Witkap Pater
On first inspection this bottle of beer looks like any other Abbey-style Dubbel brown beer. In fact, it's so inconspicuous, you may be forgiven for thinking you can see the bottle of beer that's sat behind it on the shelf (yes ok I buy online but I'm trying to paint a picture here, people). It looks cheap. Very cheap. But, what's that!? Is it a... No! It can't be. It's a monk on the label! Well blow me down. In fairness he looks a little Robin Hood-y and he's got a white hood on. He's not fat, bald or cheery so I suppose I'm being harsh.
Ok, you guessed it, I wasn't really expecting any great shakes from this beer. But, hey, you've got to give everything a chance. That's what I'm doing: sifting the wheat from the chaff.
Pouring this beer presents no surprises; there's a fairly deep brown colour and a nice, tightly bubbled head which sticks around for a bit. The aroma is what takes you back; this beer must have been dry-hopped with some very citrussy hops. Think Sierra Nevada, think Little Creatures. Amarillo, Centennial hops and the type have been used. You wouldn't think it'd go in a Abbey-style Dubbel but it does, except that, in my opinion, it kind of stops it being an Abbey-style beer. Nonetheless, it's a hybrid of some kind that really works well.
It retains the thick, creamy texture you'd associate with Belgium. It's still got the sweetness which is just right, but in this beer's case, the hops give it that dry, refreshing sensation you'd associate with US brown ale. It really goes down easily!
Of course, there are sacrifices. You don't get the sweet banana aromas and certainly none of warm, malty goodness that you'd expect. But as an alternative it certainly shines as an experiment gone very well. Its also got its own idiosyncrasies; there's a very gentle, smoky, musty aroma to it as you go down the glass. The sort of smell that reminds you that it's handmade, with a kind of barnyard feel to it. More your Nan's cellar as opposed to funky goat's cheese.
This is an every day drinker that won't disappoint your taste buds or your thirsty mouth. The bottle certainly doesn't make it stand out from the pack but its well-put-together character means it should. Oh, yeah, the brewery's called Slaghmuylder (snigger).
Witkap Pater 8.5
http://www.witkap.be/witkap/witkap_eng/Home.html
Showing posts with label Abbey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abbey. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
First Impressions Last?
Sight and smell aren't to be underestimated when concocting a brew, smell most of all. Sniffing beer like a ponce is something I try to do surreptitiously (or at least in private) to try and avoid the comparison with winos but hey, I'm only kidding myself. The other weekend I met a chap at Meantime who proudly announced he was going to become the UK's first beer sommelier. There's no going back.
But lets face it, our noses are there to be trusted. If somebody gives you a glass of what looks like muddy water (which some beers do), you might want to give it a sniff to check it's not going to be riddled with cholera. Thankfully, no pathogens can live in booze so once you smell alcohol you can be assured that you're safe. Whether it'll taste good is another matter.
So there's my excuse, anyway. I'm only thinking of my health.
Kapittel Watou Pater is another beer adorned with a picture of monks. But this time it's a whole gang! It's as if they're in a little club where they play bridge and quaff beer and they've kindly posed for a picture for the local rag. Anyway I shan't rattle on about labels too much. Today it's about odour.
I use the word odour specifically, instead of something pleasant like aroma, because this beer don't smell right. Once again, we've got iron filings and loads of it. I may as well be sniffing the beer through a rusty old pipe. All the 'plums, banana bread and sweet burning wood' (their words, not mine) are locked away in a metal box and may as well not be there. Someone more learned than myself should be able to confirm but I think it's the mineral content of the water out of kilter that causes this. Too much calcium if I'm not mistaken...
So I'd basically written off this beer before drinking it. To be honest the first impressions were so poor that it was going to take a lot to change my mind. Saying that, it looked the part; it had the murky charm of Rochefort 6 which is one of the world's greatest beers from, in my opinion, the best Trappist brewery out there. I like lots of micro flotsam in my drink, it reminds you that it's made from stuff of the earth, hearty and good for you. But looks don't amount to much, there's a certain amount of time before you're going to have to drink it.
The first half of the glass was fairly uninspiring but not unpleasant to say the least, but the further I got the better it became. I'm fairly convinced it's because the temperature starts to rise. The warmer it becomes the more you can taste (hence Carling is served extra cold). So as I was was finishing the glass there was plenty going on. It reminded me of a warm, spicy, delicate whisky (Highland Park 18yr to be precise). Where the whisky gets its nuance from nearly two decades in wood, the beer relies on malt and a mix of spices and they finally come through, delivering taste like the postman delivers mail: late.
