Category Archives: Abbey Beer
This beer is an Abbey Beer, in that it relates to an Abbey – it includes Trappiste Monasteries
#247 – Tongerlo Christmas
Size: 330 ml ABV: 6.5 % I have slowly been working my way through the Tongerlo collection; a fact made more noticeable by the recent re-marketing of the beers and adaptation of styles. I first tried the very average Tripel … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Belgian Ale, Christmas Beer, Haacht
Tagged as Belgian beer, Giselbert Castelre, Leffe, Norbertine
#224 – Affligem Dubbel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 6.8 % Affligem Dubbel is what I like to call a proper Abbey beer. There are some breweries which might use the name of a defunct Abbey to help sell their beers, such as the St. … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Abbey Dubbel, de Smedt
Tagged as Abbey, Affligem, Belgian beer, Brabant, de Smedt, Floreffe, St Benedict
#223 – Guldenberg
Size: 330 ml ABV: 8.5 % Guldenberg was the very first commercial beer brewed at De Ranke. It was so named because of the ancient Guldenberg Abbey which once stood in the town of Wevelgem, and brewed the local beer. … Continue reading →
Filed under 8, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Brewers, De Ranke
Tagged as Belgian beer, De Ranke, Deca Services, Guido Devos, Guldenberg, Nino Bacelle, XX Bitter
#221 – Leffe 9
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9 % This was my first deviation from the standard Leffe Blonde (#41) and Leffe Brune (#25), and I was reliably informed that the Leffe 9 was the pick of the bunch. It was time to … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, InBev (Belgium)
Tagged as Aperitif, Belgian beer, Food pairing, InBev, Interbrew, Leffe, tapas
#217 – Grimbergen Tripel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9 % Only beer #217 and it was with some relief that I reached the end of the Grimbergen range with the Tripel. I’m not saying that these beers are awful in anyway, but if ever … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Abbey Tripel, Alken-Maes, Phoenix
Tagged as Alken-Maes, Belgian beer, Brasserie Union, Carlsberg, Grimbergen, Kronenbourg, Leffe, Narnia, Phoenix, Tripel
#216 – Val-Dieu Triple
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9 % The Brasserie de L’Abbaye du Val-Dieu is in actual fact the only non-Trappist brewing Abbey in Belgium. I won’t go into the history of the Abbey as I covered that when christening the Val-Dieu … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Abbey Tripel, Val Dieu
Tagged as Aubel, Belgian beer, Brasserie, Cistercian, Trappist, Tripel, Val Dieu, Witkap Pater
#212 – Grimbergen Goud / Doree
Size: 330 ml ABV: 8 % Yep. Who would believe it? Another bloody Grimbergen. This time it’s the turn of the Grimbergen Goud or Doree, depending on your linguistic preference. If you still need a translation then you can call … Continue reading →
Filed under 5, Abbey Beer, Abbey Tripel, Alken-Maes, Phoenix
Tagged as AB/InBev, Abbey, Aldershot Town, Ardec Nec Consumitur, Belgian beer, Goud/Doree, Grimbergen, Phoenix
#205 – Grimbergen Cuvee de l’Ermitage
Size: 330 ml ABV: 7.5 % Another beer from the surprisingly extensive Grimbergen range, and following the recent review of the Optimo Bruno (#194), here follows another with a bold claim of greatness. One would fully expect that with the … Continue reading →
Filed under 6, Abbey Beer, Alken-Maes, Belgian Strong Ale, Phoenix
Tagged as Abbey, Alken-Maes, Armagnac, beer, Belgian, blonde, Brasserie, Brune, Bruno, Christmas, Cuvee, de l'Ermitage, Grimbergen, Hermitage, Optimo, Trappist, Union
#197 – Ename Cuvee 974
Size: 330 ml ABV: 7 % This is an interestingly titled beer, which actually refers to the founding date of the local borough of Ename, which has now essentially been subsumed into the bigger town of Oudenaarde. The beer was … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Roman
Tagged as 974, beer, Belgian, Cuvee, East Flanders, Ename, Flemish, Heritage, Oudenaarde, Roman, St Lawrence
#194 – Grimbergen Optimo Bruno
Size: 330 ml ABV: 10% This was the first beer I had tried from the Grimbergen range, outside of the supermarket popular Blonde (#8) and Dubbel (#9), and from all the hype around this I expected to be impressed – … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Abt/Quadrupel, Alken-Maes, Brewers, Phoenix
Tagged as Alken-Maes, beer, Belgian, Best Brown, blonde, Bruno, Chimay, Dubbel, Easter, Grimbergen, Maredsous, Optimo, Rochefort, St. Bernardus, T'Smisje, Trappistes, Westvleteren
#193 – Saint-Martin Cuvee de Noel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 8.5 % It had been a while since my last grapple with a St. Martin beer (#69), and I tried the Cuvee de Noel with next to no anticipation whatsoever. It was better but really only … Continue reading →
