We finally drank the beers we got each other for Christmas...we actually planned meals around them.
Last night was Kasteel Rouge, paired with bleu-cheese dried-cherry turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and salad (spring greens, tomatoes, onions, dried cherries, and a white wine vinaigrette).
The first time I tried Kasteel Rouge was at Beer Advocate's Belgian Beer Fest in 2007. I remember how impressed I was to find a dark beer with cherries. Yeah, well, apparently my tastes have matured since then! I've been to Belgium again, another Belgian beer festival, and tried a lot more cherry-based beers...this is not a star, to me, anymore. It tasted...well...like cherry cough syrup. Overly sweet and syrupy in texture. Just not my thing anymore.
The food, actually, wasn't cherry enough to hold up to the hit of cherries. The meatloaf, done in the crockpot, was super dry...my fault as I started it cooking about 12 hours before we ate it. I have a biiiiig crockpot, and apparently there was just not enough food for being in there so long (I usually cook huge beef or pork roasts in my crockpot on days I work, not a pound of ground turkey). Next time I'd do the covered dish within the crockpot trick. Anyway, the meatloaf was dry, and did not have any bleu cheese flavor in it, despite using a particularly pungent one. It was so dry that I had to make emergency gravy. Life is tough.
Kasteel Rouge C+
Meatloaf B-
Overall satisfaction: Eh.
Tonight we drank Mikkeller's Santa's Little Helper (2009). To pair with the Christmas beer we did a holiday meal...roast turkey breast, Ben's famous stuffing, and bacon-onion green beans, and gravy (I couldn't find any frozen cranberries to make sauce!). Oh my. This meal was good. The beer might have been even better. Hints of cola, cocoa, strong hop presence, excellent maltiness. Great beer. Delicate. The Bruery's 2 Turtle Doves, while excellent, is a wee bit...overpowering. It's in-your-face. This is just a much more subtle and nuanced beer. (Full disclosure: since my last post I've had more Two Turtle Doves on New Year's Eve and we bought another bottle as our first cellaring beer...maybe it'll mellow a bit with age).
Dinner was great, I might add. Ben's stuffing never disappoints, and the butter-sage-shallot rub I used gave the meat so much flavor. Can't wait for leftovers!
Santa's Little Helper A-
Turkey A-
Overall satisfaction: nom nom nom with a side of tryptophan
Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Beer
It's been a great beer week!
Ben and I went to The Indepedent for a beer and snack on Wednesday...we split a bottle of The Duchesse of Bourgogne. It was amazing and worth all the hype. Nice balance and interplay between sweet and sour, beautiful color, amazing aroma. Just a genuinely enjoyable beer.
Last night, Christmas Eve, we had pork chops for dinner so I wanted to go fruity. We tried the Sam Adams American Kriek. It was okay...a little too astringent for me, and the interplay between the sweet and sour was less organic than with the Duchesse...more jarring, really. Comparing it so closely to the Duchesse probably made me enjoy it less, actually. A really good shot at a hard beer style, though. The body was lighter, the aroma was fine, just a bit of a dud.
Today Ben gave me a bottle of Kasteel Rouge in my stocking...sense a theme? Ben's stocking contained a bottle of Mikkeler's Santa's Little Helper 2009. Neither of them have been opened yet. I also gave Ben The Beer Book (I paid more than that! But I bought it at a local independent book store, so that's okay)...which he's already reading. They list breweries around the world, giving examples of what they offer. He sees it as a "to-do list."
For Christmas dinner we brought a six pack of Anchor's Our Special Ale 2008 and a magnum of The Bruery's Two Turtle Doves. My mom was supposed to have wine for her and my sister, but I never saw it. My sister, who usually drinks Miller Lite and is a calorie counter, was adventurous and tried both of them. I'm pleased to report that my sister ENJOYED the Anchor! An aged Christmas ale! She thought it was great and even drank half of a second. The 2 Turtle Doves was too much for her, but my mom enjoyed it (even if she was surprised by the alcohol content). I must say that I love the 2008 Our Special Ale...I drank it last year and loved it, and I really like it more than the 2009, which is a little too sharp (it would probably react well to the aging, but I doubt it will age well in my fridge!). I can't wait to finish of the six pack! The 2008 was nutmegy, and a great beer to enjoy while thinking Christmas.
I thought the 2 Turtle Doves was an amazing beer as well. Dark, lovely body, rich flavor, intense. The alcohol content fit its flavor profile (I hate when something just tastes boozey!). Went well with dinner but went perfect with cake and ice cream for dessert.