However, it's just a little too late to save the beer in my opinion. There's just too much enjoyment to be savoured in the first moments of a beer that are ruined in this instance. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't slap you across the chops if you returned from the bar with a glass for me, I just might hold my nose.
Kapittel Watou Pater - 6.5
http://www.brouwerijvaneecke.be/en/assortiment/kapittel-pater-1
As an addition I not long ago tried Van Eecke's Hommel Bier - it was fine, if not a bit uninspiring but bizarrely tasted horrific when accompanied by food.
But lets face it, our noses are there to be trusted. If somebody gives you a glass of what looks like muddy water (which some beers do), you might want to give it a sniff to check it's not going to be riddled with cholera. Thankfully, no pathogens can live in booze so once you smell alcohol you can be assured that you're safe. Whether it'll taste good is another matter.
So there's my excuse, anyway. I'm only thinking of my health.
Kapittel Watou Pater is another beer adorned with a picture of monks. But this time it's a whole gang! It's as if they're in a little club where they play bridge and quaff beer and they've kindly posed for a picture for the local rag. Anyway I shan't rattle on about labels too much. Today it's about odour.
I use the word odour specifically, instead of something pleasant like aroma, because this beer don't smell right. Once again, we've got iron filings and loads of it. I may as well be sniffing the beer through a rusty old pipe. All the 'plums, banana bread and sweet burning wood' (their words, not mine) are locked away in a metal box and may as well not be there. Someone more learned than myself should be able to confirm but I think it's the mineral content of the water out of kilter that causes this. Too much calcium if I'm not mistaken...
So I'd basically written off this beer before drinking it. To be honest the first impressions were so poor that it was going to take a lot to change my mind. Saying that, it looked the part; it had the murky charm of Rochefort 6 which is one of the world's greatest beers from, in my opinion, the best Trappist brewery out there. I like lots of micro flotsam in my drink, it reminds you that it's made from stuff of the earth, hearty and good for you. But looks don't amount to much, there's a certain amount of time before you're going to have to drink it.
The first half of the glass was fairly uninspiring but not unpleasant to say the least, but the further I got the better it became. I'm fairly convinced it's because the temperature starts to rise. The warmer it becomes the more you can taste (hence Carling is served extra cold). So as I was was finishing the glass there was plenty going on. It reminded me of a warm, spicy, delicate whisky (Highland Park 18yr to be precise). Where the whisky gets its nuance from nearly two decades in wood, the beer relies on malt and a mix of spices and they finally come through, delivering taste like the postman delivers mail: late.
However, it's just a little too late to save the beer in my opinion. There's just too much enjoyment to be savoured in the first moments of a beer that are ruined in this instance. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't slap you across the chops if you returned from the bar with a glass for me, I just might hold my nose.
Kapittel Watou Pater - 6.5
http://www.brouwerijvaneecke.be/en/assortiment/kapittel-pater-1
As an addition I not long ago tried Van Eecke's Hommel Bier - it was fine, if not a bit uninspiring but bizarrely tasted horrific when accompanied by food.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Monky Business
Brewer: Hey, you should try my beer!
Drinker: Ooh what's it called?
Brewer: Adelardus.
Drinker: I'll never remember that. What's the label look like?
Brewer: There's a picture of a cheery monk on the front holding a glass of frothing beer.
Drinker: Oh, isn't that Petrus?
Brewer: Um...
Drinker: And St Bernadus?
Brewer: He's next to his abbey.
Drinker: Like St Benoit.
Brewer: The type-face is kind of old-fashioned.
Drinker: ...
For an industry swamped by choice, it amazes me how so many decide against sticking out from the crowd. As a consumer it can be quite difficult to remember which ones you've tried; which 'Saint So-and-So'; which 'Abbey des Whatsit'. I suppose in Scotland you might have the problem of "Have you tried Glenthingamig 12-year old?" I shouldn't grumble. It gives geeks like me an opportunity to really KnowMyShit. But I guess that it proves that many of the breweries really do 'brew to live'. Funnily enough, the Kerkom brewery's official philosophy is
"we brew it here, we drink it here and sell what's left".
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since the Belgian beer industry is so intrinsically linked with the history of Trappist monasteries. (Maybe British ale should have images of people having a real knees-up in their local, or a good old-fashioned bar brawl on the higher strength stuff.) There is still a brewery in Belgium which won't sell it's beer to bars, shops etc. To sample its wares you'll have to take a trip to the monastery and buy a crate of the stuff. Anyway, Westvleteren beer is for another (happy) day.
