Sunday, October 23, 2011

Another Day Just Hanging Out in Antwerp

A bolleke at Oud Arsenaal

Rodenbach and North Sea Shrimp at Oud Arsenaal

A fried herring sandwich from the Antwerp open air market

St Bernardus Abt and Triple Karmeliet at Het Elfde Gebod

By now, the Kulminator was open

Gentse Strop, a 6.5% Blond

Kasteel Rouge -- I didn't realize it had cherries in it!

Bush Noel -- only 12%

1995 La Trappe Quad - still very nice

We decided to try some triples for a while, concentration on those that we very fresh.

Triple Moine and Carolus Triple

Bornem Triple and Mardadous Triple

St Bernardus Triple and Chimay White Cap

The hops in the Chimay really blew me away. A very nice beer when fresh.

Looking at the label, I thought it funny that a Trappist Beer has a symbol for "No pregnant women." (It actually is on all the Belgian beers we checking, meaning I guess "Don't drink if pregnant.") In addition to the ingredients list, there was a warning on all beers "Contains barley malt." Duh -- its beer.



At this point things had quieted down and Dirk brought out the special beer for us to taste. It was designed by Mikkeller for Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen -- which often tops the annual surveys of the worlds best restaurants.


I am not usually a big fan of oak aged beers, but this one worked. The oak was a delicate complement to the triple like character of the beer. It was a bit too cold (for which Dirk to the blame)



Nothing could top that beer so we switched directions and had a Black Damnation -- a 13% Imperial Stout collaboration between De Molen and De Struise. Very rich and very nice.


By now they were ready to kick us out, so one last beer: For me an Avec les Bons Voeux and Tom had a La Trappe Quercus (Oak Aged Quadruple)


Tomorrow it is off to Brussels for the day, then Dublin on Monday.

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