Journal

Westvleteren 12 Review

2010-12-08T01:54:29Z

Ok, here we go. The beer of all beers, one of the most sought after beers in the world, no THE most sought after beer, you'll find it rated 100pts in any beer review you see. This beer is not legally sold anywhere in the world outside of the brewery itself and their cafe; in fact there is no label, just a number on the cap. Ok, enough rant.

My wife and I are sharing a Westy 12 we brought back from Belgium in October from "In de Vrede," the beer cafe across the street from Westvletern Brewery. We made it to the cafe the first day they opened in October (and our last day in Belgium) so we came by their beers by divine intervention. Luckily we got there early or we may not have gotten any beer as the lines were long by noon. On with the review as we drink it...

Bottled on: 8/4/10

Aroma- chocolate, prunes, malted barley, clean, slightly spicy hops.

Appearance - ruddy brown, good head retention, clear, no label (the caps are the only differentiation)

Flavor - Sweet malt with a caramel candy flavor, burnt sugar, chocolate milk, thick mouthfeel, clean, complex.

Overall impression - This beer is very clean and light for the alcohol content. Complex flavors dance around the glass and fill your mouth, but it finishes clean and dry so you're ready for another sip right away. A reputation well deserved!

This beer is different than most Belgian beers we had in Belgium. Most are fruity with banana esters and clove notes; this beer differs in its ability to retain a Belgian style without overdoing the esters in the aroma. The flavors are smooth and clean without a cloying finish (especially for a 10% beer). The brewers have their secrets in this beer for sure. They say they only use pale & pilsner malt, sugar, yeast and water in this beer. I think they lie to Americans! You decide...

My Brewing Experiment

2010-11-11T23:16:22Z

So Alex was out of town last week and I thought, “Here’s the perfect opportunity for me to brew my own beer!” As if I don’t have enough beer in my life. But actually it was a great idea because, although I am familiar with lots of brewing techniques and processes, I’ve never actually brewed a beer on my own. Picked it all up from osmosis you might say. So this really was the perfect opportunity to see if what I knew in my head would translate well into the bottle. I probably went a bit ambitious for my first try, I actually formulated my own recipe loosely based on a Robust Porter in Brewing Classic Styles. I wanted a fairly big, roasty porter that leans toward hoppy. Here’s what I started with:

6 lbs. Gold LME
1 lb. Dark DME
.5 lb. Crystal 45
.5 lb. Munich
.5 lb Chocolate Malt
6oz Black Malt

1oz Fuggle (at boil)
1oz Willamette (15min)
1oz Centennial

California Yeast WLP001

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with my own recipe, although I now know I’m probably going to end up with more of a standard porter than a robust porter (not enough malt). I filled my kettle on the stovetop with 3 ½ gallons of water, painstakingly filtered through our Brita pitcher, and steeped the grains at 160F for 45 minutes in a warm oven. Putting the pot in the oven really does work well since you don’t have to worry about turning the burner on and off to maintain temperature. I pretty much ignored the beer for all 45 minutes (had to feed myself) and only lost 5 degrees. I only added ¾ of my extracts to the pot so that what I was boiling would be close to the makeup of the finished beer. Not quite clear on why this is a good thing, but I’ve read it in a few books.

Here comes one of the downfalls of brewing on a stovetop: it took FOREVER to boil. I lost track of how long, but by the end I was compulsively checking the temperature every few minutes. When it finally started churning I turned down the heat to avoid boilover and added my Fuggle. I used all leaf hops for this, not out of any particular conviction but rather because I think they are more fun to use. The rest of the boil was pretty uneventful and I busied myself cleaning and sanitizing the carboy, funnel and miscellany.

