A Good Blog About Good Beer

A beer with history that's become the new trend of the last few years: the IPA, short for India Pale Ale. Originating from the 18th century when the British brewed heavily hopped ales that could withstand the long journeys to colonial India. Due to the amount of hops the IPA is known as a very bitter beer. Over the last few years IPA has become very popular. The American craft beer scene has changed the IPA as we know it by adding loads of fruity and floral hops to the beginning of the process for extra flavor and aroma. The British IPA originally had more caramel and biscuit notes to hide the bitterness. Nowadays in most cases an IPA has an amber or blond color, fruity/floral/piney notes and a bitter finish.

EBU/IBU EBU stands for Europian Bittering Units scale, it is mostly the same as IBU International Bittering Units scale. You can oftend find the EBU count on the label of your bottle. EBU is measured by the amount of acids given to a beer by hops. A beer with an EBU of 30 is often a bitter beer. Then again an imp. stout with an EBU of 50 can taste less bitter than an IPA with an EBU of 30. This is due to the use of malts that sweeten the beer.

Types of IPA Now there are loads of different kinds of IPA's. Some of them are, in a way, crossovers with other beer styles. Loads of brewers just thing up a name for their IPA like brewery De Prael from Amsterdam. De Prael has a beer called Nick & Simon, named after a famous Dutch pop duo, Nick & Simon is what they call a L.I.P.A: Lowlands India Pale Ale. The lowlands has something to do with the Netherlands being under sea level I think. Now to list a few more official and not so official IPA's: Double IPA: Twice as strong and/or bitter as a regular IPA. Triple IPA: Three times as strong/or bitter as...well you get it. Imperial IPA: Much the same as a DIPA or TIPA. Sometimes they just use more hops or hop it longer. RPA: Rye Pale Ale, an IPA that uses rye instead of barley making it a bit more grassy. White IPA: A Belgian Witbier hopped like an IPA. Black IPA: An IPA that uses roasted malts. A bit of a stout among the IPA's. Red IPA: An American amber hopped like an IPA. Tasting notes Floral, tropical fruits like: mango, passionfruit, orange, lemon, grapefruit. Heavy bitter notes as well. Perhaps some piney notes mostly in American IPA’s. Incredible IPA’s Brewdog Punk IPA (UK), Brooklyn East IPA(USA), Troubadour Magma (BE, Double IPA), Emelisse Triple IPA (NL), Duvel Tripel Hop (BE)

Now the tripel and dubbel all go back nearly a hundred years but the quadrupel, or at least the name quadrupel is quite young. The La Trappe Quadrupel, brewed at the first Dutch trappist brewery at Koningshoeven, was the first one to use the term quadrupel. Take one more step on the ladder after dubbel and tripel, the quadrupel (or quad) for short is a often a dark brown/red beer full of rich and complex tastes and settles round 10% abv. At first the quadrupel was just a beer by La Trappe but later other Belgian Breweries got on the bandwagon. Gulden Draak and Straffe Hendrik both released their quads and other famous beers were soon categorized as quadrupel such as Rochefort 10 and Chimay Blue Cap.  The quadrupel is sometimes compared to kleenex, no, not in taste, but in the same way that it is generalized. Loads of people often call a tissue a kleenex while it is the name of a brand not the product itself. The same goes for quadrupel. To begin with quadrupel wasn't really a style but through out the years breweries and beer geeks have used it to name that one beer that is a little above average but doesn't qualify as an imp. stout or barley wine. Trappist Travesty: With the La Trappe Quadrupel being the first of its kind other trappist beers were later categorized as quads. First of all there's the Chimay blue and the Rochefort 10. Also the legendary and hard to get Westvleteren 12 is a quadrupel. Last but not the least the Gregorius from Austrian brewery Engelszell is filed under the heavy weight category. Tasting notes: malty, sweet, caramel, figs, dried fruit, boozy, balanced yet complex. Quite powerful quads: La Trappe Quadrupel, La Trappe Quadrupel Oak Aged, Chimay Blue Cap, Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel, Bronckhorster Populus, St. Bernardus 12.

After the dubbel we find ourselves in the land of the tripel. Once again the monks at the abbey of Westmalle were the ones to come up with this beautiful style. It was the Belgium Vandervelde prohibition act of 1919 that forbid cafes and bars to serve liquor. There was however a little loophole in the whole thing because wine and beers were now included.  The monks at Westmalle rushed to their kettles and amped up their beer and tripled the amount of malts. The beer wasn't a succes at first, the first version was named "superbier". Later they added more hops to it and they changed the name to triple serving high alcohol pleasure to all the Belgium people.  As with all the beer styles in the world, others soon followed and started brewing their own spicy, hazy golden glories.  Tripels are often higher in alcohol than dubbels. Dubbels are known for their malty character whereas the tripel has more hoppy fruitiness. The high percentage is due to the extra addition of sugar for the yeast to feast on.  Tasting notes: Herbs, citrus, coriander and orange peel (like a witbier), smooth bitter finish and often some carbonation as well. Tempting Tripels: Westmalle Tripel, Gouden Carolus Tripel, Tripel Karmeliet, Chimay White Cap, La Trappe Tripel, Scheldebrouwerij Zeezuiper

Half way during the 19th century the trappist abbey of Westmalle released the first dubbel beer. A brown, very malty beer with notes of caramel and red fruit. Often people wonder why there is no single next to the dubbel and tripel. Well, actually there is, and since last year one trappist abbey sells it: Chimay Dorée. The "single" is usually preserved for the monks of the abbey; a low in alcohol beer often drunk during dinner. The dubbel usually resides round the 7% abv. It was in 1856 that Westmalle made the first amped up abbey ale called dubbel. Later others started to copy the style, breweries such as Chimay, La Trappe and St. Bernardus. These days the dubbel is part of the rich beer heritage of Belgium. 

