Beer - #609 - Harrington's - The Forgotten

Got a really pleasant surprise package from the nice people at Harrington's Breweries, a bottle of a limited (I'd say one off) "The Forgotten"

Unique beer, unique music, unique numbers and that unique moment at a party.

As you can see from their youtube video it mentions in words that it's a Belgiam Tripel, but the brewer calls is Belgium Ale in the video. Who knows, I'm easily confused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCakefPpS5c

So a 500ml bottle of an 8.7% ABV beer, so that's 5.6 standard drink units of a beer that 261 calories a serve size.

Brewed by Harringtons Breweries (Christchurch) in the style of a  Abbey Tripel from the deep south as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand. Except that perhaps it's a  Belgian Ale.

What I do think is that this might be based on, or even some of, is their Belgium Tempest, which starts at a 7.2% ABV. I'm joining dots here that might not be able to be joined. I don't doubt they 'forgot' it, after all it's only a commercial amount of beer.

[caption id="attachment_11204" align="alignright" width="300"] Beard and Belgium Beer[/caption]

A Belgium Tripel brewed in 2012 and set aside with the intention of ageing for one year...

Shakes & aftermath... Another year, rebuilding & relocating... Put aside and forgotten...

Until now.  Age has done us proud - this Monk's brew has softly matured spicy, slightly peppery, tones on a gentle sweet citrus orange malt layer.

So then what else could possibly go wrong?

Well the beer is presented in a wonderfully shaped bottle, very continental long body, short neck.

On opening then I was slightly disappointed with the lack of any real stand out aroma. I press on.

Pour is a watery muddy affair, and although it looks well carbonated a head mysteriously and not unusually fails to appear. Aroma in the glass is somewhat more, and some familiar sweet and spicy notes.

First taste is promising, a wash of alcohol isn't well hidden, but there is that familiar warm sugar in this, and a finish that is surprisingly dry. It does though, at the moment, not offer a lot of body, not a full mouthfeel of billowing softness. It is surprisingly easy on the palate though and very sippable.

But you feel there is something missing, after all it's a great back story, a really good story for me this really does lack body and fullness that you'd probably expect from something as mature and aged as this beer is.

I'd have thought more fruits, more sweet malts, and perhaps some heightened spice notes.  But then I show;don't think too often.

For that though it isn't undrinkable or bad as a beer, it's one of those  expectations and delivery gap things.  The aroma in glass before you sip promises something deep and rich, the mouthfeel however is a bit thin and lacking.

I hate being harsh about beer that I feel should be nicer or better, but I'm writing as I drinking these are my thoughts uncoloured,  Annoying though because this does have small flashes of the things that you look for in a good Tripel, or Belgium beer, the astringent, perhaps the bubblegum, the malts.

The second half of the the bottle, the second glass, much darker and a head! I didn't see a thing about having a sediment or being 'en lees' but whatever happened it got a much more pronounced aroma and a slight bigger mouthfeel, became a much nicer experience.

[caption id="attachment_11206" align="alignright" width="224"] Now darker and with head[/caption]

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. That makes it 'Good' on the random scale. In places this is like a familiar friend, but the overall experience leaves you a bit empty and wanting a bit more, it's just not rewarding enough a beer until the second half, when it came to the party as it were, perhaps just a little late.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? I love a Belgium beer, and this is nice in places, I'm not not enjoying it, I'm just not loving it.
Would I have another? Probably not, but it reminds me that I like Belgium beers.
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Based on the story and the lovely bottle I would share this, but I think it'd be an interesting conversation about the style.

Music for this is 'Sweet Billy Pilgrim',  'Coloma Blues' from the new upcoming album 'Motorcade Amnesiacs'. Sweet Billy Pilgrim are an English experimental rock/art rock band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVIHC0E1Vpw

BELGIAN ALE

Belgian-style ales seldom fit neatly into classic beer styles, but this category represents those "session" ales (in Belgium this means under 7% abv!) that do not fit other categories. Colour ranges from golden to deep amber, with the occasional example coming in darker. Body tends to be light to medium, with a wide range of hop and malt levels. Yeastiness and acidity may also be present.

ABBEY TRIPEL

Like other abbey ales, Tripels are strong, yeasty-malty beers. But they are also pale, and have a notable hop profile. Hop bitterness may be higher than a typical abbey ale, up to 35IBUs. But the finish is where the hops really shine, as tripels should finish fairly dry. Otherwise, maltiness is still essential to the style, and the assertive yeast note typical of all abbey ales will be more apparent in tripels, since they do not have the rich dark malts to distract the palate. Alcohol flavours feature more prominently in Tripels that in just about any other style.

