Delightful Beers at Home!

Four delightful beers, starting with 2 from the Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat, or Duvel Moorgat Brewery, a Flemish family brewery (website) founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, and now run by the 4th generation of Moortgats. A combination of yeasts from a Scottish ale (McEwan's Scotch Ale, very popular in Belgium at the end of WW1) was extracted and used by Moortgat's sons to help create a lighter ale, which, legend has it, was called a 'real devil' or Duvel, the local dialect for Devil.

Duvel (8.5%) is a multi award winning pale golden ale (my description), or Strong Blond ale (their description), with lots of body and flavour, and a subtle bitterness, it is very good. I just wish they still sold it in the buffet car on Eurostar, I used to love supping a couple of bottles of Duvel to and from Brussels! OK, we're starting in very good territory, and I rate this 8.5 out of 10.

Another slightly different beer from Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat (website), their 9.5% Duvel Tripel Hop Citra Belgian IPA. Since 2007, the brewers at Duvel had been creating a unique Tripel Hop each Spring, with a different third hop added to the regular Saaz-Saaz and Styrian Golding hops, this brew includes one of my favourite hops from the Wakima Valley in the USA, that is Citra. In addition, the beer is dry-hopped, and seems to have carried on for a few years now with those magical Citra hops!

Of course it's a gorgeous beer, indeed, it is quite a refreshing golden ale and, despite the strength, quite easy to drink too. There is a fruity aroma to invite you in, and, a hint of sweetness at first taste, but with much grapefruit, citrus and tropical tastes washing round your mouth, ending with a dry slightly bitter finish. I wrote "pretty good!" in my notes and gave this version of Duvel 9.0 out of 10, yes, it is that good, indeed it was close to 9.5, cheers!

Moving away from Flanders to the Ardennes, in the French speaking region of Wallonia, for the next ale, and to Brasserie D'Achouffe, or D'Achouffe Brewery (website), and their 8.0% La Chouffe (the Chouffe is the bearded gnome which became a symbol of the brewery from its inception 40 years ago, and is on the label). Called a Blonde (French, so an E at the end), although they describe it as golden, there you go, slight citrus flavour, full bodied, with a slightly dry bitter finish, I like it! Scores 8 out of 10.

Cascade is one of the 3 hops used by the American brewer Sierra Nevada (website) for their Pale Ale (5.0%), The Cascade hop was pioneered at Oregon State University in the 1950s and is widely used, indeed Cascade hops have been grown in England since 2002, after development at Wye College (website). However, Cascade was originally developed from the English Fuggle hop and the Russian Serebrianka hop. Cascade provides spicy citrus flavours, particularly grapefruit. Indeed, this Sierra Nevada is slightly weaker than the bottled version (blog), but certainly has grapefruit in the taste. Less to it than the others, so 7.0 out of 10.

Cheers folks!