Today we're drinking Adelardus Tripel, a dark gold, fairly cloudy affair reminiscent of Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Chimay White so I thought that perhaps there's a little bit of wheat involved. However, the excellent Kerkom website http://www.brouwerijkerkom.be/en/ includes ingredients for all their beers. Guess what? No wheat in this beer! Shows what I know! Other than the usual malt, hops etc. there is 'candy' and 'sweet gale', which is a blend of local spices.
The 'candy' (presumably some sugar variant) is definitely present in its sweet, slightly fruity aroma (a touch of banana) but there is an iron-like whiff that unfortunately builds to a point where it overwhelms the scent. It's not a beer that you can sit sniffing for a while before drinking, so drank I did.
As you'd expect, its got a nice smooth fizziness but contrary to the thick, cloudy appearance it's fairly thin in the mouth. The sweetness that was there in the nose is present in an initial caramel flavour but changes quite quickly to a bitter aftertaste. On further drinking (and after some grub) this develops into quite a characterful tanginess. However there's not an awful lot for your saliva to play with afterwards. The sensation in the mouth is a touch insipid and is a result of the lack of body in the beer.
So unfortunately that leaves me wanting a little. The taste is lacking the sparkle needed to lift it from the pack and its label blends in to a mush of monk-age (although he is particularly cheery). However, I will be going back to the Kerkom brewery, not just because I love their website, but because their other beers are called 'Bink'. Now there's a name you can remember.
Adelardus Tripel - 6.5
Drinker: Ooh what's it called?
Brewer: Adelardus.
Drinker: I'll never remember that. What's the label look like?
Brewer: There's a picture of a cheery monk on the front holding a glass of frothing beer.
Drinker: Oh, isn't that Petrus?
Brewer: Um...
Drinker: And St Bernadus?
Brewer: He's next to his abbey.
Drinker: Like St Benoit.
Brewer: The type-face is kind of old-fashioned.
Drinker: ...
For an industry swamped by choice, it amazes me how so many decide against sticking out from the crowd. As a consumer it can be quite difficult to remember which ones you've tried; which 'Saint So-and-So'; which 'Abbey des Whatsit'. I suppose in Scotland you might have the problem of "Have you tried Glenthingamig 12-year old?" I shouldn't grumble. It gives geeks like me an opportunity to really KnowMyShit. But I guess that it proves that many of the breweries really do 'brew to live'. Funnily enough, the Kerkom brewery's official philosophy is
"we brew it here, we drink it here and sell what's left".
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since the Belgian beer industry is so intrinsically linked with the history of Trappist monasteries. (Maybe British ale should have images of people having a real knees-up in their local, or a good old-fashioned bar brawl on the higher strength stuff.) There is still a brewery in Belgium which won't sell it's beer to bars, shops etc. To sample its wares you'll have to take a trip to the monastery and buy a crate of the stuff. Anyway, Westvleteren beer is for another (happy) day.
Today we're drinking Adelardus Tripel, a dark gold, fairly cloudy affair reminiscent of Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Chimay White so I thought that perhaps there's a little bit of wheat involved. However, the excellent Kerkom website http://www.brouwerijkerkom.be/en/ includes ingredients for all their beers. Guess what? No wheat in this beer! Shows what I know! Other than the usual malt, hops etc. there is 'candy' and 'sweet gale', which is a blend of local spices.
The 'candy' (presumably some sugar variant) is definitely present in its sweet, slightly fruity aroma (a touch of banana) but there is an iron-like whiff that unfortunately builds to a point where it overwhelms the scent. It's not a beer that you can sit sniffing for a while before drinking, so drank I did.
As you'd expect, its got a nice smooth fizziness but contrary to the thick, cloudy appearance it's fairly thin in the mouth. The sweetness that was there in the nose is present in an initial caramel flavour but changes quite quickly to a bitter aftertaste. On further drinking (and after some grub) this develops into quite a characterful tanginess. However there's not an awful lot for your saliva to play with afterwards. The sensation in the mouth is a touch insipid and is a result of the lack of body in the beer.
So unfortunately that leaves me wanting a little. The taste is lacking the sparkle needed to lift it from the pack and its label blends in to a mush of monk-age (although he is particularly cheery). However, I will be going back to the Kerkom brewery, not just because I love their website, but because their other beers are called 'Bink'. Now there's a name you can remember.
Adelardus Tripel - 6.5
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