Breakfast and beer, Belgian Crêpes make it happen

I love crêpes to death.  As a young kid raised on loving pancakes with maple syrup and butter, my mom would make crêpes mostly on Christmas Eve as a special treat.  As I got older my sweet tooth really disappeared (probably because I had 8 cavities and root canal by the time I was 12) and I would love stuffing crêpes with ham, cheese, shrimp and seafood.  There is no limit to the imagination what you can stick in a crêpe.  But better yet why not use beer to make them?

I came across a Belgian crêpe recipe in the Washington Post, and used a great Belgian Pale Ale called Troubadour Blond to make them with.  Watch the video below to see how you can make these wonderful tasty breakfast meal.

Wesvleteren arrives a chance to taste beer greatness?

In the times I have spent imbibing, and specificaly drinking beer, there were many great brews that I came across.  Going down the malt and hops road takes you on lots of interesting twists and turns, some places near, some far, and with that come many tales of greatness.  There isn't a day that goes by that I hear someone usually raving about a beer, claiming it to be the greatest thing ever since sliced bread.  Often times the beer is not where I am, it's from a brewery in some other part of country, and/or it has a limited release that is gobbled up with a low production.  In many ways the hype of it increases the desire among many beer fans to want it even more.  The beer is hard to get, and the rarer it is the demand starts increasing.  The stories get bigger, the raves keep continuing.  In the end it's like a snake eating iteslf into a vicious repeating cycle.  The beer in the end, becomes in a sort of way.. a myth of epic proportions, one where it's great tastes seems hard or impossible to believe.  In many ways the beer almost fits the mantra of, it must be good, because it's rare.

There are a few breweries in the world who have beers that fall into this category.  There is one though that every beer fan finds out about and it basicaly seems to fit into a special category that no other brewery can classify.  The brewery is simply known as Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren in Belgium, or as many refer to as just Westvleteren.  This is a brewery run by trappist monks who have been making their beers since 1838.  They only make three beers currently, each one placed in a very simple brown non descript bottle.  The only way to differentiate each one is by the breweries distinct cap on top containing the brewery's coat of arms.  A green cap is for their blonde ale, blue for a dubbel style refered to as simply "8", and one of their most coveted a yellow capped bottle containing a Belgian quadrupel style known as "12".  The "12" or "Westy 12" as some refer to, has been written about not just by beer fans but also other well known beer writers.  Many have refered to it as "the best beer in the world". 

The fascination with Westvleteren is nothing new having been talked and coveted about for so long.  In many ways the beers take on the great mythical proportions coupled with images of an old monastery monks, sitting around in robes making beer from their secret traditions.  The reality is they are a solid brewery operation, and don't walk around in robes all the time, but take great pride in what they make.  There is one unique issue that makes their beers coveted as well and herein lies the interesting character.  Westvleteren beers are only sold in one place, the brewery itself and a cafe they own in Westvleteren Belgium.  They are not even sold elsewhere in the country of Belgium (well technicaly read more below).  The fact they have been written about as the greatest and also have an idilyc history with extremely limited distribution (the monks will only produce enough beer to support their monastery) makes them very special.

At some point every beer lover wants to have these beers, but how? 

The result is with the demand many of the beers a "gray" market has appeared.  Demand for these beers all over the world, has created opportunities for people to purchase them and resell them, many times for large amounts of money, very much against the monks wishes.  The bottles within the local area aren't that expensive but have often been resold through other distributors for much more in ways that makes you wonder if it's really worth it.  If you live in America like I do, getting the chance to try these beers requires some leg work and also some introspection.  You can either spend the time to actually fly over and visit, or perhaps spend less money by finding them possibly through a distributor who bought some bottles, but is a small bottle to pay online from some distributor you don't know exactly worth it?  The other angle though which most beer fans do though, is trading with other beer fans to get them.

Acquiring these three beers for me was quite an interesting journey.  In many ways there has been criticism on both sides of the debate about Westvleteren beers. One is the obvious side of the monks who express succinctly for their beers to NOT be resold.  The second is the side and criticism of the monks to make more beer to stop the heightened demand and prices thus making them more available and affordable.  It's an interesting debate with no clear winners.

In the end, I've had many trips to Europe, but one right now is not in the cards anytime soon.  Finding another beer fan, we exchanged some goodies and I have now my chance to try all three of these beers. The best thing was sharing appreciation of good beer with someone, instead of just handing over cash to someone who might have alterior motives and could care less about good drink.

Below are my thoughts on all of them first starting with the Blonde Ale.  I had since purchased a chalice to hold these brews to see them in all their glory.

It was a long journey to get to this point in my imbibing life, a road that takes you many places and certainly ones that make it all worth it.  Another road I hope to do someday, is to get back to Belgium not just to have this beer again, but to also return the bottles and say thanks. My imbibing thoughts are posted below. Cheers to you all!

