasted:

Strong Belgian Ale

• Troubador Blond (Awesome beer, highly recommended)
• Grimbergen Blond

Belgian Dubbel

• St. Bernardus Pater 6
• Chimay Red (Amazing beer, of course)

Belgian Tripel

• Victory Golden Monkey (Not my favorite, but not too shabby either, Victory does good work)
• Westmalle Tripel (Better than the Monkey, but it’s Trappist, it makes sense.)

Belgian Strong Golden Ale

• North Coast Pranqster (They don’t make a beer I don’t like. This one was great too.)
• Duvel (Also a great beer. Not sure if this was Brewed in Belgium or in Cooperstown at Ommegang since they’re cooperative)

Belgian Strong Dark Ale

• St. Bernardus Abt 12 (pretty good but…)
• Rochefort 8 (not as good as this one.)

Tags: Belgian Strong Ales, Dubbel, Flawed beer, Fool's errands, Tainted beer, taste recognition, Tripel

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 am and is filed under BJCP, Geek-Out. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.