You had Gouden Carolus or the Karmeliet?

I had a 4-pack of this over the weekend. paid $14.99 at my local place.

I enjoyed them very much, I'm more of an IPA guy but, Art is a good poaster and I took his recommendation. It poured a little heady and is a little stronger than what i normally drink but overall very good.

Thanks Art!

No problem Kevroc, I figured it was time to venture out of 4L for a change, glad you enjoyed it!

I haven't had the Carlous, and I don't think I've had Karmeliet. I will give both a try though and see how they stack up to LFDM.

I did drink a bottle of the St. Bernadus Triple, and thought it was good. Still wasn't on the same level as LFDM, but close. It's weird, I can sit here and almost taste LFDM without even drinking it, that beer is that good.

Huh. Curious that Westmalle is so high on that list in spite of most of us hating it. We may have gotten a bad bottle.

My penultimate review from Ry's shipment will be Goose Island's Matilda. This is a Belgian-style pale ale that weighs in at 7% ABV.



The beer pours the expected cloudy gold. It's maybe a little light on head for the style, but I can't complain.



I'm not sure, actually, what kind of Belgian this is supposed to be. I get mostly apple in the aroma. The flavor is much deeper, though. I taste apple, orange, and a caramely sweetness that reminds me of a lightly toasted marshmallow. It also has a nice sweet malt and a good kick of yeastiness. The thing I miss is the spiciness common to many tripels and Ommegang's Rare Vos, which is a more direct peer to this beer. I think I'll give this a tying score with the Rare Vos. This is sweeter and tastes more of caramel. The latter isn't quite as sweet, but you get more of the spice flavors. .

i've been wondering lately whether there is much more variance from bottle to bottle than i previously realized.

the first 2 times i had Scaldis (one on tap, one from a bottle) it was heavenly.

this past weekend i bought several bottles to drink with some friends and it was very weird and mediocre.

i've had similar experiences with Westmalle. it was one of my favorites and i was surprised to see it getting slammed here. and then i had one of their Tripels the other night that was just lame.

i've noticed it with more pedestrian beers, too. specifically with Blue Point toasted lager (one of my favorite "normal" beers), i find there to be a huge change in the amount of hops vs. malt that i taste.

i've also been meaning to look into what other outside factors can have an influence on the taste buds.

anyone have any thoughts?

I have only really had a problem with it on corked Belgian imports. Expensive beer can sit around a while before anyone buys it, and if there was even the slightest damage to the cork, it can ruin the bottle. Also, beer in green bottles is subject to light damage over time.

Typically these Belgians have a long(er) shelf life than their American counterparts, and some get better with age....but I'm no expert. If that isn't true, I would venture to guess that sitting on the shelf for 6 mo+ has a lot to do with bad bottles.

Belgians do age, but they have to be properly sealed.

Man, I can't believe I just found this thread. I've been totally obsessed w/ beer for way too long and my body is finally starting to show it.

That's because most Belgian beers are bottle conditioned and the yeast needs the extra time to "clean up" in the bottle. They are also generally higher in ABV and have more complex flavors, so the extra time aging helps smooth things out.

That being said, Belgian witbiers are muuuuch better served fresh (IMO). The yeasty/estery flavor that is distinctive of a wit is caused by the yeast staying in suspension...and the longer a beer sits (especially at cold temps) the more the yeast drops out.

Has anyone here aged/cellered anything specifially and if so, what were your results?

I currently have an Orval and Rochefort 10 & 8 that have been sitting for awhile.

My only experiences have really been with homebrew. I have a barleywine I brewed that turned out more like an old ale: closer to 8% ABV than 11%, less perceived bitterness. It was brewed about 9 months ago and has gotten better at each tasting. Young, it was rough. Hot alcohols, sweet malts, grassy bitters, etc. But each tasting has revealed a better beer. I've got about a case left, and at this point it has really soft malt flavors and a nice, balancing, almost lingering bitterness. I plan to brew the same recipe every year on the same date and have a **** load of it from all different vintages.

On the other side of the coin, I discovered some hefe the other day, and it's overly tart and dry and just not good.

I think cellaring, in general, takes not only some degree of, "I don't give a ****," but also a bit of, "I don't give a ****." You have to be willing to put away a fairly good amount of beer (both in volume and monetary amounts) and more or less forget it's there. You also have to be able to drink your fixed volume at somewhat regular dates, and recognize that, when it's peaked, the longer it sits, the worse it gets.

I had a glass from an aged one of those huge Chimay Blue bottles. Guy had it stored for about a year and a half, tasted very smooth and had more muted flavors than regular Blue if that makes sense.

I have about 3 cases aging at the moment, I went on a bit of a buying spree when I first to the PNW. I would buy a few bottles of a type, drink one then, and then put the others aside. Most have been down for almost a year now although I have a few back from 04 and 05. The differences that come out form aging vary from style to style, but generally it will smooth and blend the flavors more like others have said. At a lot of decent beer stores you can find some flights of JW Lees Harvest; my local shop recently had every year back to 99 for decent prices. Get a few different vintages and do a blind tasting to see what you like.