Two more additions of hops near the end plus the remainder of the malts and I was ready for cooling. I was going low tech here and avoiding most of the fancy gadgets Alex has acquired, so my plan was the “sink basin full of ice water” method of cooling. This was more challenging than I expected, first because of the weight and awkwardness of getting the pot into the sink in the first place, then because the heavy gauge stainless steel held onto the heat longer than I thought it would. While I waited I added about a gallon of water (still using the Brita) to the carboy. Once all the ice was melted I figured I might as well transfer to the carboy, fill the remaining water, and stick it outside to cool further. Here’s where I made my potentially fatal mistake. It was getting late by this point and after about 30 minutes I found myself falling asleep on the sofa. Since I was afraid I would accidently leave the carboy out all night I rushed my yeast addition. Instead of waiting for it to be cool to the touch I settled for neutral/slightly warm (no, I didn’t actually check the temperature). Also, after much digging I came up with a hydrometer but no plastic tube for the test sample so I bypassed the initial reading altogether.

Now it’s four days later. My beer did start fermenting, but it took 2 days and it hasn’t really been going strong. We shall see, and I will definitely post updates as I finish the process. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Alex decreed my recipe satisfactory (except for needing extra malt) and is mildly optimistic that I will end up with a decent fermentation. He was suitably impressed that I embarked on brewing without assistance. More to come!

A favorite Spanish white

2010-10-26T01:42:11Z

Looking for a great seafood wine? I know a lot of folks that default to a reliable Pinot Grigio when a “dry white” is called for. Not that there isn’t a place for Pinot Grigio, but there are loads of interesting whites out there to experiment with. Just the other night, we had this Albarino from Burgans in the Rias Baixas region of Spain and it was the perfect accent to our sautéed shrimp, orzo and wilted spinach dinner. Albarino is grown in the cool maritime climate along the northwestern coast of Spain and parts of Portugal. Because of the dampness, Albarino vines are trained into tall and open habits rather than the more typical low, horizontal vineyards in an effort to prevent mold.

The wine itself is a beautiful pale golden color with a lilting aroma of limestone underlying lemon zest and peaches. Just a hint of saltiness drifts out of the glass – or maybe that’s just my overactive imagination. My feeling is that the reason this wine works so well with seafood is that it has a full flavor but finishes bright and citrusy. Perfect for balancing buttery shellfish. There is just the slightest hint of effervescence, which helps contribute to the brightness. Citrusy flavors blend with a touch of honey at each sip, then the high acidity of this grape chimes in with a refreshing tartness. The balance makes this wine both great with food and great on its own. So next time you’re in the mood to try something new think about reaching for this gem in the Spanish section.

Stats:

Grape varietal: Albarino
Winery: Burgans
Origin: Spain (Rias Baixas)
Vintage: 2009
Price: $15.99

Our Beer Pilgrimage

2010-10-14T22:17:40Z

Again we’ll skip the nasty parts of the drive to Brugge and put it in a nutshell – three hours to go 45 miles plus the route into Brugge was closed and we had to trick our GPS into going another way. Needless to say by the time we arrive we are exhausted and just hoping that we can manage to find a place to eat dinner before everything closes. On the plus side, the B&B we are staying in is absolutely beautiful, built centuries ago and remodeled with all reclaimed and eco-friendly materials. I adore the aesthetic, which is a seamless melding of rustic material and modern clean lines. Plus there’s a huge clawfoot tub and bubble bath! Just the thing I need after yet another trek through the rain…

I can’t believe it’s our last day in Belgium. After breakfast we head off to the Westvleteren, legendary to beer lovers worldwide because they are one of only six official Trappist breweries and they do not distribute their beer at all. The only place you can legally buy it is at the Abbey itself. Plus, you have to make an appointment in order to buy more than one six pack per person. We’re fortunate to get to visit at all because they have been closed for several weeks and only just opened today. I feel like we are on a pilgrimage. I’ll admit I had pictured a rustic brewery more along the lines of the others we had seen in Belgium. We didn’t get to visit the brewery itself but the café, grounds, and photos make it clear that this is a top notch, spic-and-span modern operation. And you can taste it, too. So many Belgian beers have very particular “house” flavors from the brewery, the air, the evolution of the yeast. We love them for it. But these beers have all of the beautiful yeasty aromatics and malt characteristics we associate with Belgian brews but are absolutely “clean” – no off flavors, no sugary aftertaste, no biting carbonation. Just perfectly balanced and amazingly flavorful. I am in love!

