Belgian Beer Styles: Trappist Beer, Wheat Beer
Secrets of Belgian Ales: Some Brewed by Monks or Aged in Oak Casks!
Aug 29, 2008
Trappist beers are perhaps the most famous. Brewed by Trappist monks, they come from just a handful of monasteries – Chimay, Westvleteren, Westmalle, Achel, Orval, and Rochefort.
These beers are often strong - many beers are in the 7.5 to 9 percent range of alcohol by volume – and complex in flavour, with sweetness and fruity or even vinous notes common. This is definitely beer to be sipped – not quaffed!
Abbey beers are similar in style to Trappist beers – they just aren't brewed by the monks, but by commercial brewers working for the monasteries. Many non-Belgian drinkers are familiar with Leffe and Grimbergen, but it's worth seeking out lesser known names such as Karmeliet, Watou, and Maredsous.
Wheat Beers Offer a Refreshing Difference
A quite different taste experience is offered by 'witbier', or wheat beer. This style nearly became extinct in the 1960s, but was revived by brewer Pierre Celis at Hoegaarden. Wheat, as well as barley, is used to create a pale coloured, refreshing beer. Coriander seeds and orange peel, and sometimes herbs, are added to give a spicy taste. Hoegaarden is the best known of the witbiers, but Blanche de Namur and Watou Wit are worth seeking out.
Lambic Beers - Love Them Or Hate Them
The lambic style is very much an acquired taste – you will love it or hate it. Lambic beers are spontaneously fermented – instead of adding yeast, the brewer simply leaves the beer lying around in a huge flat vessel called a 'coolship'. Wild yeasts floating around in the air come and colonise the beer – eventually! Lambics are typically sour, sometimes with sulphurous notes; if you like the tartness of rhubarb or gooseberries you'll like gueuze, the main lambic style.
An interesting sweet and sour variant is 'faro', which is made by adding brown sugar caramel to the lambic beer. Good lambic brewers include Cantillon, based in Brussels, Girardin, and Boon.
Flemish red and brown beers also have a mixture of sweet and sour. The Flemish red beer, of which Rodenbach is an excellent example, gets its complex flavours from specially roasted malt and a long maturation in oak casks - as well as a special yeast (lactobacillus instead of saccharomyces, if you want to get technical). Matured and aged for over a year, the oud bruin ('old brown') is regarded by some as the greatest of all beers, as complex and fruity as a good port or madeira. Petrus Oud Bruin is one of the best.
Each Belgian Beer Has its Own Glass
When you're drinking Belgian beer at home, you can use whatever glass you like. But if you're drinking Belgian bottled beers in a good bar, you'll see each one has its own special glass – some like brandy balloons, some fluted, and even one (for Kwak) like a medieval alembic.
Some say the glasses are designed to bring out particular aromas or flavours of the beer. Others see them as just a canny way to brand and market the beer. But it's all part of the rich tradition of Belgian beer – a whole world of variety from one of the world's smallest countries.
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