Happy Friday!!
Because I teach a class on the history and culture of beer and brewing, I though that I'd do a diary on beer. It might be ongoing, like a few other foodie and garden diaries that I admire greatly.
This afternoon I’ll be enjoying a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which tastes like liquid chocolate cake. It’s a fine beer. Then I’ll probably have a variety of Sam Adams' for the weekend, before brewing an Oatmeal Stout Sunday afternoon.
This week in the Friday Beer Report I’m going to focus on Belgian beers in general and the Ommegang Brewery specifically.
A bit of history
The history of Belgian beers and the nature of the style is almost as convoluted as the various tastes one can find across the spectrum of the style. When someone brings up a Belgian-style beer we tend to think of the Belgian monastery and the Abbeys and monks working in seclusion . And the purveyors of Belgian-style beer have cultivated this aura--largely because it helps to sell beer. The reality is more complex in that there are both Belgian beers which originate in Belgium and are at best only loosely linked to the monasterial tradition and then there are Trappist Beers, which come out of the monasteries.
Beer was brewed in Belgian monasteries since the early Middle Ages--most monasteries brewed beer in order for the monks to have something to drink, especially on fast days [daily ration in the 1300s--4 liters per day], and to have a source of income through the sale of their product. Napoleon’s invasion of the Low Countries in the late 18th century brought with it the expulsion of monks from their monasteries. For the next two generations those old centers of brewing served in a variety of capacities, none of them related to brewing. In short, the centuries-old tradition of monsterial Belgian beer was gone and would not begin again until the Westmalle brewery opened and started brewing in 1836. Even then they didn’t start selling to the public until the 1890s. Most Belgian beer sold in public in the mid 19th century was very light--along the lines of German wheat beers or extremely light lagers. It was weak and not very popular. This provided a market opening for heavier beers from other countries.
By the late 1800s/early 1900s, "Belgian" beer was almost non-existent as a distinct style in Belgium. English and Scottish Pale Ale and Strong Ale imports dominated the market. Today's Belgian beers reflect the influence of those beers, especially the strong Scottish beers.
In an effort to get the national industry going again, a Belgian newspaper in 1901 sponsored a brewing contest, asking for recipes and promising that the winners would be brewed. That initial contest failed, but a subsequent contest in 1902 brought several potential winners. The industry had been reborn. Except . . .
World War I saw a wide variety of restrictions on the use of grain for anything but feeding the army. Furthermore, brass brewing kettles were melted down for war munitions, and some of the heaviest fighting of the war occurred in Belgium. So along with everything else, the brewing industry suffered a great deal.
After World War I, for reasons that aren't clear to me, the Belgian government banned the sale of gin, which at the time was the typical "strong drink" for tipplers. What to replace it with? In stepped the brewers, who turned out strong ales of 10-12% alcohol with recipes based on a combination of Scottish, English, and Belgian brewing influences.
So, in the 1920s monasterial breweries sprung up, as well as "native" Belgian beer, which for the most part had been wheat beer and a few other kinds of light lager-style beers. of all the beers, Farmhouse-style saison beers were the most "Belgian" in terms of history and character.
So, most of the Belgian beer we think of as classic "monastery beer" that resembles what we know today dates from the 1920s and 1930s. For example Chimay began as a monastery in 1850, but only began brewing commercial beer in the 1920s. Orval, which was an ancient monastery but had been abandoned in the Middle Ages, was rebuilt in the 1930s and began selling beer in that same decade. Westmalle was the first Belgian Tripel and shows the influence of the British Pale Ales and Scottish Heavy Ales that dominated Belgium in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
World War II saw many of the same problems as during the first War to End All Wars. The post-war period, however, saw an explosion of Belgian breweries, and the return of both Belgian and Belgian monasterial beers to the forefront of Belgium’s export business. The beers we know today come out of that traiditon.
In celebration of the World Series, today’s beer comes from the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, New York. Actually, I highlight it because of all the Belgian-style beer available in most markets in the United States, Ommegang brews one of the most consistently great beers. Not to say there aren't some great local breweries producing Belgian-stlye beers. Check out especially the New Belgian Brewing Company in Colorado [you can get Fat Tire Ale almost anywhere in the US], which sells more Belgian beer in the US than all the Belgian imports combined. Allagash brewery's White and Grand Cru are spectacular beers. And if you get to Philly, stop by Monk's Cafe, which has a wide variety of Belgian beers on tap. Many US cities now have Belgian-themed pubs, which I think are becoming the new "Irish Pub."