Back in Brugge, we walk a circuit through the town (they actually play music through speakers along the shopping streets – mostly 90s soft rock. It’s like being in an outdoor mall. Disturbing.), gather up our chocolate and lace souvenirs, and then queue up for the requisite canal boat tour. Actually the canal tour was quite lovely, it’s a great way to see the city from a different perspective. Plus, we get to rest our feet! We also shared one of my highlight meals today in Brugge. At a brewpub called Cambrinus with the thickest beer menu yet! I had a rabbit stew - again with some sort of beer broth - that was so tender and flavorful I am still wondering why rabbit dishes are so rare in our country. Yes, yes, I understand that they are furry and have cute faces but you must admit that they reproduce with surprising alacrity and don’t take up much room (vegetarians forgive me). I’m just saying.

Many misadventures on the way home. The flight was two hours earlier than I thought. Luckily I figured this out the night before and was able to stay up late lovingly wrapping beer and wine bottles in our clothing and struggling to zip the suitcases. The side effect of this, sadly, was that there was no room left for the camera in our bags. I thought it would be fun to go through the pictures on the plane anyway. Not a good idea. We never did go through the pictures and somehow ended up leaving the camera on the plane. Which explains the lack of pictures in these later posts. At the very least I hope I have learned my lesson about making copies, removing memory cards, etc. But I keep thinking about all the great shots we got that are gone now. I have so many wonderful memories, though. Alex and I had such a beautiful journey together and were able to see so many new places and historic artworks that I had only imagined before. I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to do this, and I hope for many more adventures to come!

Combing the Belgian Countryside

2010-10-14T00:08:45Z

Onward to the southern part of Belgium, we are in search of Dupont brewery, which our trusty guide assures us has a café across the street where we can have a leisurely lunch even though the brewery itself won’t be open. No such luck. In fact, this was perhaps the smallest, quietest village we have encountered. No one speaks English and it seems there is not a single eating establishment open on a Saturday afternoon. Ah well. We did get a few rounds of Saison Dupont and Dupont’s pilsner which were rather satisfying on their own. The most fascinating part is that we had the beer at two different bars both within sight of the brewery and they tasted completely different! Mysterious to say the least.

I’ll spare the details of the wild goose chase for lunch, except to say that there are an astounding number of cobblestone roads through corn fields in this area. At any rate, by 5:00 we managed to locate Binchoise brewing and their charming café. Food at last! And really good food at that. Although we probably did some damage to our arteries with the fried brie croquettes dipped in cheese fondue…c’est la vie!

The next morning we finally get a chance to walk around Ghent. It’s a lovely small city, full of canals and interesting architecture. Our walking tour includes a stroll in the sun along the main canal, an alleyway completely given over to graffiti artists, and a stop for lunch at a café on a houseboat. I’m so glad it’s such a beautiful day after 3 days of rain. It’s an entirely different experience.

Out on a new brewery trek, we head for de Dolle brewery for their weekly tour. This was great fun. The brewer’s mom conducts the tour and she is a character. There are stories to tell at every stop, especially regarding evidence of the health benefits of beer and the fact that all the tasting room furniture is rescued from curbs. I am amazed to learn that they only brew two days a week here, makes one appreciate the fact that we can get their beer in North Carolina at all. In the tasting room we get to meet the brewer and he and Alex geek out about brewing for a while. Which is awesome because, as many of you well know, that means that new and special beers keep appearing. He took Alex down to take a look at the cellar and sent us home with a 2007 Still Nacht that I was really excited about – except that it all leaked into my suitcase on the plane home. I think that the de Dolle beers are really original. They definitely have distinct house flavors from the brewery and equipment (there’s been a brewery on the site since 1835), but the main thing is that they make the beer they like without slavishly sticking to traditional styles. Their beers are hoppier than typical Belgian ales yet finish off very balanced. The brewery is a labor of love for the family, and the brewer does all of the artwork for the packaging himself. It’s the way brewing should be.

