Tasting Notes: Rarity and Obscurity

Since Marc asked for it, I'll offer up some tasting notes from New Year's Eve (I think), when my boss decided to "thin out his refrigerator" and share the spoils of his trip to Europe with several people at the brewery.

First on the list was a pair of "rustic" Italian beers: "La Mummia" and "Dolii Raptor" both brewed by Birrificio Montegioco. I'd categorize these beers as "farmhouse ales", since they had that flavor typified by some Belgian traditional fermentation techniques: Brettanomyces was prominent, but well balanced. The "Dolii Raptor" (Barrel Thief) was my favorite of the two, as it had some wonderful oak flavors.

Those two were quickly followed by... er... a beer that everyone around the table said I had to try (while snickering, that is). I tried it, and wondered why it was at the table. I was "underwhelmed". It didn't have a label, so I can't tell you who made it or what it was called. Hec, it didn't even make it downstairs to the lab for other people to taste. I think it was poured out when people left the conference room.

Anyway, off to the next beer on the list... Struiselensis by Struise. It was a nice follow-up to the Italian rustics, with tart fruit-like flavors. It was good, but among its neighbors at the table (it's the one to the right of our next entry), was not outstanding. I still like the "Barrel Thief" better.

What was outstanding was the Kriek Cuvée René by Brouwerij Lindemans. Now, for those of you who know your sweet "lambics", this isn't one of those. It also isn't extremely sour, as my caveat might have led you to believe. Instead, this beer was nicely balanced... slightly sour, with some cherries in the nose and more in the flavor, but the nicest thing (to me, of course) was that this beer was not sweet. Now, I have a "sweet-tooth" of a sort, but that beer normally doesn't fit into what I would consider a "regular" beer. Again, for those of you who know your sweet beers, especially Lindemans, you'll note the red label in the photo, instead of the usual school bus yellow found on most of their bottles.

There was another beer on the table at this point... maybe two, but they were overshadowed by the two that followed them... for the beer geeks in the crowd, you'll totally understand why I can't remember much about them. The monks at Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren) produce some of the most sought after beers on the planet. And Steve brought two of them back to Stone. The first of these was Trappist Westvleteren 8 and is probably the second or third best beer I've ever tasted. Ever. That was followed up by Trappist Westvleteren 12. The "best beer I've ever tasted" list met its number one. Yeah. This was quite an afternoon. I suppose some of the flavor memory I speak of was due to the hype, but the flavors were really that good. So, in addition to being quite rare, these beers were awesome. I'll let the beer write-ups in the links to explain this... I can't do them justice.

The last two beers on the table were good, but I didn't even taste that much of them as I didn't want to ruin the Trappist Westvleteren 12 flavors still lingering in my mouth. Nøgne Ø brewed up a pretty damn good holiday ale in "God Jul", from what I remembe, but the crew over at a brewery I won't call out need to rethink the flavor in their Creme Brule beer. Usually that flavor needs to stay away from beer... creme brule needs to stay away from beer.

Anyway, I'm sleepy and any more of this will just make you want to get some beers of your own.