Belgian Beer

[Anonymous No.6110456]

So, I got a St. Bernardus gift pack with the Pater 6, the Prior 8, the Tripel, and the 12. I have been drinking American "craft beer" for about a year but I never really ventured into Belgian beer because it is fairly expensive. But regardless, I finally got some, had the Pater 6 2 nights ago, it was delicious, and extremely different than what I am used to. My main question is what to do with the yeast at the bottom of the bottle, I just left a little left in the bottle with most of the yeast in it but should I just pour the whole thing in? I guess this goes for all bottle conditioned beers not just Belgian ones.

Also, general beer thread. I also have been drinking some Spaten Optimators the past couple days. My first German beer as well, and it is pretty good, but my enjoyment of it is dulled by how good the St. Bernardus beer is.

[Phil Ossiferz Stone !!esSirF6LRYN No.6110490]

The reason beer bottles have a shoulder is to trap the yeast. The reason beer goblets have the little dimple on the bottom is for the same reason. It is bitter as hell and *can* give you the shits (though it's never happened to me.)

Belgian ales are God tier. Conserve the yeast and start brewing your own.

[Anonymous No.6110494]

>>6110490
I prefer to pour it in. I like doubles best, Unibroue's Maudite and Chimay Red are favourites.

[Anonymous No.6110498]

>>6110494
Oh, and I am drinking St. Ambroise oatmeal stout currently.

[Anonymous No.6110539]

Just had my first (unflavoured) Lambic tonight and it was delicious! That smell is just amazing, a bit like rancid food but in a good way, followed by a sour after-taste.

I also drank a cherry one and a raspberry one but those tasted like alcopops unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.6112987]

>>6110494
>based unibroue
one of the best options in ontario where i live. Just had their Resolution last night, very enjoyable. Also tried their 17 which was excellent as well. I've currently got some Beau's gruit and other stuff which i will post in time.

[Anonymous No.6114451]

>>6110456
I pour until there's the minimum beer in the bottle to hold the yeast, then just drink the rest of the bottle. I don't want shit in my glass but I don't want to waste beer. I've heard things about beer yeast making you shit but I've never experienced it myself.

[Anonymous No.6114482]

We busted out a Tripel Karmeliet with dinner tonight. Really great grain-forward Belgian that I'd recommend. The grains are backed up really well by the spices, but more dry than other Belgians I had, so it stayed nice and light and didn't fight with the meal.

OP, if you enjoy the rest of your St. Bernardus, I'd strongly recommend everything by Chimay, as well as exploring Unibroue like the others pointed out. La Fin Du Monde is one of my gateway beers for introducing newbies to the rich and spiced side of things.

[Anonymous No.6114496]

Never in 18 years of drinking triples, have I heard or encountered that thimbleful of causing the shits.

Drinking too much? Yes, but that also can happen with filtered beers.

[Anonymous No.6114520]

>>6114496
>Drinking too much causing the shits
I've only ever heard of this on /ck/ with people calling it stupid

I have heard of yeast though. I don't think it affects the flavour, so I don't bother leaving it in the bottle. If it's been standing upright for a while it will settle anyway.

[Anonymous No.6114545]

>>6114482
Chimay is next on my list to try. The store I got my St. Bernardus gift pack also has a Chimay one. This particular store is fairly well known in the area for having a huge selection of beer and owners with good taste for Belgian beer - they have pretty much all of the big trappist breweries.

They also have a gift pack that comes with 4 bottles of Tripel karmeliet and a glass. I love nice glassware so I always buy these gift packs that come with custom glasses if I can. After I grab the Chimay pack maybe I will get one. Though I also have been waiting to try some Duvel.

[Anonymous No.6114569]

>>6114545
Nice. I haven't had Duvel, but I hear it's held as a kind of standard.

Have you had a Belgian sour of any sort yet? Petrus Aged Pale was my first. It's a bit like the lemonade of beers. Bitter, refreshing and mildly funky. I'd definitely check it out if you're feeling adventurous.

[Anonymous No.6114591]

>>6114569
I almost purchased some Lindemans but I got the St Bernardus instead. The whole sour/lambic thing seems really interesting. I am sure it is good, but it is not really at the top of my priority list. I am more interested in these Trappist ales and also Saisons. The place I get beer from has a lot of Fantome and Dupont.

Eventually I also want to try some Ommengang and Unibroue too but I want to get familiar with Belgian beer before I try the North American versions of them.

[Anonymous No.6114620]

i want cheapo sour beer, what should i look for?

in so cal if it matters.

[Anonymous No.6114632]

>>6114591

Ommegang makes an excellent saison, Hennepin, the best beer they make in my opinion. Saison Dupont is also excellent, the standard setter of the style. Once you've gotten familiar with the style give Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace saison a try. It takes its named from a rare variety of hops they use in it which gives it an interesting lemony flavor.

[Anonymous No.6114909]

>>6110456
Bars/pubs here in Belgium still give you a shot glass with your regular glass if you ask them so that you can pour the last 1/2cm of the bottle with the yeast in the shot glass and drink it separately. It's what "purists" do but the vast majority of people don't do it. It's not bad once in a while imo. Enjoy the world of Belgian beers.

[Anonymous No.6114913]

>>6110456
>>6114909
Oh and try rochefort and orval if you can get them. It's personally my favorites in the Trappists.

[Anonymous No.6115667]

GOAT seasonal

[Anonymous No.6115675]

If you have a bottle conditioned beer with some live yeast still present it's possible to harvest it and use it for your homebrew.

[Anonymous No.6115679]

>>6110456
The 12 is amazing, one of my all time favorite beers.

>>6114482
>Tripel Karmeliet

Mah nigga.

