Friday, March 12, 2010

Belgian beer tasting in Stockholm

Tonight I arranged a Belgian beer tasting in stunning Stockholm. This time, it was not only stunningly beautiful, but also stunningly cold. Cue glowing, warming Belgian beer :-)
All in all we were 15 happy tasters, some friends, some paraglider pilots, some new faces. We started softly with a Maredsous 6 (blond), then continued with a wild shot, a La Trappe dubbel, La Trappe being from the Netherlands and the only Trappist beer not from Belgium.
As a tripel we retreated to the most classic in the genre, the Westmalle tripel (also a Trappist, from Northern Belgium).

After that we started to navigate the more unchartered waters of Belgian beer, although  no less beautiful. A Lindemans Cuvee Renée surprised the uninitiated being a Geuze and hence very sour (but also refreshing). The Vlaamse bourgougne/Oud Bruin-style Liefmans Goudenbrand was a new acquaintance for me, and a very pleasant one.
To round it off, we enjoyed the hoppiness of Houblon Chouffe, a beer from the charming little brewery in the Ardennes.

After lots of sniffing, tasting and comparing, we realized that the bottles were empty and the time was 23.45. So we did the only right thing - closed the tasting and walked over to Pressklubben, where we tried some more Belgians :-)





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