Related articles

• Sweet Billy Pilgrim reveal new video for 'Just Above Midtown'


• With craft beer booming, will Ohio finally raise its ABV cap?


• Rock Media: Sweet Billy Pilgrim. Just Above Midtown.


• Is craft beer in a bubble?

Beer - #423 - Celt Experience - Ogham ‘Oak’ Exotic Belgium Tripel

It's all on with this then, a Welsh Beer in the Belgium Abbey style - Celt Ogham ‘Oak’ Exotic Belgium Tripel

Brewed by Celt Experience in their take on the style that is : Abbey Tripel and they are in the place that has a cheese named for them, Caerphilly, Wales

This is a 330ml bottle of crafted beer which carries 8.5% ABV, 255 calories, 35 IBU, which would be English Bitter or Stout kind of bitter, and 2.21 standard drink units in NZ

"Exotic Triple brewed with Belgium Yeast with Orange and Cinnamon flavours's"

Each batch is brewed with fresh ‘tripel’ yeast borrowed from a secret location in Flanders. The beer has a complex flavour combining resinous bite from the American hops, spicy esters from the belgium yeast and fruit and cinnomon twists from the belgium fruits and spices. All finished with supreme British malt and candy sugar…

Belgium Yeast, Orange Peel and Cinnamon - check their video piece 

I am looking forward to this.

Beer - #205 - Wychwood -WychCraft

Continuing  my English beer redux - the Wychwood WychCraft, Brewed by Wychwood (Marstons plc) in the style of a Golden Ale/Blond Ale and that be in Witney, England, possible the middle of no-where Oxfordshire.

What's clear is that having lived in England for half my life I never went anywhere :-)

 A pale golden potion with delicate red hues, WychCraft has a heady burst of fresh citrus aroma derived from three infusions of Styrian golding hops. A sprig of gentle warming malty flavour finishes with a dry biscuit note and a counterpoise of bitterness. WychCraft’s innovative new recipe includes adding three infusions of Styrian Goldings hops to the copper, to create a highly aromatic brew, bursting with succulent citrus and lime hop character. A light base of delicately flavoured English Fuggles hops, and the use of a lager malt, help retain the signature hop character and create a wonderfully aromatic and fragrant summertime beer. Beguiling to the end.

Or lets talk a lot and then you'll be bored and just grateful to get to the drink.  A brewer who's more into himself than the output?

500ml of a .5% ABV beer, around and a bouts 2.3 stand drink units.

This has the same dull metallic aroma that other English Beers have, the bready yeasty thing. I checked, yes I did, now, not before I brought it. 31st October as a best before date. Get in! :-)

Pale Golden rrange with a sort of finger of head, and you can get a whole noseful of the same yeasty aroma, I don't know as much as this is an English thing. It seem to be a theme.  The head as it was has left he building.

There is a serious sour under-note to this. Enough to make me talk aloud and MrsPdubyah to ask if I'd cut myself.

So sour like a Belgium Blonde beer, check. . . . . . . . . and . . . . . ..  well. . . . . . . and nothing. What the deuce!  It has that sourness that you might like\enjoy\expect with a Blonde beer (Belgium Beer Style) the kicker for the alcohol in the back. But this is just sour without. A new thing.

Recap then: Bready yeast upfront \ Sour underneath \ thin\ no length and no aroma.

Almost a review of the potent England Football Team.

The pdubyah-o-meter says 3. Avoid.

There is possibly nothing sadder than a whistfull remembrance of things past than a tribute shop, and Union Jacks is that, where do I go when I've left England to get things I got in England, the shallow end of things, the tastes, the familiar packets of gravy granules and packets of biscuits. Beer that for a good reason has been packed for export.

Off to sit in a corner and write lines.

 

Beer - #167 - Berthold Keller - Super Strength

Well this was a gift. A Can of beer. A Can!!! Berthold Keller - Super Strength - Brewed by Martens in the style of a  Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils and they're in Bocholt, Belgium.

9% ABV 500ml can, being 3.6 Standard drinks of,  this is as far from craft as Noah's Ark would be from an American Cup Yacht.

So A Belgium beer, which should rock my boat, but 9% ABV which will make my world spin.

And a can. I have to admit that the quality of beers in cans in NZ is lacking.

But I'm game so here goes.....  Sweet aroma on opening, pale golden yellow, lots of carbonation, but the head settles to a film and doesn't hold, the aroma settles to a base malt. It's really fizzy.

Now to be fair, I thought that initially this carries itself ok, there is that nice malty sweet taste, and a small kicker of alcohol at the end. But this is thin as rice paper, with no depth of flavour or carry. The after note of sour makes this slightly odd.

