Belgian Rare Beer Series - TASTING NOTES - Stille Nacht

De Dolle have mad me happy in so many ways. When travelling to the chocolate and beer laden flatlands I've had the pleasure of tasting practically all of this superb brewer's flock. Back in days of old I had the pleasure of tasting the De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva 2004. A fantastically rich, subtle and a cheeky 13% of sharp cherry drinkability.

This may be a reasonably short little tasting note but that does not simplify or belittle the rich dried fruit, alcohol laden booze fest that is Stille Nacht.

Pouring with a lighten hue than the atypical strong dark this little brew embodies a dark, rich almost syrupy tangerine body with a little touch of yeasty haze.

The nose is rich as expected. Lots and lots of silky alcohol laden estery sugars and a cacophony of dried fruit and ripe banana. Slightly smoky, lots of rich yeast and a little slight touch of buttery diacetyl on the finish.

As expected the body is rich and sticky. Taste is sweet, syrupy and superbly dry and rich. An oodle of the expected spicy fruit, dates as well as a healthy serving of home made bread and butter pudding.

Delicious as is the case with every other De Dolle brew. A little lighter and perhaps heading towards a rich Belgian barleywine over a dark ale, but drinkable for the strength and ultimately worth more than a little sip.

Belgian Rare Beer Series - TASTING NOTES - Drie Fonteinen Doesjel

Bottled 2006

I've found over the last few years drinking some of the finest hopped and malted beverages that it is possible and in fact easy to introduce a non beer-drinker to the ways of the Belgian. It's hard for anyone, regardless of how confusingly inept their palette may be to refuse a superbly rich dark ale. Boozy soaked raisins, a waft of spice and overly ripe banana all topped of with a whack of yeast and a warming finish of alcohol.

That being said introducing someone to a lambic or any true spontaneously fermented ale is a little like trying to get a child to stop drinking orange juice for breakfast and choose bleach instead.

In my opinion however once you get past the initial palette shocker of tartness and sharp citric character and delve deeper into the reams of levels and variances you are in for a treat, and will ever be a proponent of the ever so funky, Gueuze.

This was the final bottle to make my rather carefully selected case to bring back with me from my recent trip to Bruges. I bought this corked 375ml from The Bottle Shop, one of the better beer selections in the tourist riddled town however also unfortunately one of the pricier.

Short and sweet, Drie Fonteinen is perhaps my favourite lambic brewer. While I was in Bruges I sampled lots of gueuzes, comparing and contrasting all of the big names including Cantillon and Oud Beersel - it still reigns supreme.

The difference with Doesjel however is the sharp , champagne like carbonation has gone and what we're left with is a flat version of a normally lively little ale.

Smell and aroma is of course typically tart and pungent. Dry and dusty permeated by lots of fresh grapefruit and lemon along with metallic notes, iron rich and musty.

Taste, next to no fizz whatsoever means the flavours come through perhaps more sharply and subtly as is normal. Light on the palette with hoards of almost fermented lemon juice, barnyard funk with a very very slight hint of honey sweetness and a lingering touch of warming booze on the finish.

A different way to look at the style. Interesting and worth a tipple but certainly not on par with their standard and vintage oude gueuze.

Rare... well Belgian Beer Series - Reinaert Grand Cru

Reinaert Grand Cru, De Proefbrouwerij - 9.5%, Belgian Dark Ale

Ah there isn't anything better than a fantastic beer memory. A beer can tell a thousand pictures it's been said by myself, I opted for this little dark ale on my recent Bruges trip completely unaware of what was coming (to be perfectly honest it's a rarity even with the bar's fantastic ranges)

It was day one, De Dolle Oerbier as a starter along with a rich meaty platter in Ca

mbrinus it was time for something beefy and a little different. My palette had also been knocked into touch both flavour and quenched by the utterly divine Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueuze (in my opinion the daddy of all Flemish lambics)

The glass came, slightly chilled with a touch of haze and a dribble of yeast. I decided, among the ultra-rare Elliot Brew, Black Damnation and Embrasse Oak Aged I managed to sneak in this little beauty.

