Aaah, it's a photo of a bear! No, I don't mean 'Aaagh, it's a photo of a bear!', I mean it's kind of sweet and charming. I'm not phobic of photos of our ursine chums. Hmm, there's a fine line between 'Aaah' and 'Aagh' isn't there, for such opposite feelings. Anyhoo...
Why would La Binchoise choose the name Biere des Ours (Beer of Bears) for this drink? Well, they describe it as 'Belgian Honey Beer' and, as everyone knows, bears love honey! And salmon. But I think honey goes best with beer.
Once again, I chose this beer blind; I was in La Binchoise section on my favourite beer site (www.beersofeurope.com) and decided to go for something other than the Blonde or Dubbel. I was hoping that perhaps 'Ours' beer was a specific type, not having done the extensive Googling that I've just done to find out it simply means bear. I'm trying to be as indiscriminate as possible in my choice to get as wide a selection as possible, so I hope you'll let me off here. We live and learn.
Funnily enough, I was expecting a dark beer (I'd not yet read the bit about honey on the label). The dark red label on the dark brown bottle reminded me of Chimay Red, Westmalle Dubbel and Bocq Christmas. It is a particularly wintry shade of red, so once again the label works against me. But I like a surprise, and what a golden shade of surprise it was. I imagine it's only brewers who get excited about the colour of beers, but this is one to be proud of.
Once in the glass, it was time to get the schnoz involved. Instead of the honey I was expecting, there was a definite smell of clean straw. Well, at least that's what I reckon... maybe I shouldn't have said definite... I suppose I'd better stick with it now. Moreover, it was the lack of honey which surprised me more, as opposed to the presence of straw. It is a honey beer after all, not a straw beer, so points lost here I'm afraid. The aroma was much gentler than one would expect, considering its 8% strength, there was no alcoholic smack in the face and just the faintest hint of flowery hops. So, all in all, pleasant, but not outstanding.
The fizziness which you generally find in Belgian beers is not the type you get in lagers, there's a lot more sophistication to it, and Biere des Ours is a fine example of this. I guess I can compare it more to champagne; the bubbles are smaller but greater in number, giving your mouth a smoother massage than the coarse lager/fizzy pop bubbles. That's what becomes of artificial carbonation, I suppose.
As I drunk more and more it got better and better, which is possibly the holy grail to which all beers (and drinks) should aspire to. I know I favour the maltier, darker beer but if I had to have one criticism of them overall, it would be that they can occasionally become a little too rich in the final third, moreso with the stronger variants. Lighter beers don't have the inital impact that is so easy to get excited about. Shame on me for being so fickle.
When finished my tongue was coated in that comforting thick saliva that one associates with quality beer, with plenty of sweetness and the over-riding taste of clean, fresh straw. It's as if the brewers had thiefed a load of straw from a beautiful nativity display and steeped the beer in it before bottling. Perhaps that's why they used that festive red on the bottle.
La Binchoise Biere des Ours - 7.5
http://www.labinchoise.be/
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