Intro to Belgium

2010-10-14T00:01:37Z

As usual, we set off later in the day than expected and breezed into Liege just long enough to pick up a car and head for Ghent. It ended up being a long travel day but luckily we decided to stop into a neighborhood bar in Aalst mentioned in our trusty Good Beer Guide to Belgium. It was so packed we could barely get into the door but we did manage to squeeze into a tiny table and sip our first beers in Belgium. And what a great choice! The de Glazen Toren brewery is nearby and we chose the Saison wrapped in its signature paper. Freshly bottled and popping with spicy character, it was perfect to brighten up the rainy day outside. I also ordered what I deciphered to be a chicken and mushroom stew with Orval in the broth. I was right! Trust me, this is a satisfying result when considering Flemish menu items. The stew was great, simple and flavorful; comfort food without being heavy.

We arrived in Ghent in a drizzling rain after dark and tried in vain to decipher which streets were one way, pedestrian only, and endless mystifying variations of both. In search of a late dinner, our B&B recommended a nearby café that actually turned out to be in the aforementioned trusty guidebook. However, sometime since the last edition they seem to have decided that the whole 100+ beer list trend was passé and pared it down to five or six. But it was quiet and relaxing and made a yummy shrimp diavolo. Of course, this being the beer portion of the vacation we made a point of hunting out an extensive beer list after dinner. By now we are learning that Belgian beer bars are always crowded, lively, and smoky. The menus are not skimpy folios but serious inch think books. The choices are overwhelming. Helpfully, all of the beer menus in Belgium include the ABV percentage, which starts to become an important decision factor when beer traveling. I’m torn between choosing favorites to see how different they taste and trying beer I’ve never heard of that we can’t get in the States. So I alternate. The Poperings Hommel Ale is fantastic, with a light dry body and just the right amount of citrusy kick from the hops. My second never-heard-of-it choice was less memorable. I guess there’s a reason the famous beers are famous, huh?

Our first stop in the morning is Cantillon in Brussels, famous for traditional lambics and gueze. The brewery is family owned and very focused on preserving traditional methods and quality. It’s a fascinating place to explore, with stacks and stack of bottles aging, a huge shallow copper tank for fermenting in its own room (their beer is fermented with wild yeast so it’s left exposed to the air overnight after brewing), and, of course, a brewery cat. The day after brewing, the brew is put right into casks (with the bunghole left open) and once fermentation starts the excess foam simply bubbles out the opening. What a sight! After poking around the brewery, the tour finishes with a tasting of gueze and kriek. I learn that the proper way to serve is to lay the bottle in a specially made basket that lets the bottle rest at about a 35 degree angle. I assume that this keeps the yeast from being disturbed as much with so many small pours. I don’t know how many of you are fans of lambic, but these are both great examples – sour and dry but not overbearing with complex yeasty, oaky and citrusy aromatics. The Kriek smells just like pie cherries straight off a tree, ripe, tart and fresh. The amount of fruit is very skillfully balanced as well. You get the full aroma and flavor of the fruit without the sweet aftertaste common in other fruit beers. Their Frambois had the most enticing aroma too, it took me right back to my childhood picking raspberries off the vine from our garden. After the tastings we each order a glass, not realizing exactly how big the servings are. Have you ever drank a pint of traditional still lambic? It is not an easy task and I’m afraid I wasn’t up to it. Or rather my stomach wasn’t.

German Beer Wars

2010-10-10T23:25:39Z

Brussels airport to Koln by train and suddenly everything is orderly and clean. I hadn’t thought of Italy as messy, but the tidiness in Germany is enough of a difference to make you take notice. We arrived late and immediately set out for an authentic Kolsch house experience for dinner – we found a local joint, large and loud and confusing at first but it gets easier as you have a few beers behind you. Kolsch is a light, super clear, lager-like beer fermented with an ale yeast, served in 20cl slim glasses that go down quick and are immediately replenished by the waitstaff who carry trays full of 12 glasses at a time. This is one place where you can go in and just ask for a beer – no menus, no different styles, just Kolsch and plenty of it. They mark your progress on a coaster to remember how many you’ve had at the end of the night. As far as I can tell, this is a traditionally male profession. These guys all wear blue shirts, long aprons and seem to enjoy the hustle and bustle. No sighting of ladies in liederhosen thus far… must be an Oktoberfest/Bavaria thing. Oh, and 90-95% of the patrons were men, too. Where do the German women go I wonder?

