I can't really help w/ the pronunciation (I'd guess peer-RAWT, but I'm no expert), but what kind of beer is it?

That beer looks amazing and is getting sick reviews on Beer Advocate. Belgian Strong ale.
I'm almost positive this one will be hard to find.

According to both ratebeer and BA, there are two different versions of this beer: one that's 10.5% ABV and one that's 9% ABV. The latter is much rarer, and it may not even be available in the states.

Not sure if this is the case everywhere, but at least in New York, you can get the 10.5% fairly regularly, with a price tag around 3 or 4 bucks for an 11.2 ounce bottle.

Wow, I didn't even think to do a review because I haven't been following this thread in a while and just assumed it was reviewed at least once.

Piraat is listed as a Belgian IPA but I must be missing something because it is nothing like an IPA. Does anyone know how (or if) a Beligian IPA differs from a standard American IPA?

I've also seen Piraat listed as an Amber Triple and that makes a bit more sense.

When I first tried Piraat I thought it might be a strong golden Ale. Next time I go to the store I'm going to get some Piraat and Duvel and compare the two in a review, but if someone wants to beat me to it then please by all means do.

jack,

Never hesitate to do a review in here even of a beer you're sure has been reviewed multiple times. For me, and I'm sure it's true of most people who follow this thread, we enjoy hearing someone's take on a beer, even if it's a beer we already know and love. Different people have different tastes, and as such, your review may be more meaningful to someone than any of the others from people who like different things in their beer. And hey, you may still be reviewing something that's brand new!

Kasteel Rouge



You may know Kateel from their golden or brown beer. I enjoy the brown and find that it almost has a chocolate taste to it, though I am not necessarily a fan of sweet beers.

The same can be said of the Rouge, which could also be called a Kriek if they wanted. It has the same sour cherry flavor you may know from lambics.

The beer does not label itself as a lambic, however, and so I assume it is not fermented from airborne yeast.

The label does say cherry juice added, but as mentioned before I did not find it overly sweet.

Went great with a grilled cheese sandwich.

The 8% alcohol is making my afternoon smooth.

More like pee-RAHT

It's a Belgian golden ale, strong.

Had these two on NYE, but I made sure to save one of each so I could drink it properly later.

I grew up in Lancaster and still have yet to go to the brewery downtown. I wanted to go when I was home for my birthday/Christmas, but I needed to finish making Mom's christmas present before she got home from work. Maybe next trip home.

First up: Lancaster Brewing Company Milk Stout (5.3% ABV)



It poured a very dark brown, almost black. 3/4 inch brown head (I may have poured a little fast) with small bubbles and it dispersed after about a minute, with some slight lacing afterward.



I smelled and tasted coffee with some chocolate and a slightly bitter aftertaste at the back of my tongue. Good body/mouthfeel. I noticed the taste getting flatter and less sharp about halfway through.

I like dark beers, but I have to be in the mood for them. This one was still pretty good. .5



Beer #2: Lancaster Brewing Company Hop Hog IPA (7.9% ABV)

I picked this one up despite remembering that I didn't like Dogfish Head 60 or 90 Minute IPA (can't remember which, it was a while ago) because it was too bitter for me. I wanted to take 2 6packs to the party and this was the only other choice from LBC and if I didn't like it, hey, it was still 7.9%.



It poured a nice amber color. Not too much head and it dispersed fairly quickly.



The initial smell was fruity with some lemon. It has a dry, citrusy taste with some lemon. I noticed the lemon becoming stronger after I ate something salty. I was very surprised that it was not bitter at all. Would definitely get this again.

their whole lineup (piraat, gulden draak, and something else that escapes me) is pretty spectacular. If I remember correctly gulden draak is better, imo. Crazy silky mouthfeel. Maybe I'm mixing them up.

edit: if you live in cali they're widely available in Bevmo, in both 750mL and smaller bubble bottles (11.7 oz's or something). I also see them at a good italian grocery store near my apt. Sorta pricey, but nothing too outrageous.

double edit: I also think the same brewery has a hand in Duvel (another kickass beer). They're listed as different brewers on beeradvocate, but the name is similar and they're the only beers I've seen in those bubble top small bottles.