Opened in 1997, Ommegang has quickly made a splash by deploying a small array of high-quality brews. They craft a variety of beers, including Belgian-stye Ales, and Ommegang’s beers stack up well against any microbrewery in the nation. Indeed, if you are looking for an excuse to "buy American," Ommegang’s Belgian beers are a great excuse.
The Beer
Being the dedicated Friday Beer Reporter that I am, I was willing to taste three wildly different Ommegang offerings--a Belgian Dubbel, an Amber Ale, and a Saison Farmhouse Style beer.
Ommegang Abbey Ale is a Belgian Dubbel. It pours well, with a full head that reduces somewhat quickly but doesn’t fade off. The aroma is malty, with a bit of toasty caramel and a tiny touch of cinnamon (which I can’t smell very well anyway--it’s just one of those odors my otherwise very sensitive nose doesn’t pick up well). It’s a more complex aroma than most Belgian Dubbels I’ve had. There’s not much spice or alcohol to the aroma, which is exactly how the style should smell. It reminds me of being in the woods--that heavy smell. The color is a very deep amber, almost a bit too dark for this style.
The first taste is very "full"--the caramel comes through immediately. In fact the flavor matches the aroma almost perfectly, with the aroma turning out to give a great preview of what it’s going to taste like. This is a malty beer without alot of hops flavor. In that sense it’s almost exactly the opposite of last week’s beer--the Stone IPA. You’ll taste the caramel along with the malt. The alcohol level is 8.5%--also a bit high for the style. However, this is an excellent beer.
Ommegang’s Rare Vos is an Amber Ale, and is generally called the best of their beers, although as someone who likes a stronger beer I might say that this is a matter of taste. Rare Vos has great head retention. The color is a deep amber, like an nice oak stain. The nose is very citrusy, with some cloves and a bit of banana to it. If you inhale deeply enough, you’ll get a bit of alcohol. The mouthfeel is a bit carbonated, but it isn’t overly carbonated. The flavor is very light. There’s some malt to it, and a nice hop balance. This finish is sightly dry, but not overly so.
This is a very drinkable beer. It comes in a 1 pint, 9 oz.bottle. That sounds hefty, and at 6.5% alcohol this one can pack a punch. But the beer itself is quite smooth. If you like English brown ales such as Newcastle or even the famous Harp or Bass, this is a great Belgian beer to start out with. Keep it cold and you can drink it over an evening.
The final beer is Ommegang’s Hennepin, which is a Siason Farmhouse Ale. It’s bottle-conditioned, which means that you can age it for a bit and it’ll get better. For a farmhouse this typically means that you store it at around 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit for a year or so. Stronger beers can be aged longer, but not these.
Among beer geeks a farmhouse ale is considered a great style, known as a down-to-earth style. Farmhouse ales grow out of the tradition that their names seem to suggest--they weren’t for commercial distribution, they were for private consumption. They were an alternate sort of food, a way to process grains so that they could be stored. They are unique to the French-influenced Wallonia area of Belgium, from where the Walloons hail.
Right out of the bottle this is a beer with a strong nose. It smells like a Pilsner Urquel, very strong. The head retention is great, and clings to the side of the bottle. This comes from the wheat malt, or perhaps the use of some cara-pils malt. In fact from the nose you might get hints of the wheat that’s in there. The color is straw-like. Before I describe the initial taste, let me say that I’m not a big fan of sour beers. Good farmhouse ales, to me, are few and far between. But this is very persoal, liek all taste. So when I first tried this beer a few years ago I was already primed not to like it.
Except that it’s great. It has some bits of sourness that comes from the lactobacillus that "infects" the beer to give it its flavor. Ommegang has done a good job of balancing the sour, the malt, and the hops in this beer.
Ommegang makes two other beers worth mentioning. Three Philosophers is an exceedingly strong "Quadrupel Ale." It's excellent. Their Witte is also good. It's a wheat beer that has some strong elements to it. It doesn't have that weak feel that some wheat beers do.
Well, there it is. So, Kossack tipplers, what are you drinking this weekend? Are you a fan of Belgian beers? Ommegang?