However I've had worse Belgium beers than this. What's interesting is that you don't get an overt indication that this is a very strong beer. But at the end of the day a lack of any taste means that there isn't a lot to wrote home about.

The pdubyah-o-meter says 5.5 of it's things of things, and I'm not overly unhappy. I really have had beer that's been sold as being a thing, this comes in a can with no fanfare, and there is no downside to no marketing.  It's not all bad, it's just not a beer you might want your mates to see you drinking, as there appears to be no benefit or reason for the high ABV count other than "it just is" perhaps they have a different audience.

Beer- #136 - Harringtons - Belgium Tempest - revisited

I did this already - Beer #32 - June - a while ago, and I wasn't that impressed.

But clearly I wasn't that miffed, or disappointed or this might not have made it back to the shopping basket, unless it was under one of those buy one get one free things.

Brewed by Harringtons Breweries (Christchurch) in the style of a  Abbey Tripel from the deep south as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand.

Brewed using Belgian Ale yeast makes this beer big, rich and full of fruitiness. Palate is rich and subtle malty. Full bodied sweetness dominates most of the palate but dies to a dryer finish with a herbal/phenol crisp hop bitterness.

And because it was like 9 months ago, I start again, They set themselves a big bar, and a big expectation for this. So what do I want/expect: Golden or Chestnuet \ Malts and sweets \ Alcohol to the back\ citrus to the front. A s 500ml of an 8% ABV beer - thats 3.2 standard drinks in old money, it looks inviting with it's electric blue label this may have been what drew me back.

Stand by ...

The aroma isn vague  bit musty..  Well carbonated, chestnut colour no head, it looks like day old beer in  a glass, but it might be that's doing it wrong.

The aroma is dank, musty, yeasty, not so good, a bit plastic, and perhaps a bit of banana.

And the taste is a bit sour, and alarming, it's not inviting, and the malts take like forever to make a fleeting appearance, there is something not quite right about this.

I think that I gave this a 4  on the pdubyah-o-meter before, age or experience have not improved either this beer or my opinion of it. There is not even the begin of a head, carbonation or lacing, and this hasn't changed. Either the brewer is working to a schedule or this must be the last harrarh for this, who likes it? Even at a 2 for 1 deal your're being sold short.

Avoid

 

Beer - #130 - Chimay Rouge (Red) / Première

After a day of watching cricket (NZ v England at Eden Park) I decided that my mood might be best served by a retreat to a Belgium beer -  a Chimay Rouge (Red) / Première. Brewed by Chimay
Style: Abbey Dubbel and that all happens in Baileux, Belgium

Chimay Red is noted for its coppery colour which makes it particularly attractive. Topped with a creamy head, it gives off a light, fruity apricot aroma produced by the fermentation. The taste perceived in the mouth is a balance confirming the fruity nuances noticed in the fragrance. Its taste, which imparts a silky sensation to the tongue, is made refreshing by a light touch of bitterness. To the palate, the taster perceives a pleasant astringency which complements the flavour qualities of this beer very harmoniously. This top fermented Trappist beer, refermented in the bottle, is not pasteurised.

This then the 750ml bottle of 7% ABV and that's about 4.1 Standard drink units.

I've noticed that sitting in the sun watching cricket turns me as red as the label on the beer. However I digress.....

The bottle is delivered with cork and cage, which adds to the excitement of this. It's fizzy of course, and there is an aroma of yeast, which fades. There isn't a nosefull of malts that follows though.  The taste is  hidden by the fizzy tongue feel but you do get the malty taste you're looking for in a Belgium beer of this type. It is a dark dark amber colour which promises a lot.

But reality is that this isn't all that and a bag of chips, it's less sweet on the tongue and somewhat underdone on the nose. Which disappoints. Unless I've set the bar too high. It's not really all that bad, and sitting back and thinking about it I'm actually enjoying it, despite it's short comings and the slightly alcohol after burn that it delivers.

For some though this might be  slightly sour as a beer, and there isn't enough warmth from the malts to off-set that,  and you could come away thinking that this is 'thin' on taste and body. I have no idea if this would improve with age, bit late now I've opened it, and I can't image a beer cellar set up, can you imagine the temptation.

The pdubyah-o-meter would love this 8 from 10 despite all that. There are better Abby ales than this that are readily available, but if this was it you'd still be in for a good time.