OK.. I never did the formal reviews of all the Unibroue's I drank recently, because I was just too exhausted and wanted to enjoy the beer. I will say I liked the ephemere one, with the apple in it. Very smooth, clean, and delicious, but a little on the "soda-y" side. Probably a 3.5 hearter.

Just a plain style observation, lately I've been digging lighter, cleaner belgian ales more so than some of the dark belgians. I normally like those beers, some are amongst my favorite, but for whatever reason they're less appealing to me lately. In the Unibroue sampling, I liked the Blanche de Chamblay, Don de Dieu, and La Fin Du Monde considerably more than the Trois Pistoles (which I recall liking a lot the first time I tried it) and the Chamblay Noire (pretty boring if you ask me). And just the other day I picked up a plain ol' Paulaner Munich Lager, and it was nothing special at all, probably a 3 or 3.5 hearter, but it was very refreshing and tasty to me. I could drink one of those daily.

I saw Piraat at Beers of the World, but they were charging north of $14 for a 750 mL bottle. I passed, but I'll reconsider if this is one I have to try.

Ty, you've just won me a naughty sexual favor from my gf.

Been a while since I've done a real review. I recently picked up a six pack of Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale. Until I just looked, I didn't even realize it was brewed by Anheuser-Busch. It's described as an "ale aged on bourbon barrel oak and vanilla beans".

It pours an auburn red color. Nose isn't too strong.. the caramel malts and vanilla are pretty clearly picked up.

Taste: Not too shabby. Decent malt flavor with the hint of caramel, and you get a nice taste of vanilla in the finish. I actually like that part a lot. It's a little different, but very pleasant.

However, the beer isn't without its flaws. It's a little light in the "beer" department. Carbonation is a little too high, giving it more of a soda feel at times. Most of the taste is in the finish, not a lot of flavor hits you when you take a sip. And finally, the finish isn't clean enough. After just 3 sips, the caramel/vanilla aftertaste is pretty strong in my mouth.

If this were an expensive micro-brew, I'd probably go 2.5 s, but at $6 and change for a sixer, it's a nice enough winter brew if you just want one beer when you get home from a long day at work. 3 s.

Yeah, I reviewed this a while back. I pretty much agree w/ your review. It's certainly better than the average AB product.

I have a couple small reviews of my own. A new bar opened up here with a great beer selection, including many fine Belgians like Delerium Tremens on tap. My first time there, I decided to have a couple Belgian beers I'd never tried before.

The first beer I tried was known only as "Lucifer." Their beer list didn't indicate the brewery. It was 9% ABV, and it was from Belgium, and that's all I knew about it when I ordered it. Came to me in a wine glass, and it turned out to be a pretty pale ale. I would have thought something named Lucifer would be dark. To my surprise, this was also a fairly mild beer. As I sipped on it, I kept thinking of Chardonnay. It was light, not all that sweet, and subtle. This might have been a Saison, but it didn't seem to have the grassy/herbal hopping typical of that style. I guess it was known as Lucifer only for being a pretty unassuming beer, but one that then floors you by being 9% ABV. I'm going to give this beer a rating. It wasn't bad, esp. if you like more subtle beer, but it was pretty pricey, and I'm a bold beer guy. It's not everyday that beer imitates wine so well.

The second beer I had when I was there was also 9% ABV, and it was also from Belgium. The name of the beer was "Brigand," and the name of the brewery started w/ an H, but I don't recall its name exactly. I ordered this beer for exactly the same reason: strong, from Belgium, completely unknown. This was also a paler ale that came to me in a wine glass. It was a markedly different style, though. This beer was dominated by a sour apple flavor. It definitely wasn't a cider, but that apple flavor was what came through most. It was tasty, but again, not quite what I was in the mood for. I'll give it a and a half rating.