[Anonymous No.6117834]

So having finished this gift pack, I have to say, the 12 was by far my favorite. Fucking amazing beer, I wish I had another.

On a side note I a actually liked the Pater 6 more than the Prior 8. And the Tripel was really good, maybe my second favorite. I really want to try their Witbier and their Christmas Ale now.

[Anonymous No.6118013]

>>6117834

I was lucky enough to have St Bernardus 12 on tap in Ypres, not far from Watou.

It was fantastic.

OP, try to get to your hands on Westvleteran 12. It might seem a little overhyped but its worth thtaste

[Anonymous No.6118700]

Allagash Curieux. Brewed in Maine, but fuck it, it's perfect.

[Anonymous No.6118718]

>>6114913
Oh man, I love Rochefort

[Anonymous No.6118732]

>>6118718
paid like $9.42 or something for #10....worth every penny

[Anonymous No.6118736]

>>6118732
i might be able to ship you 10 bottles for $60
don't know how i would pack them though

[Anonymous No.6118757]

>>6110456
10/10, only beer ive tasted without knowing what it was before hand that made me go "wow"

[Anonymous No.6118758]

>>6118757
forogt the motherclucking pic

[Anonymous No.6119073]

>>6118732
£5.20 for the 10 here, have it quite good by comparison. Honestly the king of beers, so I'd be willing to pay much more in all honesty.

[Anonymous No.6119075]

>>6118758
are you me? that's the best beer i've ever had.
>tfw you will probably never be able to go back to belgium again

[Anonymous No.6119106]

>>6110490
>*can* give you the shits
I used to have a hurricane diarrhea after yeast beer (commercial) until I got used to it.
When I made my first homebrew batch and drank some, I had crazy farts the next day. My mum entered my room, took a deep breath in to ask me something and started to caugh from the smell :DDDD

[Anonymous No.6119323]

>>6114632
My favorite Ommegang brew is their Three Philosophers. Honestly better than any legit Belgian I've had

[Anonymous No.6119327]

>>6115667
Good shit

[Anonymous No.6119335]

>>6118736
>>6119073
Excuse me as I go cry, that store typically over prices things, but it's the only one near me that has 10.

[Anonymous No.6119629]

>>6115667
Mah nigga. It also bottle conditions really nicely imo, if you're into that sort of thing.

[Anonymous No.6119687]

>tfw average beer selection in Belgium supermarket

[Anonymous No.6119688]

[Anonymous No.6119691]

[Anonymous No.6119696]

[Anonymous No.6119698]

[Anonymous No.6119760]

>>6119687
>>6119688
>>6119691
>>6119696
>>6119698
Oh god I want all of it.

[Anonymous No.6119788]

>>6119760
muh fridge
Started tasting bears a few months ago, sometimes it's nice being in Belgium.
Shame I don't like most cheeses unless they're an ingredient.

[Anonymous No.6119791]

>>6119788
Most are my roommates' tho, I only have a Westmalle, Affligem, Maredsous and Grimbergen glass, gifts from my dad when I moved out.

[Anonymous No.6119795]

>>6114520
>Drinking to much doesn't give you the shits

I guess Beershits are just a myth then

[Anonymous No.6119821]

>>6119788
>>6119791
Pretty cool, must be nice. How is living in Belgium, though? Personally it is a place I really want to go, Germany and France too. I sort of have a thing for Western Europe. A lot of my favorite things come from there.

[Anonymous No.6119838]

>>6119821
Can't really complain so far, tho some things are pretty retarded. Great healthcare, but it's also ass-backwards in some aspects.
The thing that pissed me off the most is that I've had a physical disability since age 7, and when I became an adult some schmuck that sees me once every 4 years suddenly decides that I'm healthy again (chronic, degenerative, auto-immune disease, go figure), and I lose all benefits. I love my job but it wrecks me if I push myself, I make ~€1000 a month. In the mean time lazy fucks that know how to act and how to abuse the system get €1400 or more a month for doing fuckall.
And the roads suck, every few years when there's elections coming they scrape and recoat a few, for some reason this takes over half a year, and the first time there's a frost they're all fucked again.
And criminals get away because of 'procedural errors' which can be as lame as one page of one several hundred page document not being translated or a missing signature, and some proven murderer gets to walk.
Awesome food tho, and especially in the smaller towns most people are really nice.

[Anonymous No.6120009]

>>6119788
You.. you keep nice beers in the fridge?

[Anonymous No.6120037]

>>6120009
If he's going to drink them within the next week who cares?

[Anonymous No.6120381]

>>6119687
>leffe
>grimbergen
not sure if mocking

>>6119688
>>6119691
>see these
Nice, I got a 6 pack of chimay blue for like 6 euros last year, I don't recall there being much selection.

[Anonymous No.6120675]

had orval tonight, pretty underwhelming imo.

[Anonymous No.6121820]

>>6120381
>not sure if mocking
What do you mean? The 4 following photos were all from a single rack.

[Anonymous No.6121848]

>>6119838
Where do you live vlaanderenbro?

[Anonymous No.6121955]

>>6119788
And the bears are just kinda cool with that?

[Anonymous No.6122004]

>>6110456
Idk, man. I usually do the same thing with a Belgian beer as I would with a German unfiltered weizen: get that yeast in the glass. Often enough, the beer's taste seems to sorta fall flat unless I do that.

[Anonymous No.6122224]

>>6121955
Yes.

>>6121848
Balen

[Anonymous No.6122805]

>>6122224
dat is balen

[Anonymous No.6122816]

>>6122805
ikr
Moved here a few months ago, people I tell this and myself can't stop making that 'joke'.
Seriously considering getting some spraypaint and adding "dat is" to a city sign.