2 November 2008

In other news

I'm cooking beetroot for pickling. I am so a domestic goddess. Damn I need a beer. Ooohh I have beer. Now I just need to move.
Americana show is blasting out from inside. Thanks ActiveFM.

Found while surfing: Elderly texting, including:
BIMD: Back in my day
ROFLACGU: Rolling on the floor laughing and can't get up
ML2N?: Matlock tonight?

New Luke Buda album is out now - Vesuvius. I haven't heard it yet, although it is now on my ipod. And the Chicken's copy will be winging its way on Monday.

Hmm I've just realised I haven't had a chance to listen to the new Bob Dylan album. Actually I have a lot of albums to catch up on. Tough few months in terms of albums.

Ooohhh I found my beer notes, so here's wot we tasted the other week at the Belgian tasting at Regional Wines. We were focussing on Maredsous, and it was taken by Fraser not Geoff Griggs. We like Fraser's approach to beer tasting, it more reflects our own. Geoff has a bad habit of being on the second beer after an hour. We don't like that.

Fraser divided the tasting into three types of beer, and produced three per type. So we could compare the brands - we think this worked well. First up were:
Maredsous Blond lemon/citrus nose, light hop notes, nice, slightly bitter, very light 8/10
Leffe Blonde yup that one, kinda tasteless, slight herbal taste 6/10
Steen Brugge Rich thought this would be a good session beer. oddly tasteless, very similar to Leffe Blonde, dry, sweet 7/10

Next up were the Bruin beers.
Maredsous Bruin bitter, dry, chocolate (lots), malty (lots), smooth 8/10
Leffe Bruin Smooth tasting, chocolate, bubbly, very malty, a bit dry 6/10
Dupoint Moinette Brune chocolate, lovely, sweet nose like xmas cake, wine hints 9/10

And finally the triples.
Maredsous triple banana nose, chilli hints! interesting beer, citrus 8/10
Brugge triple spicy banana fruity rounded 7/10
Karmeliet triple very spicy nose, great taste, lemon cheese cake, spicy sausage!! 9/10

So I'll keep avoiding Leffe, not good. Maredsous is good and worth drinking. And I do so love Triple's, and the Karmeliet in particular (which I've had a few times before).

Rich and I decided to sober up from the Belgian 8-10% beers (all 10 of them - we had a bonus taster) by drinking some 4% beer. That went well. Until we found whisky. I can recommend the Dalmore standard now too :)

This blog brought to you by Timmermans Kriek.
B xx

2 comments:

Tomatohead said...

Greetings from California. Ran across your blog because of your Luke Buda post, but then saw your Belgian tasting notes.

Can I ask, Fraser as in Fraser McInnes, old Bar Bodega owner? If you see him again, can you pass along that Tricia and Matt say a heartfelt, "How the hell are you doing?" We used to bring him bottles of West Coast Americans.

Leffe isn't so bad for a session beer, like when you are stuck on a long train ride and can buy it out of a machine. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Belgians are my weakness, especially guezes/lambics from Cantillon and Drei Fonteinen.

Got our hands on Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban blah blah - extra aged in port barrels. Wow.

Best of luck with the thesis.

Tricia

Tomatohead said...

Cheers for your note.
I lost touch w/ Fraser after he sold up because the forwarding email he left in the Bodega newsletter didn't work. So, it's lovely to hear that he has more time in indulge in the beer side of things.

Thomas Hardy Ale. We used to collect them, but couldn't drink them anymore. When the husband and I got married, we had the goal of drinking 100 different real ales across Britain. The experience kind of disabused us of our love for British ales for all the things that Americans whine about (not cold enough, not fizzy enough, not hopped enough).

We did go to Belgium for the Belgian Beer Fest and found that our love of a good lambic/gueuze was undiminished. It was neat to go in September and to chat up Mr. Debelder at 3Font and Jean Van Roy at Cantillon because they weren't too busy.

Welli is spoiled for gigs. I am jealous.

Best,
Tricia