Night Cap...Affligem Blond

Well, the Germans have left the country again. We saw them for the last time on Sunday when we splurged and ate lunch at The Counter down in Irvine. Build your own burger what could be better than that? My order? Beef. Thought about the turkey but D convinced me. How did I order it? Like this,
Me: How rare can I order it?
Waitress: As rare as you want it.
Me: I'll take it like that

Sadly though they are back to that cold cold land so close to Belgium. Ahhhh Belgium. Land of such great beers. Like Affligem Blond. Blond is the most common of Affligem's offerings. Though not a Trappist beer it is brewed in a monastery. Those Belgians, always brewing in God's house. Why can't Americans brew in God's house? I'm sure God wouldn't mind a good IPA every once in a while. Think about it. Sacramental wine or sacramental beer? What if you are like D and don't like grapes? Isn't this the land of choice? I know I know, this is all probably blasphemy and I am a heathen but really, think about it. We might get some more people attending church if we had a choice.

Back to what I was supposed to be talking about. I poured this one over at the Lawyer's house on Sunday for a nightcap with D along with some good old Wild Turkey Honey on the side. Have you ever had Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon? You haven't? Stop what you are doing right now and go down to your local CVS and pick up a bottle. It's cheap and it is sooo smooth. As smooth as this Affligem. This poured a pale  hazy golden straw color with a large head that I had to wait for eons to pour the rest of the bottle into. I definitely found out that this got better the closer to room temperature it got. First sip? Nothing spectacular. Warm it up a little though and it blossomed into a much more refined layered flavor profile. A little hoppy, this beer is pretty dry. I can definitely see this as a front porch heat wave sipper. Satisfying a thirst quenching. Cheap as well as the Belgians go. I'm a fan and at 7% ABV I can down a couple and feel OK about myself.

The Monks Are Back!...Rochefort 6

Mmmm....I love me some monk beer. This one had everything that Orval didn't. A deep dark coppery brown color, slightly fruity and musky bread on the nose, a tinge of alcohol and enough carbonation lighten the body a bit.  This one was roasted malt sweet with enough hops to tone it down. All of Rochefort's beers are bottle conditioned so there is a bit of yeast and sediment on the bottom. Where Orval had failed me Rochefort 6 made me want to keep drinking all night.

The "6" is Rochefort Abbey's lowest ABV beer at 7.5% The others being the "8" and "10" at 9.2% and 11.3% respectively. The 6 is only brewed twice a year and is only 1% of their total production so it can be a bit hard to come by.

Through a bit of research I've found some pretty interesting things about the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy which is located near the town of Rochefort from which the beer takes it's name. There are only 15 monks at the Abbey and like the other Trappists they are extremely secretive about their brewing process. One of the more interesting things about Rochefort is that the water used in the beer is drawn from a well inside the abbey's walls so the entire process is contained within the cloisters. It might sound ridiculous but I love drinking Trappist beer in part because of the history. That question of which of the 15 monks who live and breathe this ale poured my beer into the bottle for the final fermentation? So next time you are drinking Bud Light, ask yourself the question, "Which completely automated machine squirted my homogeneously created, artificially carbonated, wizz water into my bottle"?

Orval Trappist Ale...Brewed by Monks, Enough Said

There are 171 Trappist monastaries around the world and of those only seven brew beer.  Six of them are in Belgium and one of them is in the Netherlands. Probably the most recognizable bottle is Chimay. Most of them are not regularly available except at a specialty store and one of them is brewed in such small quantities (Westvleteren) that it is rarely seen outside of Europe. They even have a "beerphone" for customers to make a limited order of one case per month.

Orval is a relatively easy to come by however and I was really excited to try this one because the vaunted Michael Jackson, (not the king of pop) king of all things beer, raved about this beer and several well known craft brewers consider it one of their favorites. I have had this one on my radar for a bit so when I went over to the Haven to meet my MIA bro and my best friend, now neighbor, from college I knew exactly what my first beer was going to be.

The bottle is a cool kind of tear drop shape and it pours a beautiful clear orange brown with not that much head. The aroma has a bit of hops and some spice but overall not that remarkable. That "unremarkable" thing plays out through the entire drinking experience. I never got the nuanced flavors that people raved about. I got a little bit of hops spiciness, a little alcohol taste and beyond that not a whole lot. Don't get me wrong it wasn't BAD, just not as good as I was expecting. Maybe a product of over hyping? Don't get me wrong if someone offered me one I would drink it happily but I don't see what all the fuss is about. I've had other trappist beers that were better.