Round three! De Ranke Pere Noel! Belgian Strong Pale Ale. 7% abv
I'm interested in trying this one out because I loved Guldenberg and seemingly went against the tide of love for the XX Bitter, which I detested. Maybe I just had an oxidized bottle or something, but it was nearly undrinkable.
For those of you who don't know, De Ranke likes to wrap their beers in paper, which I guess saves on labels, except for states that require labels on the bottles. My bottle of guldenberg was wrapped and labeled, which I thought was cute. Cork was a little bit dry and took some coercing to begin to properly accept my corkscrew. Had to clean out the top and some o fthe inside of the neck before pouring what ended up being a lively-headed amber. The photos are pretty accurate, btw. I'm using a half-second exposure with a tripod for these awful shots, but they at least represent the color and clarity of the beer very well. Head is about an inch, and dies down to a nice coating around 3/16" thick. That's the ommegang 10th anniversary flute you see.
Apparently (according to the label), De Ranke loves to use Hallertau and Brewer's gold hops in their beers. My problem with XX bitter was that I could taste nothing else when I drank it, and the hops didn't taste refreshing, just bitter. I've had hop-bombs before and this one just didn't cut it for me.
This beer seems to lie in between the two I've tried. The smell is deliciously fresh-hoppy, if a tiny bit antiseptic/ethery. I smell some ground pepper in there for some reason.
Taste is a little thin up front--bright and a little american golden ale-ish; this one's all about the finish, especially when cold. Harsh hop tones abound.
As it warms, it gets a little more interesting up front. Thick, bready malt flavors abound--reminds me a little bit of 3 monts in this regard. The last few ounces will be very yeasty, so keep that in mind.
Definitely an interesting brew, I have to give de ranke credit for one thing---they always make something I can form an opinion on, but this is harder to do so than the others... I like it, but there's something about that peppery hop character that is a double edged sword, IMO. I imagine this could be paired very well with certain sweet foods, glazed meats and such.. On its own, the peppery hops just kinda bug me, though. If you like bitter, non-oily hops that don't have that profound tart character, check this one out. If youlike anything from De Ranke, this is definitely required drinking. Nevertheless, I can only really give it a strong
, just barely shy of another half heart. I'd drink it again in a food pairing.