Belgian Beer Week (Part II)

We went to the Beer Junction quite a few days during Belgian beer week and tasted well over 30 different beers, most of which we had not had before including some of the well known styles of Belgian beers including Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad.  The Dubbel originated in the monasteries in the middle ages and is a rich malty beer, dark amber in color with some spicy characteristics along with a hint of caramel with a mild alcohol level.  We had the Chimay Red, which is a good beer for this style. 

The Tripel gets its name as it is brewed with three times the amount of malt in a standard Trappist “Simple” beer.  It is deep gold in color and with a complex, spicy/fruity/estery flavor profile finishing slightly sweet, complete with a higher alcohol level.  We had a few Tripels over the course of the week including Westmalle Trappist Tripel, Unibroue’s La Fin Du Monde, and the Chimay Tripel.

The Quad (or Quadrupel) is a dark red/brown beer with a full body of rich malts and sweet spices.  It is quite high in alcohol and because of its sweet finish is too easy to drink sometimes.  One of the more famous Quad’s is St. Bernardus Abt 12, which we’ve had before and the Rochefort 10, which we tasted during the week.  The famous Westvleteren 12 also fits in this beer style, but is not distributed anywhere outside of the Westvleteren Monestaery.  You must go to the Trappist Brewery to get bottles of it, or have a nice friend bring you some.  We have tasted the beer before at a bottle share, and are going to Belgium later this summer to hopefully get to enjoy it again.

There are many other Belgian styles of beer, but that’s enough on them for now.  There will be plenty more opportunities to share knowledge on them later on, especially since we are heading to Belgium for a Beer Cycle Tour later this summer.  The tour consists of 10 days of riding our bikes around the country and stopping at breweries along the way, and we can’t wait!