Have Beer Will Travel: Day Two in Antwerp

I decided to try a restaurant, Fiskebar (on Marnixplaats) that was recommend to me. It is supposed to be a Danish style seafood place. It turns out they have two places next to each other, so I ended up a the more informal "Fiske Tapa/Oysterbar" rather than the "sit down" type more formal dinning next door. But it was good and I'd definitely go back. Plus its only about 10 minuts from the Kulminator.

They had a bowl of mixed shellfish in a garlic sauce. It was very good but I was burping garlic the rest of the day.

I wandered around Antwerp for a few more hours until the Kulminator opened (at 4pm). Life was easier when they opened earlier.

I broke with my usual tradition by not starting off with a draft beer, but rather the beer of the month, Ename Cuvee. I really like the Ename Triple so I thought I'd give this a try. I was amber colored with good flavor and not too strong -- a good starting beer.

There were a few draft selections I hadn't had, so I decided to "run the table" -- except for the fruity beer.
I having had a Bourgogne des Flandres in a while, so I went with that first. There was just the right amount of sourness and no saccarine sweetness that you fine in some other breweries versions of this style.

While the beer is good, I do like the thistle glasses quite a bit. This is the Gordon's Christmas from 2008. Very malty as you'd expect.

I couldn't wait any longer, I had to have an Avec les Bons Voeux -- it was all the better for the wait.

Now it gets interesting. I wanted to try one of the "new" Westvleteren 12 -- the ones packaged in painted bottles and sold as sets in some supermarkets here. But I was told they weren't serving those, they were being saved for later. Leen said that even Dirk hadn't had one. But she brought me one anyway -- it's good to be a "semi-regular" sometimes.

Not making any comment on where it was brewed, this beer is different that the Westvleteren 12s I had in the past. It was sweeter and the fruitiness and yeast character was missing. It wasn't bad by any means, but certainly not worth the prices they are fetching. Another note to this -- the best buy date on the cap was only 2 years in the future -- the W12s I've had before were 3 years -- which I always thought should be "don't drink this before date" as they are much better with a little aging.

Dirk came over and asked if he could taste it. (Of course I said yes). He took a few sniffs, then a sip, swished it around in his mouth, shook his head and said "Westmalle Quadruple." I don't have the knowledge or expertise to judge that, but I can tell this is a different beer -- either "dumbed down" in order to increase production or farmed out to another brewer.

I guess I was "over the hump" as I seem to pick up speed, alcohol wise. Next was Bush Noel (this from 2010) and at 12% is a big beer. If Santa reads this blog, he can bring me all of these he wants.

The finale is Mikkeller Black (brewed in Belgium, of course) at 17.5%. This is some Imperial Stout. I think this one will age for a while, but I'd be hard pressed to save any, it was so good.

That was supposed to be the last beer, but I wasn't really ready to leave, so I asked Dirk to pick a beer we could share. He came back with a Hoegaarden Grand Cru from 1985. It had aged well, but it made me sade that I didn't have a chance to drink it when I was (reasonably) fresh. Of course in 1985 Anchor Steam was an exotic beer for me so even if I had traveled to Belgium I wouldn't have tried. Mr Peabody, I need your wayback machine.