The next day we go on a full on beer tour – spending the day in Dusseldorf to try the Alt biers. We had four or five different varieties. Each bar only serves one kind, so we visited as many bars as varieties of beer. Altbier is also an ale fermented at lagerish temperatures, but it is darker, bigger and maltier than its counterpart 30 miles away. There is definitely a local rivalry/pride revolving around the superiority of one style over the other. I gather that the Dusseldorf locals regard Kolsch as a ladies beer – light and insubstantial. Whereas the Koln citizens value the purity and clarity of their style. There is a comic in Dusseldorf of a donkey drinking Altbier and pissing Kolsch, very funny for locals of Dusseldorf. For me? All depends on the weather. Today, Germany was cold and rainy so it was kind of nice to have a bit more heft to our beer.

By dinner we’ve returned to Koln and tried on a few more Kolsch. Meat and potatoes are on the menu yet again. I don’t know how much German food I can handle! We try the pork trotter this time which seems to be the local favorite – pork knuckle grilled on the bone. We also discover here that in Koln, water is more expensive than beer. I think we ended up paying $5 for two wine glasses of still water, versus $2.25 per beer. By this time all of the different examples of each beer are blurring in my mind, but Alex is diligently examining and making notes like a good brewer should.

Florence

2010-10-07T00:02:38Z

On to Florence, we spent most of the afternoon travelling and getting our bearings. We dined at a lovely Osteria recommended by the hotel and I was yet again surprised by what I ordered. What I thought would be toasts with prosciutto and cheese turned out to be balls of fried bread (picture hush puppies but standard bread dough) on a bed of prosciutto with something like cream cheese for spreading. Fabulous, but not for the faint of heart. At this point, Alex is just about at chianti and pasta burnout level. I did manage to get him to stroll over to the Duomo to get a look at the Baptistery doors and the cathedral. Evening was actually a great time for this since there were no crowds mussing up the view! The façade of the cathedral is absolutely breathtaking; I’ve never seen anything like it. Just think how many lifetimes of crafter’s work and how many artistic treasures are contained in one vantage point.

We are the ideal Florentine tourists, dutifully making our way from the Duomo to the Uffizi to the Accademia, the Ponte Vecchio. I will say here that it is well worth while to reserve tickets for the large museums – I saw the lines and I would not want to spend my afternoon waiting to get into a museum. We also fit in the Chapel of the Magi in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi which I wrote my senior art history paper on in college. I know that I have tried to do too much but I can’t help myself, I’ve wanted to go to Florence since I was a little girl and I have to fit in as much as possible. Alex is worn out and leaves me to shop on my own the second afternoon, and I proceed to push myself to exhaustion walking the streets of Florence looking for secondhand shops or something besides the high fashion boutiques or sparkling gold but uninteresting jewelry in so many shop windows. Can I just say here that we could never get away with closing from 2-5pm for siesta every day as a retail store in America? Yet this is the way of life in Italy. I keep finding myself looking into closed shop windows just at the time of day when I’m ready to shop. Finally, I go back to the central market and actually have a good time trying on leather jackets and making deals. Then I barely make it for my “reserved” ticket to the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. I have never seen so many people inside a museum at one time – ever. The sculpture is at the end of a large open hall with a walkway around it (with a buffer zone of course) and no photos are allowed although I find it hard to believe the marble would be damaged by flashes. Despite the crowds and tour groups, though, I have to say that David is, bar none, the most incredible sculpture I have ever seen. Well worth the crowds, the wait, whatever it takes. Just perfect, in a way I can’t quite describe in words. I wish my dad, a sculptor, could see this and I had so wanted to take photos for him that would show more than the postcard images. In the end I had to buy him a book in the gift shop as a substitute. I resolve to convince him to travel to Florence one day…

Apparently there is some unwritten law in European tourism that every town must have a belfry, campanile, dome, etc. that should be accessible for tourists to climb and, as tourists, it is compulsory to do so. Tourists love vistas. They are always beautiful, fabulous photos bound, but really? Must every town, village, city be viewed from above to be appreciated? OK, I’ll admit we did Siena and a small fortress in Tuscany, but no more!