It pours with a dirty amber body, tinged with hints of marron and cloudy by a hint of yeast and a little bit chill haze. The head is off white, dense and fluffy, just the sort of thing you'd like to top off your rich Belgian wonder.

An atypical fresh, aromatic Belgian yeast character. Sweet, lemony and a touch of almost pancake like floury

character. Whiffs of brandy soaked raisins, not overly aggressive on the dried fruit front but a hint of overly ripe banana and peach too.

Warming, rich Christmas pudding soaked in a light Belgian ale (if that makes any sense) A little touch of sweet almost acidic alcohol through but very slight given the Belgian-esque abv. Lots of sweet fruit, rich candied apples and a hint of hop. There's something unmistakably characteristic of the dark style but with a lighter finish and a touch of grace and drinkability about it. Think Achel meets Chimay Tripel, the clash of the abbey. That could potentially make a reality television show with the same number of viewers as those who collect grains of sand.

A bit of an unknown in the grand scheme of things but certainly worth looking out for home or away. Delicate, balanced and obscenely drinkable for a beer of this strength.

Belgian Rare Beer Series - TASTING NOTES - Black Albert

Black Albert, De Struise - 13% - Imperial Stout

De Struise has come a long way since its commercial inception back in 2003. The Oostvleteren based brewery has been forcing the barriers and boundaries of a rather pedestrian, albeit superb and timely, brewing industry in Belgium. The traditional tripels, quads, dark and pale ales are being superseded by a flair and adventure displayed by the revolt and uprising of the craft brewing scene in the US over the last number of years.

Black Albert is the father, the base, the root notes of the brewery's imperial stout line. The Belgian's in recent years seem to have joined the big stout bandwagon with De Dolle Export (a superbly balanced and flavourful 9% beast) and other smaller brewers such as

Smisje's Catherine (a bit of an over-carbonated and thin let down if truth be told)

This was one of the very first beers added to my Bruges want list on a recent trip to enjoy brews and of course the annual beer festival. I managed to find a handful of bottles at The Bottle Shop, one of the city's biggest stores with a superb selection (even if prices were very much on the high side)

Black Albert follows a range of big imperial stouts, along with similar brews aged in different ways such as Cuvve Delphine which I sampled in the cosy and eminently gracious and friendly, t' Brugs Beertje. At €7 a bottle some may pout at my exuberance but the dark, rich, oaked stout aged in bourbon barrels was fantastic.

The rich sticky stout pours with a slightly viscous, oily body with a da

rk mahogany brown bo

dy with no visible light penetration. A little whisp of a light cocoa head with little bubbles of snake like lacing up and down the edges of the balloon wine glass it calls home this evening.

Despite my rather sniffly demeanour this 13% whopper doesn't lead with subtleties in any respect. The initial waft of alcohol laden tobacco tinged chocolate and espresso soon subsides with a sweet tinge of vanilla, lavender and Turkish delight.

Buttered slightly burnt toast on the palette, huge amount of charring, smoke and cigarillos (it sounds anal but certainly not the depth of a Cohiba or Montecristo) Surprisingly thin mouthfeel for a stout of this size, not comparable to the rich creaminess of something like Stone 12th Anniversary Oatmeal or Victory's sublime Storm King. Low on carbonation with a deceiving drink-ability, the finish is full of the usual plethora of bitter chocolate, espresso and of course the obligatory roasted malt.

This is stout number two from the young brothers and based on comparison with the bourbon aged Cuvee Delphine I do prefer the whiskey aged monster. It might have been the traditional Flemish surroundings or the four or five beers that I had before it but the Cuvee takes pride of place as the best Flanders stout I've had thus far.

Next on the agenda? Perhaps the rarest of all, Black Damnation. Coming soon at a blog near you...