This post is a part of the 2015 New Beer Every Day Beer Diary Challenge, #ottbeerdiary. Over the course of 2015, I will be trying a new beer every day. Please read the background in the link above, and enjoy reading about the most recently tasted beers below. If you’d like to join the challenge as well, let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check out Grown-up Travel Guide and his #grownupbeerdiary, where Andy Higgs came up with the diary format in use below. You can catch up on all of our posts as part of the challenge under the tag ottbeerdiary.
From December 1 through December 24, I’m going to try to use a Christmas Beer for each day of Advent as part of my #ottadvent15 2015 Advent Calendar. Follow along with the tag ottadvent15.
Day 354: December 20, 2015
Diary entry:
I met up with a colleague from work today who is also into craft beer, and we made the journey over to Essen, Belgium for the OBER Christmas beer festival. This is the biggest Christmas and Winter beer festival around, and has been running strong since 1999. And yet somehow, this is my first time ever attending!
But first, we stopped in to De Caigny bottle shop for some final restocking for the year – I must say, they had a really impressive selection today! Took a lot of willpower not to throw a ton of beers into the shopping cart. I did manage to pick up a few though that I’m really curious to try.
We got to the festival hall just before the noon opening time, and the line was snaking across the parking lot to the street! In years past, I heard the festival was a bit too crowded, so this year, the organizers took to pre-sale tickets for the event, with a limit to how many people could attend. Based on the line at opening, and how many people were present in the hall around three hours in, I must say, that was a good thing to do!
As it was, the festival was pretty busy, but by no means un-navigable or over crowded. And somehow, they managed to keep stocks of almost all of the beers for quite a while. None of the beers I went up to order was out, though a few were on their last botltes from what I could tell, and towards the end of my time there, the Out of Stock signs were beginning to make an appearance on the shelf of bottles the servers were pouring from.
Our starter pack that came with our pre-sale tickets contained 7 tokens, and I got an extra for being a member of PINT, so I had 8 possible beers I could order. But I did make the choice to spend a token on a plate of meat and cheese so we had something to nibble on, so only 7 beers for me. With around 180 to choose from, that leaves quite a chore to choose which beers to sample. Luckily, they had an English-language beer list brochure with nice write-ups inside. Too bad they had no WiFi, otherwise I would have also done more online research (which I should have done in advance.)
In the end, I tried the following (including a couple which were tastes of the beers John, my colleague, ordered).
Nen Engel by Domus Huisbrouwerij – 8% Dunkler Bock – Some sweet. Some bitter. Not bad. But too cold from the tap. After this, I decided only bottles for the rest of the day.
Feestbier by Brouwerij Broeder Jacob – 8.6% Belgian Blonde – Honey and some spice.
Winter 15 by Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal – 6% Sour beer with Sloeberries – Interesting fruit flavors. Toasty. The Sloeberries give a very interesting flavor and aftertaste.
Snowlapin by Fort Lapin Brewery – 10% Belgian Brown Ale – Aroma of cola, then Root beer. Very carbonated. Interesting flavor.
Yvan Denisovitch’s Breakfast by Brasserie Du Brabant – 10% Russian Imperial Stout – Ah. My morning cup of coffee. This is very coffee flavored.
Augrenoise Blonde de Noël by Brasserie Augrenoise – See Beer-of-the-day below.
Knots Natuurbier by Varenbroek – 9% Belgian Strong Ale – A bit sweet, a little underlying bitter. But not all that special.
Chimay Grande Réserve Vieillie En Fût De Bois by Bières de Chimay (Abbaye Notre Dame de Scourmont) – 10% Trappist Ale – Really nice oak flavor added to an already great beer. Lovely!
Perfect Day by Brasserie Du Brabant – 8% Imperial Pilsner – Quite nice! Citrus and bitter. A good blend of flavors.
Canaster Winterscotch by Brouwerij de Glazen Toren – 9.5% Scotch Ale – Ok. Not quite as flavorful as I expected from the write-up.
Imperial Kroezer by De Hopscheppers – 8% Russian Imperial Stout – Dark dark brown. Dark aromas. Coffee. Cocoa. Flavors dark. Edging towards dark fruits. Lekker.
A quick lunch at the frituur across the street, then we began the trip back to the Netherlands.
But before we made it back to the carpool location in Best, a quick pit stop in Oirschot for the third festival of the weekend, the Kerst en Winter Speciaalbier Festival 2015 at Brouwerij van de Oirsprong. They were out of a number of beers when we arrived, but I was pleased to see a couple of the beers that I had on my potential list from the Essen festival available here as well, as well as a few they didn’t have there!
Lupulus Hibernatus by Brasserie Les 3 Fourquets – 9% Winter warmer – Wee bit sweet. Pretty strong.
Abbaye d’Aulne Super Noël by Brasserie de l’Abbaye d’Aulne – 9% Belgian Strong Dark Ale – Dried apple flavors. Really quite interesting flavor.
X-Mas Spicy by Brouwerij De Vlier – 8.5% Belgian Strong Dark Ale – Quite a nice mix of spices. Not too sweet…but it is sweet. Pretty good though!
Winterbier by Van de Oirsprong – 6.5% Winter Ale – Very herbal. Not as sweet as most of the xmas beers. But a bit of. Honey maltiness. This beer was released at the festival
And that was quite enough for the day, and for the weekend. Enjoyed an evening on the couch at home after all of that 🙂
The Beer:
Name: Augrenoise Blonde de Noël
Style: Blonde Christmas Ale
Producer: Brasserie Augrenoise
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Bottle size: 0.2 l pour from a 0.75l bottle
Purchased from: The OBER Kerstbierfestival in Essen, Belgium
Augrenoise Blonde de Noël by Brasserie Augrenoise. A 9.5% Christmas beer brewed at an annex of St. Alfred in Casteau, where the former Castle of Augrene serves as a home for the mentally handicapped. The label was hand-drawn by residents of the home. Brewed with Orval’s yeast strain, fermented in an open tank. All ingredients come from Orval, and the brewing is assisted by the former brewer of Orval. The beer is yeasty, yet fruity. It’s smooth. Very smooth. Toasty. But interesting. Really quite enjoyable.