Can't wait to crack open our new beers, finish off our Christmas ales (OSA 2008&2009, some Breckenridge Christmas we smuggled back from Thanksgiving in Kansas in our suitcase). May even be holding on for dear life to my last 4-pack of DFH Punkin Ale.
I love fall and winter beers!
Ben and I went to The Indepedent for a beer and snack on Wednesday...we split a bottle of The Duchesse of Bourgogne. It was amazing and worth all the hype. Nice balance and interplay between sweet and sour, beautiful color, amazing aroma. Just a genuinely enjoyable beer.
Last night, Christmas Eve, we had pork chops for dinner so I wanted to go fruity. We tried the Sam Adams American Kriek. It was okay...a little too astringent for me, and the interplay between the sweet and sour was less organic than with the Duchesse...more jarring, really. Comparing it so closely to the Duchesse probably made me enjoy it less, actually. A really good shot at a hard beer style, though. The body was lighter, the aroma was fine, just a bit of a dud.
Today Ben gave me a bottle of Kasteel Rouge in my stocking...sense a theme? Ben's stocking contained a bottle of Mikkeler's Santa's Little Helper 2009. Neither of them have been opened yet. I also gave Ben The Beer Book (I paid more than that! But I bought it at a local independent book store, so that's okay)...which he's already reading. They list breweries around the world, giving examples of what they offer. He sees it as a "to-do list."
For Christmas dinner we brought a six pack of Anchor's Our Special Ale 2008 and a magnum of The Bruery's Two Turtle Doves. My mom was supposed to have wine for her and my sister, but I never saw it. My sister, who usually drinks Miller Lite and is a calorie counter, was adventurous and tried both of them. I'm pleased to report that my sister ENJOYED the Anchor! An aged Christmas ale! She thought it was great and even drank half of a second. The 2 Turtle Doves was too much for her, but my mom enjoyed it (even if she was surprised by the alcohol content). I must say that I love the 2008 Our Special Ale...I drank it last year and loved it, and I really like it more than the 2009, which is a little too sharp (it would probably react well to the aging, but I doubt it will age well in my fridge!). I can't wait to finish of the six pack! The 2008 was nutmegy, and a great beer to enjoy while thinking Christmas.
I thought the 2 Turtle Doves was an amazing beer as well. Dark, lovely body, rich flavor, intense. The alcohol content fit its flavor profile (I hate when something just tastes boozey!). Went well with dinner but went perfect with cake and ice cream for dessert.
Can't wait to crack open our new beers, finish off our Christmas ales (OSA 2008&2009, some Breckenridge Christmas we smuggled back from Thanksgiving in Kansas in our suitcase). May even be holding on for dear life to my last 4-pack of DFH Punkin Ale.
I love fall and winter beers!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
10 & 11, Beth
#10
Beer: Newcastle Brown Ale
Brewery: Scottish & Newcastle UK, Ltd; United Kingdom (Scotland)
Category: English Brown Ale
Date Drank: 3/5/09
Grade: B
Location purchased/drank: Punch's Alley (the bar at Wellesley College)
Served from a: bottle (no glass)
My beer was probably served too cold as it didn't have much flavor. Newcastle's one of those standby beers, at least for me. In the Sam Adams category...good, more likely to be available than other beers, not usually my first choice. Malty, hint of hops in background. Really, it was served too cold. But it's a college bar and what do I expect. Medium bodied.
#11
Beer: Grimbergen Dubbel
Brewery: Brouwerj Alken-Maes, Belgium
Category: Dubbel
Date Drank: 3/5/09
Grade: A-
Location purchased/drank: Wine and Cheese Cask, home
Served from a: Bottle, poured into a tulip-shaped glass
Drank this with pork chops tonight--good pairing. Brownish-reddish hue, low carbonation. Raisen-like flavor (but not cloying like Raison D'Etre). Sweet aroma--fruity, alcohol, yeast smells all present. Flavor is sweet, but not too sweet--making it great with the pork. Sour ending--almost like an Oude Kriek, but more mellow. Loved this beer since we had it in Brussels. Definitely don't serve too cold--my glass, that I'm still drinking, has been warming up for about an hour and tastes better and better as it does so. We keep our fridge a little too cold, but the flavor just pours out of it at a slightly warmer temperature.