What I’ve learned from Italians:

They are great at:

eating
coffee
parking in tiny spaces
scarves
trying to understand your Italo-Spanglish attempt to communicate
fitting a bidet into the smallest bathroom imaginable
gas station food

Not so good at:

being on time
helpful signage
providing non-Italian food
chairs (apparently not necessary in most public places without a fee)
free water

Overall, we had a lovely time in Italy. In fact, it pained me a bit to leave since this was the part of the trip I had most looked forward to. But, I knew we’d have a great time in the destinations ahead so we said goodbye and boarded the bus (!) at the Florence airport gate that would deliver us to our plane to Brussels. So glad we weren’t late for the boarding call…

Adventures in Montalcino

2010-10-02T18:03:16Z

The next day we devoted to wine by driving to Montalcino, source of amazing Brunello wines. Brunello is made from 100% sangiovese but must be grown in the DOCG around Montalcino to bear the name. Most are aged for five to six years before release and the best examples will improve for decades after. Our favorite Brunellos (we sampled about a dozen) showed off deep, concentrated dark fruit aromas and a lighter touch of oak. These wines have high acidity and for me, I did have some difficulty anticipating how the flavors and aromas would develop over a number of years. We chose a few to bring home including an already lovely Riserva from Caparzo (you may have seen some of their wines at the shop) and a bottle from Tenuta Il Poggione that we will be holding onto for a decade or so. Another great option from the area are the Rosso di Montalcinos which have not been aged as long but are from the same vineyards and can exhibit some of the characteristics of the Brunellos. The town of Montalcino itself was, as we have begun to expect, just beautiful and showed off the most amazing views across the countryside around practically every corner. Wine is the order of the day here, with a wine shop in sight from practically every vantage point, even within the medieval fortress at the top of the hill.

I got some souvenir shopping in the next morning in our neighboring town of San Gimignano. We had only seen it at night when we first visited, on this Sunday morning the streets were bustling and a marching band was putting on a show. We found a very small open air market where we were able to taste the local truffles (and meet the truffle hunter!) and sample local cheese from a very entertaining vendor. Of course, we couldn’t understand a word, but it’s all in the energy anyhow.

A Taste of Tuscany

2010-09-27T15:14:00Z

Our room in the Tuscan countryside for three nights was on a farm that produced wine, honey, saffron, and olive oil. We were welcomed by our hostess Tiziania with a glass or farm produced Vernaccia (the local white wine). Definitely more full bodied and ripe than a pinot grigio but still has a dry finish. A lovely way to watch the sunset. The Tuscan landscape is so absolutely picturesque, hilly but marvelously open so that it seems everywhere you go has a grand vista, dotted with Italian cypresses and stone villas in every direction.

Dinner at the agriturismo was epic. This was a five course, real deal Italian meal – we were at the table for three hours! Fresh prosciutto and salami, pasta with beef and pork ragu, roast beef with mushrooms…fantastic! The different farm raised honeys with pecorino cheeses were a real highlight.

We made our way to Siena in the morning, only had to circle around three times or so before we figured out how to get into a parking area. Alex is a champ at driving in Italy by now. Siena is such a beautiful city to walk around, it seems that every building is built to harmonize with the rest - earthy stonework and aged, rustic tile roofs. Every view down an alleyway seems worth a photo. I often get a picture set in my head when we are planning to travel and the destination is never quite the same as I’ve pictured it. Not with Tuscany, it is exactly as I imagined.

We spent far too much on our lunch in the city for the pleasure of overlooking the Piazza del Campo from our table, complete with pizza and the biggest piece of bruscetta imaginable! We were also lucky enough to visit the Siena Cathedral when the mosaic floors were on display (all but six weeks a year they are covered to prevent damage). The entire floor is a series of intricate inlaid marble scenes, some fifty sections total. Along with the striped columns, the frescoed vaults and sculptures in every corner, it’s simply too much to absorb all at once but it is truly breathtaking and humbling.