I'm finally on the last of a sixer of the Grassroots Saison from Great Lakes. I've been putting off reviewing this beer for months because I'm just not that enthusiastic about it. It was like $8 for a sixer of a 6.2% beer. The thing about this is that they brewed it with chamomile, which gives the beer an odd taste that was kinda interesting the first time, but by the second time I had a bottle, the novelty was gone and I found the flavor off-putting. Maybe pick up a bottle if the curiosity is killing you, but otherwise, avoid this. .

From my experiences, anything with chamomile in it tastes like ****.

This is good news to my ears. I brewed up my first barleywine about a month ago. I too missed my target OG of 1.100 (1.090) and it finished drier than I expected (1.010). I used a good amount of maple syrup and molasses and that's all I could taste in the first hydro sample: syrup and hot alcohol.

Everybody keeps telling me the flavors and alcohol hotness will smooth out, so I'm still optimistic...but this is my first attempt at a barleywine and I'd hate to have screwed up such an expensive grain bill.

Oh and any chance you could post your recipe?

Whoa, that's really dry. I wonder how hoppy it'll taste. You might be getting some astringency from the hopping/FG combo, and that would definitely make the alcohols stand out. Oh, and if you've got a small brewery or brewpub around, go in in the middle of a workday and ask the brewer if you can buy a bag of pale malt. Not everyone will say yes, but you never know, and it makes these big beers much, much cheaper. Our cost for a bag is about $22 for 55lbs, so I just plan to do something like 5g of barleywine and then 10g of an IPA and use most of it up.

My recipe was just straight out of JZ's "Brewing Classic Styles." The first time I brew a style, I like to use his recipe and then tweak it on repeats. Hint: his IPA is way too sweet for my tastes.

Batch size: 7g preboil, 6g postboil, 5.5g into fermenter
OG 1.115
FG 1.022

23.2lb 2-row
1lb corn sugar
1lb Crystal 15
1lb Crystal 80
.25lb Pale Chocolate, 250L
.25lb Special B

99IBUs of Magnum at 60m
1oz Chinook 0m
1.5oz Centennial 0m
1.5oz Amarillo 0m

American ale yeast, Mash at 149

Just grabbed an assortment of Sprecher and New Glarus beers while in Northern Wisconsin. Reviews to come later this week. Anybody have experience with these breweries before? I've only really had Sprecher's Bavarian and New Glarus Spotted Cow. Bavarian was at a few shows a buddy's band played and it was super cold, tough to get a good taste in that environment.

Spotted Cow I enjoyed, much more in the bottle than on tap. I'll give this stuff a full review this week though.

Yeah it really does at the moment. I'm hoping several months conditioning will mellow everything out because it's barely drinkable at the moment. TBH, I think it was the combination of pitching directly onto a previous cake and missing my OG by a good amount. Oh well, that's the fun of brewing. It might turn out to be fantastic and you just can't ever know until you let the yeasties finish their job.

The only brewpub near me is honestly really terrible and not very friendly (I don't get this). I do want to start buying grain in bulk though and getting my own barley crusher. There are some guys in Austin that occasionally do some bulk grain purchases, which I'm definitely going to have to get in on.

BTW that recipe looks insane! I love the combo of Centennial/Amarillo but don't have a ton of experience w/ Magnum or Chinook. Looks like a hell of a beer though. I'm guessing it's due for a big dry hop as well?

ommegang rules.

I live in Sac, too. If you get a chance go to Bon Lair.. really cool bar with awesome beer selections. Some decent breweries around here too.

some quick reviews of beers I've had lately.

21st Amendment Brewery (San Franciso) IPA - picked up a 6 pack. Comes in cans. I was very underwhelmed. Hop character was pretty weak, felt it tasted kind of tinny due to the can maybe. I dunno. It was OK for the price but meh. .

Maredsous Tripel - I think this is brewed by the same guys that do Duvel, Gulden Draak, etc. I thought this was delicious, if only a standard tripel. I just had it in a wine glass. Pours a nice golden straw color with a big foamy head. Nice fruity flavor with some yeastiness (?). Nothing really mind blowing but overall very solid.

Hitachino Nest XH - Hitachino Nest Beer aged in Sake Casks. That's all the description says. No idea about alcohol content. All I know is it was pretty good. Pours a cherry brown, on the lighter side. Pretty spicy, perhaps some cinammon. I had some water crackers + gouda with it. I might buy some more in a few weeks. and 1/2 for now. I'll pay more attention next time I drink it.

also, just wanted to mention North Coast's Old Rasputin XI is apparently available in stores now. They had a few bottles at my grocer so I picked one up.. $20 ouch. Probably just some leftover stock. If you get a chance I suggest picking up a bottle.

I'm moving to Philly pretty soon, any advice/recommendations for the best stores to find good bottled beer? The Foodery is the only place I've come by so far...