Related articles

• Beer - #124 - Mc Chouffe (pdubyah.com)


• Beer - #121 - Yeastie Boys - His Majesty 2012 (pdubyah.com)


• Binche, Belgium: a pilgrimage to beer heaven (telegraph.co.uk)


• A Beginner's Guide to...Chimay (morebeerforme.wordpress.com)

Beer - #121 - Yeastie Boys - His Majesty 2012

I stopped in at my local bottle shop on the way home, a particularly weird day at work that was pretty frustrating on a number of fronts, and I picked me up a Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2012.

Yeastie Boys beer is  Brewed at Invercargill Brewery  and His Majesty 2012 is in the style of a : Belgian Ale <strong>

His Majesty, The Fourth, is a Belgian-style strong pale ale. A gentle (yet dangerous) giant of a beer featuring an interplay of sweet bready German malt, a hint of kiwi hops and a delicate spiced fruit from use of a Belgian Abbey yeast.

750ml, 8.5% ABV beer - that's about 5.3 standard drink units.

I'm only disappointed that this doesn't have a cork and cage,

Belgium beer then, Sweet, Dark Amber, Heady, Malty, slightly bitter under note. Oh I'm looking forward to this .

Beer – #84 – Yeastie Boys - Red Rackham

Yeastie Boys - Red Rackham -  Brewed at Invercargill Brewery, this one in the style of a Belgian Ale. 330ml bottle thereof, 6.8% ABV therein.

Red Rackham is a redoubtable red ale whose unique character brings back swashbuckling memories of our past seasonal releases ’Plan K’ and ’Return to Magenta’. Another style bending ale, it is rich and strong with a good deal more hop than the average Belgian ale and far more funk than the hoppy new world ambers. Pop a cap now on this limited release rogue ale and discover the secret treasure hidden within... or bury a few bottles, draw yourself a map for future reference, and rediscover the bounty in coming years.

I'm looking stunned as a mullet. It pours a fantastic orange golden with a decent head, I knew I'd get than hang of it. It's a bit hoppy on the nose (he said with a nod), and I head dissipated in a moment.... Crash!! there's a bucket of flavours and sensations in this, that's a bit good!

There is some sweet notes, and the sours of the hops. This owes a lot to it belgium style, and it carries it off with aplomb.  The longer it sits in the glass the warmer of taste this gets, you could easily get involved with this in a longer term relationship.

The pdubyah-o-meter finds a lazy 8.5 on this, which by the new improved arbitrariness of things makes this a pretty fine beer.  I'm smiling a goodly bit at finding this, being surprised that it was a Belgium beer, (I didn't have by reading glasses with me and didn't read the label), being surprised that it was a chuffing good Belgium beer by that measure and only disappointed by the mini-me sized bottle :-).

This would stand a good comparison to many Belgium beers and if you're into that get this, I make a rare recommendation to try on the basis that I'd probably give you your money back if you didn't like it.

 

Related articles

• Beer - #58 - Pauwel - Kwak (pdubyah.com)


• Belgian Blonde Ale (familymedicinebrewingguild.wordpress.com)

 

Beer - #45 - Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)

 

Pushing the boat out a little tonight then. Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)

Which is an impressive 750ml of a 9% ABV Belgium beer in a bottle that has a cork and wire trap. It's a bit festival.

Chimay, brewed at the Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey, is one of the 6 Belgian beers that can carry the logo, "Authentic Trappist Product",

That means that it is brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery under the control and responsibility of the community of monks, and whose revenue is devoted to social service. When they say within they mean close walking distance. and I also found out that there is an International Trappist Association.

This is a dark beer, and as a  top fermented Trappist beer, is re-fermented in the bottle, and is not pasteurised.

So then, the big question it really will it pour with a head, and I'm picking yes, I've not been let down on that front with a  Belgium beer before. The cork is excited to be free for a start, a pleasant pop. And you can hear the carbonation and see how fizzy it is in the glass. It's a noisy beer. You can smell yeast too.

That's a dark deep taste, quite sweet, deep, and I was surprised how the deep chestnut colour matched a taste I was expecting. I don't know if that made sense though. It's like there are raisins in it, which Isn't unpleasant and this does have a nice length to it too, Licking my lips, trying to remember that this one comes with a well hidden 9% behind it.

I'm a fan of Belgium beer, and for that reason the arbitrary pdubyah-o-meter will score a high 9 from 10 arbitrary things for this. It's fantastic, I've been looking forward to it and I'm pleased that I'm drinking it. Nothing bad to say except I was expecting some lacing on my glass which I didn't get. The monks however did good with this one, and I'd suggest they keep their day jobs.

 

Related articles

• Belgian monks make heavenly beer (lfpress.com)


• Roald Smeets - Dubbel (roaldsmeetsbeerinbelgium.wordpress.com)