Beer: Newcastle Brown Ale
Brewery: Scottish & Newcastle UK, Ltd; United Kingdom (Scotland)
Category: English Brown Ale
Date Drank: 3/5/09
Grade: B
Location purchased/drank: Punch's Alley (the bar at Wellesley College)
Served from a: bottle (no glass)
My beer was probably served too cold as it didn't have much flavor. Newcastle's one of those standby beers, at least for me. In the Sam Adams category...good, more likely to be available than other beers, not usually my first choice. Malty, hint of hops in background. Really, it was served too cold. But it's a college bar and what do I expect. Medium bodied.
#11
Beer: Grimbergen Dubbel
Brewery: Brouwerj Alken-Maes, Belgium
Category: Dubbel
Date Drank: 3/5/09
Grade: A-
Location purchased/drank: Wine and Cheese Cask, home
Served from a: Bottle, poured into a tulip-shaped glass
Drank this with pork chops tonight--good pairing. Brownish-reddish hue, low carbonation. Raisen-like flavor (but not cloying like Raison D'Etre). Sweet aroma--fruity, alcohol, yeast smells all present. Flavor is sweet, but not too sweet--making it great with the pork. Sour ending--almost like an Oude Kriek, but more mellow. Loved this beer since we had it in Brussels. Definitely don't serve too cold--my glass, that I'm still drinking, has been warming up for about an hour and tastes better and better as it does so. We keep our fridge a little too cold, but the flavor just pours out of it at a slightly warmer temperature.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
100 different beers
#4
Beer: Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
Brewery: Stone Brewing Company, California
Category: American Strong Ale
Date Drank: 2/21/09
Grade: B+
Location purchased/drank: The Independent
Served from a : Tap
I have had the original version of this beer and loved it, so I thought that I would give it a try oaked. Who knew that oak flavored beer would be good. At least it was done through a brewery I trust. Nice mix of body and aroma. Hoppy, but mellowed out by sweetness. It didn't necessary taste like oak, but like you were drinking from inside a wardrobe. The atmosphere, not the flavor.
#5
Beer: Delirium Tremens
Brewery: Brouwerij Huyghe, Belgium
Category: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Date Drank: 2/21/09
Grade: A-
Location purchased/drank: The Independent
Served from a : Tap
Almost impossible to pass when you see this beauty on tap. It was my gateway Belgian beer. It has the right mix of flavor, refreshing ability, plus that certain bitter kick that you should expect from a great Belgian beer. On BA, they describe it as "hazy golden", which I think is perfect.
Last night Beth and I went out with a couple of people from her Starbucks for a few drinks. I love the staff at the bar over there. I need people who want to go play scrabble and drink beer. You know, like 5 p.m., before the dinner rush. It's my third place!
Beer: Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
Brewery: Stone Brewing Company, California
Category: American Strong Ale
Date Drank: 2/21/09
Grade: B+
Location purchased/drank: The Independent
Served from a : Tap
I have had the original version of this beer and loved it, so I thought that I would give it a try oaked. Who knew that oak flavored beer would be good. At least it was done through a brewery I trust. Nice mix of body and aroma. Hoppy, but mellowed out by sweetness. It didn't necessary taste like oak, but like you were drinking from inside a wardrobe. The atmosphere, not the flavor.
#5
Beer: Delirium Tremens
Brewery: Brouwerij Huyghe, Belgium
Category: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Date Drank: 2/21/09
Grade: A-
Location purchased/drank: The Independent
Served from a : Tap
Almost impossible to pass when you see this beauty on tap. It was my gateway Belgian beer. It has the right mix of flavor, refreshing ability, plus that certain bitter kick that you should expect from a great Belgian beer. On BA, they describe it as "hazy golden", which I think is perfect.
Last night Beth and I went out with a couple of people from her Starbucks for a few drinks. I love the staff at the bar over there. I need people who want to go play scrabble and drink beer. You know, like 5 p.m., before the dinner rush. It's my third place!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Brouwerij Huyghe: Delirium Nocturnum
Beer: Delirium Nocturnum
Brewery: Brouwerij Huyghe, Belgium
Category: Strong Dark
The Drinker: Ben
Grade: A-
Location purchased/drank: Wine and Cheese Cask/Home
Served from a : Bottle
The Drink: Poured into the proper glass. Stiff, tasty foam. This bites you at first with that signature Belgium taste, but it softens as you drink. Caramel sweetness is the finish, with a subtle spice tucked away.
Notes: I always will have a soft spot for any thing Delirium. I ate this at home with sausage and peppers and couldn't be happier. $4.50 for one bottle.
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