Achel 8 Brune

This was the first beer of the week. We wanted to start things off with a bang, so one of our 4 trappists seemed like the way to go.

The Achel 8 Brune is one of 5 offerings from the abbey. The others are the Extra, 8 Blond, 5 Brune, and 5 Blond.

The beer pours to an attractive reddish-brown. It has a creamy head, 2 fingers thick, that dissipates slowly and leaves some lacing on the glass (for those of you who don't know, lacing is the foam that stays stuck to the side of the glass).

The aroma is sweet and fruity, with a cherry smell and malty hints.

The taste is once again of cherry and sweet malt. At first the high alcohol content comes through in the flavor, but this goes away quickly. The finish of the beer is bitter, but well balanced, and very warming. This would be a great beer in fall or winter especially.

The beer is light on the tongue, and the carbonation comes through strongly at first. It has a tingly feeling to it.

Because of the intensity of this beer, although it has an amazing flavor, this isn't one you'd want to sit down and drink a lot of. It's a beer to sit and enjoy, sipping as you go.

Like all trappist beers, this is brewed under the supervision of monks, with the proceeds going to support the monastery and charities. The history of this beer is quite rich, but one of the things I found most interesting was the fact that the monastery had a brewry until the First World War, when the German army drove the monks out and dismantled the brewery. In 1998 when the monks at the Achelse monastery decided to re-open the brewery, the monks at the Westmalle and Rochefort abbeys, which both brew their own trappist ales, helped to build the new brewery. Try finding cooperation like that in any other industry!

-Adam

Coming soon...

Dan and I will be taking a trip on the 21st to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week with a group of friends. In order to make this a more memorable experience for us, we stopped by State Line Liquors tonight in Elkton, MD to pick up beer for the trip. A whopping $240.12 later, we have quite the list of beers to try out.

I'm particularly excited about the Trappist Ales we got while we were there. For those of you who don't know, a Trappist Ale is a beer that is produced by or under the supervision of the monks at a trappist abbey. In addition, the proceeds from sale of the beer must be used towards assistance in the monastic community (for example, the money can be used to support orphans or widows). We picked up 4 of the 6 Belgian trappist brands for this trip. Achel, Westmalle, Orval, and Rochefort. We almsot picked up a 5th, Chimay, but since we've already tried it numerous times and didn't need to spend any more money, we gave it a pass for this trip.

The list of beers we have to review are:

Grolsch
Pilsner Urquell
Brooklyn Brown Ale
De Koninck
Pauwel Kwak
Theakston's Old Peculier
Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter
Duvel
Achel Bruin
Orval
Rochefort 8
Westmalle Dubbel
Leffe Blond
Murphy's Irish Red
Warsteiner Dunkel
Czechvar (formerly Budweiser Budvar)
Weihenstephan Oktoberfest
Dogfishhead Punkin Ale
Ommegang Ommegeddon

That's 19 beers over a 6 day period. It's gonna be a good week.

Who am I and why do you care?

Well, chances are you don't. I'm just a guy who enjoys beer. Not for the sake of getting drunk, not because it's cheap alcohol (it really isn't if you buy the good stuff). I love the flavor, the variety, the history... alright, let's just say there's a lot of things I like about it.

Mostly I'm writing this blog for my own sake. I'll be cataloging my thoughts on different beers as I try them, and using it as a reference point for myself. If you happen to stumble on here and find some information that appeals to you, then great. I'm not an expert on any of this by a long shot, so don't take anything you see here as a hard fact. Actually, I'd welcome any corrections... this blog is mostly just going to be about my journey with my friends in our discovery of new and exciting beers (to us). Suggestions are encouraged!

All the information that follows below in this post is completely pointless. Come back later to read the first reviews, or continue reading at your own risk.

I had my first beer on my 21st birthday. I actually hated it. A friend took me to a local place, ordered a pitcher of something that sounded good, and we went for it. What came out of the back room was the darkest beer I'd ever seen. Now he only drank Miller Lite usually, and I was completely new to the stuff, so this nearly black brew with it's strong coffee-like flavor was not well accepted by either of us.

I tried a few different things over the years, mostly staying towards the "shallow end" of the beer pool. Miller Lite became my beer of choice for a long time, and I slowly expanded out to Heineken, Yuengling, and a few other popular beers.

It wasn't until I went out with a few friends from my old high school for a bachelor party that I experienced a truly wonderful beer, which sparked my interest to discover more. It was at a cigar bar in Philadelphia, and the beer's name was Duvel. This is a magnificent Belgian Ale, and is still one of my favorites. At 8.5% alcohol by volume, it's much stronger than your average brew, but the flavor is to die for. There was something magical about that first tasting. That one beer grabbed my attention in a way that no other had before, and I found myself wishing I could get my hands on it again.

Then one day I was visiting a friend who lives some 30 miles away from my house. We stopped by a local liquor store to pick up a 6 pack to go with our pizza and movie. While wandering around the store, I noticed a section of imported beers, and walked over to take a look. To my astonishment, they had a Duvel gift set, with 3 bottles and a special glass! I bought it right away, and introduced him to it as well. And that's how I started my beer odyssey...

(for more information on Duvel, visit http://www.duvelusa.com)