You what? Broeder Jacob, a brewery inspired by a Dutch nursery rhyme located in the Belgian Wezemaal makes two extraordinary dubbels. 

Broeder Jacob Dubbel Espresso: A collaboration between two brothers. One works at the brewery the other works in the coffee trade. The dubbel beer contains actual Guatemalan Finca la Pila single estate coffee. 

Broeder Jacob Dubbel Port: Now this one is a bit of an outsider to the dubbel style. With its 9% abv its percentage is closer to a tripel or a quad. How could it be so heavy? It's because this ale features actual Tawny port. 

These unique beers are both very unique and also very tasty. The espresso is very accessible whereas the port is quite heavy and very rich. Dubbel/ Strong dark ale It's hard to sometimes separate dubbel from a strong dark ale. There are many dark abbey beers on the market that share a lot of similarity with the dubbel. How to keep them apart? If it is a dubbel, it says dubbel on the label. That's all I know. Tasting notes: red fruit, caramel, malty, yeasty, spiced and soft. Divine dubbels: Westmalle Dubbel, Floreffe Dubbel, Scheldebrouwerij Dulle Griet, La Trappe Dubbel, St. Bernardus 8 Strong dark ales: Kasteel donker, Mc Chouffe, Kapittel Prior, Wolf 9

Blond beer is pretty much like a pilsner but top fermented instead of bottom. Blond beers contain pale malts making it lighter in color. It was often brewed as an alternative to pilsners. Blond beer is often regarded as the single in comparison to dubbels and tripels. This however isn't fully correct. There used to be actual 'single' beers but they were for the monks of the abbey only and slowly got extinct. According to Joshua M. Bernstein, writer of The Complete Beer Course, comparing blond beers is like comparing cats and dogs. I will however try and distill the more common tasting notes for you. Regular and heavy:

Blond beer: a hazy or clear blond colored beer with a white head. A bit like a pilsner but a wee bit heavier. Usually round 6% alcohol.

Heavy or strong blond: pretty much like a blond beer, often clear golden blond also a white head. The percentage can go from 8% up to 10%.

Tasting notes: yeasty, cloves, fruity, bitter, alcohol (strong/heavy blond) Gorgeous blonds: Seef, Kapittel Blond, Achel Blond, Duvel (Strong), Barbar (Strong with honey)

Again a beer that got its name from the word white in this case the Dutch/Flemish word wit. In the beginning the beer was very popular around the Belgium city of Leuven. After a lot of breweries shut down the style was later picked up by a formal milkman in a place called Hoegaarden. Witbier differs from the German variant because of the proportions of barley and wheat. Apart from that they often use orangepeel and coriander. Other than that it shares its golden, hazy colour and bright white foam. Nowadays witbier is an unmissable drink for a summer's day. Some people prefer it with a little slice of lemon to make it even more refreshing. At least it is better than all those ridiculous radler concoctions that keep sprouting all around me. Tasting notes: Lemon, wheat, clove, orangepeel, coriander, banana. Take five: Hoegaarden Wit, La Trappe Witte Trappist, 't IJ IJwit, St. Bernardus Blanche, Anchorage Whiteout.

The weizenstyle, as some of you might know, comes from Germany. German breweries brew their beers by the rules of the reinheitsgebot, also known as the "German Beer Purity Law". The law states that German beers may only contain the three ingredients hop, barley and water. Where many brewers use barley malt, weizenbeer is made with wheat malt. When the first weizenbeers were made their colour was more pale than the brown beers made at the time therefore they called it weissbeer, with 'weiss' meaning 'white'. Nowadays people also use the term weizen refering to the wheat.  There are different kinds of weizenbeers:

Hefeweizen: A weizenbeer in its cloudy traditional form.

Kristalweizen: A filtered version of the Hefeweizen. By filtering the yeast and wheat the brew becomes more clear, crystal clear.

Dunkel & Weizenbock: Dunkel is the German word for dark. Dunkel beers share a more brown colour compared to the golden yellow of the other weizen. The dark colour is achieved by the use of roasted wheat and barley.

Berliner weisse: A low alcohol variation from the capitol of Germany. It used to be a poor man's drink. Sometimes it is served with fruity syrup.

Gose: This in itself is almost a style of its own. The Gose is known for its salty character and was originally brewed in Goslar.

Tasting notes: wheat, yeast, cloves, citrus, banana, roasted malts (dunkel), caramel (dunkel). A few famous weizenbeers: Erdinger, Paulaner, Weihenstephaner, Franziskaner