Review of Westvleteren Blonde Ale



Review of Westvleteren "8"



Review of Westvleteren "12"

Imbibing Orval and understanding how a proper glass makes a beer shine

Sometime ago I was at a Belgian beer tasting hosted by Belgium native Bart Vandaele from Belga Cafe and learned a very important lesson. The proper glass for a beer from Belgium makes a big difference in your tasting experience. So much so that of the thousands of beers you could have from breweries each glass is unique.

I remembered this and when setting out to make my latest tasting I realized I never had an Orval glass to compare against my Leffe Blonde. So I decided to wait, and got one in the mail. That time was well spent and made a huge difference and impression on me in tasting this unique beer.

It's kind of hard to sometimes justify having lots of glassware, but it truly does make all the difference. To understand why, watch the review below of Orval and Leffe Blonde.

Big Beer is Big fun, and full of imbibing win.

Several years ago when I arrived in DC I would often be in one of my favorite beer stores to pick up goodies during the December holidays. When one goes to the liquor store during these times, you find the usual things, lots of champagne (or some other sparkling wine), gift packs, glassware, but one time amongst all the celebratory stuff I saw in the beer section very large bottles. "Hey they stuck a bottle of champagne in the beer section by mistake what are they doing?" I though to myself. Then I looked closer and saw that this wasn't a mistake... these big bottles had familiar labels and were full of beer!

For many years I put off buying these items, always telling myself.. yeah I am gonna have to get one of these. Years would pass (and I mean MANY!), I would see the bottles in the stores and talk myself out of them every time. Finally I had to break down and do this and find an excuse to buy one of these (cause it would be hard to justify drinking this all to myself), and called up some friends and invited them over for a poker night.

The stage was set, and with much imbibing joy, we cracked this sucker open. This is a jeroboam sized bottle of Augustijn Blonde Ale a style of Belgian Pale Ale. I purchased it in late December, kept it in my cold basement garage and cracked it open about 4 weeks later. Storing these things is an issue because you want to serve and keep this at a good temperature. I have some tips if you are thinking about having one of these large bottles:

1) Make sure you have a big enough place that is perfect for cold/cool storage

The beer recommends 8°C (That's 46.4°F for us Americans) and that "seemed" to be what my unheated basement in DC would do on a typical winter day. This is also why I drink a lot of beer during this time, because I have plenty of room down there, it's dark, and it stays perfectly cool. However, this does not work for long term cellaring of bottles, because a typical temperature in July in my basement is about 120°F!! I did get concerned at one point cause we had some very odd days in December where the temperatures outside even got into the high 50s! but it stored and kept well. Luckily temperature changes didn't vary much, which always has me concerned cause I am convinced that really ruins beer fast (especially Belgian style made beers). Make sure you have enough room.

2) Put it in that dark cool place and DON'T MOVE IT AROUND, LEAVE IT until you are ready to serve it.

3) Opening

Get help... no what I mean is you can do this yourself but have someone ELSE around to probably hold your glassware. Two hands with everything always so another body is always good. Besides you're sharing this! Have kitchen towels ready, and a place to set the bottle DOWN. Now as for opening, as I've mentioned with corks... ideally TWIST THE BOTTLE while holding the cork to loosen it. Once you've done that then slowly with your thumbs go around the edges gently pushing the cork. DO NOT PUSH HARD OR YOU WILL BREAK THE CORK. Eventually the cork will start to give, the best feeling is when you feel the cork move on its own that way you can have time to be ready when it pops.

4) Aim

Seriously this is a no brainer.. but AIM away FROM YOURSELF. Have an idea of where the cork is going to go before you even begin opening, a big open ceiling is good. Don't aim in a room with lots of windows, lights etc... and of course DON'T AIM FOR YOUR FACE looking at the cork to see what is going on.

5) On pop

Once the bottle opens PUT IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY because it should gush and you will get your hands wet. If you hold it while it is gushing you will get your hands wet and there's a VERY good chance you will DROP IT which means... spilling it, or worse... breaking it.

And finally my most important tip for this..

6) HAVE FUN!! Share this with someone who appreciates good drink.

That's about it... to see how this drink and review went, check out the video below.

The Belgian Tripel revisited...

Enter Belgian Tripel (triple) land... or as I call it.. a road that needed to be driven once again.

Sometime ago I had a tripel (triple) from Belgium and I remember really enjoying it.

So it seemed like pairing to Belgian products side by side would do the trick.

Enter a yeast, big, somewhat odd, wicked wonderland, where one producer seemed to do better than the other.

Which one was it? Well you'll just have to try them yourself. My thoughts are in the video below.

Pop goes the cork and...

Cheers!