Oh, and as for my preference for Unibroue beer, personally, my ranking is:

La Fin Du Monde > Trois Pistoles > Don De Dieu > Blanche de Chamblay > Chamblay Noire.

I do tend to like their lighter beers better, but I love the Trois Pistoles more than you, apparently. It was the last Unibroue beer I bought, actually. It suited my winter-beer-drinking-desires perfectly.

For a long time I would have said La Fin Du Monde is my favorite, but the last time I had Don De Dieu I was realllly liking it.

Yeah, I gave DDD a second chance after RDH gave it such an enthusiastic review and I was so lukewarm on it. My second go-round, I liked it a lot more, although it didn't move up in its ranking. You really can't go wrong w/ any of those three, though.

I sampled two more white beers. One of those was pretty awful - Southampton Double White Ale. Too much spices, too much alcohol, too much sediment at the bottom. Didn't like it at all. I guess I'll try another bottle sometime to make sure that it wasn't a fluke, but I don't expect to finish it, really.

The other was a limited offering at a local beer bar, Avery White Rascal I believe it was called. That was much better, I actually liked it. It was a bit spicier than say Allagash (which I've grown to enjoy a whole lot lately), but still reasonably mild. Very pronounced orange taste in this one.

It probably wasn't a fluke, but I respectfully disagree with your review. I loved the boldness of the Southampton white. I haven't had the Avery. I didn't bother with it since I've found most Avery beer to be decent, but uninspiring. I may give that one a shot, though, esp. when the weather warms up a bit.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts of White Rascal as well.

kutuz, where are you in NYC? I ask because I live there and I'm wondering what bars you've been hitting up?

Man, I should write another review soon...

We used to have it quite a lot as a guest beer when I was at Warwick uni, didn't think anything Hook Norton did was particularly special. Mainly due to them usually having Everard's Tiger on tap all the time.

Disappointingly missed the Manchester winter ales festival earlier in the month because of prior commitments, otherwise I'd have posted up some comments on that, haven't had anything obscure recently due to lack of proximity to a decent retailer (I miss the days of having the best beer shop in Sheffield twenty yards from my doorstep).

My favorite beer bar is "CB Six" on 51st a few steps west off 2nd ave. There's also "Vol de nuit" on west 4th near 6th ave. I recently discovered two more - on 43rd between 6th/7th, called Duvel I believe, and Waterfront Ale House on 30th/2nd.

I've heard that the best beer bar in NYC is somewhere in Brooklyn though. Never been there.

kutuz,

I've only visited NYC once, but my friend took me to Vol de Nuit, and I loved it. I posted about it somewhere in this thread.

Been a while since I've done a proper review. A new beer caught my eye last time I was out shopping, Flying Dog's new Wild Dog. The subtitle of this beer is the Collaborator Dopplebock Open Source Beer. Apparently, they took all sorts of input on the recipe from the internet, and the recipe is freely available at opensourcebeerproject.com. It's a little gimmicky, but if it results in a good beer, a good beer can rise above any gimmicky marketing. It weighs in at a hefty 8.3% ABV, although I forgot exactly how much I paid for my 750 mL bottle, ballpark $10.



The beer pours a surprisingly light color. It's about a medium brown that's clear and not at all cloudy. It pours with a slightly better head than most doppelbocks I've had, although it dissipates pretty quickly.



The smell of this beer is a little unexpected, too. It smells a little lighter than many doppelbocks, as its color would indicate. There's a little bit of grassiness in there, too. The flavor is surprising. I wouldn't have called this a doppelbock if it didn't say so on the bottle. Most importantly, it doesn't have much of what I dislike most in doppelbocks: the cough syrup flavor. This isn't as sweet, and it doesn't taste like an 8% beer at all. Instead, it's a little milder. It features the grassy hops more commonly found in German beers than American ones. It has hints of maple and wood behind the wood. This is a good beer, but on the other hand, it doesn't floor me. I'm going to give it and a half . This is a tasty beer that I probably won't buy again. While it's not exactly a direct competitor of, say, Unibroue's line, Unibroue's beers are cheaper and I generally like them better.