Filed under 6, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Brunehaut, Christmas Beer, Horse
Tagged as Amiens, beer, Belgian, Benedictine, Bishop, blonde, Brunehaut, Christianity, Cuvee, Gallinaria, heretics, Isola d'Albenga, Liguge, Lombardy, monks, Noel, Poitiers, St Martin, Tournai, Tours
#191 – Bon Secours Blonde de Noel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 10 % While guzzling on the Bon Secours Brune (#28), I introduced the Bernadine nunnery that was formed in Peruwelz in 1904, and then much later while drinking the Bon Secours Blonde (#159) we got to … Continue reading →
Filed under 4, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Caulier, Christmas Beer, Dog
Tagged as Baudelot, beer, Belgian, blonde, Bon Secours, Brune, Christmas, dog, Father, good help, monastery, Noel, nunnery, Peruwelz, St Bernard
#167 – La Montagnarde
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9 % You might expect a beer that is named after a mountaineer to be based somewhere alpine, but as we have already elicited from the Abbaye des Rocs Brune (#67), the area around the village … Continue reading →
Filed under 9, Abbaye des Rocs, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale
Tagged as Abbaye des Rocs, Abbey, Audregnies, Battle of Mons, beer, Belgian, Boskeun, Brune, caramel, Countess, Edith Cavell, Germans, Great War, High Lands, Jeanne de Belleville, Montagnarde, Montignies-sur-Rocs, mountaineer, Natalie Eloir, National Park, Sieberg, toffee, treason, World War I
#159 – Bon Secours Blonde
Size: 330 ml ABV: 8 % Bon Secours translates into English as “good help”, and this message is reinforced on the new and improved Bon Secours labels, by the image of a St. Bernard dog – possibly the most symbolic … Continue reading →
Filed under 8, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Caulier, Dog
Tagged as Alps, barrel, beer, Belgian, blonde, Bon Secours, Duvel, good help, Mastiff, Montjou, pass, rescue, St Bernard, Swiss, Tibetan
#155 – Abbaye des Rocs Speciale Noel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9 % The last time I attacked a beer from the Brasserie des Rocs – the Brune (#67), I was bombarded with sediment. The Christmas beer from the same stable was again no exception – it … Continue reading →
Filed under 6, Abbaye des Rocs, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Christmas Beer
Tagged as Abbaye, Annes 1900, beer, Belgian, Brasserie, Brune, Christmas, des Rocs, hair of the dog, Methode Traditionelle, Noel, protein, Quadrupel, sediment, Speciale, yeast
#154 – La Trappe Quadrupel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 10 % It was a fleeting visit to Bruges this weekend, and the drive back on the Sunday afternoon was made particularly difficult due to the debilitating hangover which surfaced as I did. As I grimacingly … Continue reading →
Filed under 8, Abbey Beer, Abt/Quadrupel, de Koningshoeven, Trappist Beer
Tagged as Abt, ABV, beer, Beer Advocate, Belgian, Bruges, Chimay, Dubbel, hangover, Koningshoeven, Quadrupel, ratebeer, Red, St. Bernardus, Staminee de Garre, Tilburg, Trappist, Tripel, Westvleteren
#149 – Westmalle Tripel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 9.5 % Just as Westmalle symbolises the ultimate Dubbel (#16), then look no further than Westmalle for the archetypal Tripel. I often get asked by new recruits who I drag to London’s best pubs for a … Continue reading →
Filed under 9, Abbey Beer, Abbey Tripel, Trappist Beer, Westmalle
Tagged as beer, Belgian, Drie Linden, Dubbel, gravity, Hendrik, Superbier, Three Lindens, Trappist, Tripel, Verlinden, Westmalle, Witkap Pater
#139 – Moinette Blonde
Size: 330 ml ABV: 8.5 % There could be a handful of reasons why Dupont chose to name their popular beer Moinette Blonde. I’m happy to run through a number of hypotheses and let you play detective (#75). 1. Well … Continue reading →
#137 – Tongerlo Dubbel Bruin
Size: 330 ml ABV: 6 % This is the second dabbling I have had with the beers of Tongerlo, my first stop being the Tongerlo Tripel Blonde (#30) which gave me a chance to introduce the Abbey which so elegantly … Continue reading →
Filed under 7, Abbey Beer, Abbey Dubbel, Haacht
Tagged as Abbey, Augustine, beer, Belgian, blond, Bruin, Canon Regular, Cistercian, Dubbel, Grimbergen, monk, Norbertine, Premontre, St Norbert, Tongerlo, Trappist, Tripel, Xanten
#127 – Val Dieu Biere du Noel
Size: 330 ml ABV: 7 % There was a time when I seemed to drink an endless swathe of Abbey beers, but its been a while since I was able to talk purely about an Abbey. In fact the Abbaye … Continue reading →
Filed under 6, Abbey Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Christmas Beer, Val Dieu
Tagged as Abbaye, Abbey, Aubel, Aulne, beer, Belgian, Bornem, Christmas, Cistercian, Duchy, Eighty Years War, French Revolution, Jean Dubois, Limburg, Louis XIV, Maastricht, monks, Val Dieu, Valley of God
