Westmalle Triple. The hops don’t get in the way of the full malt bill and the alcohol, while slightly fusely, it is well constructed so that none of the components overwhelm the others. From 1923 onward, the beer was marketed under this name – no mean feat in the Catholic Flanders of the time. Yes, I know this beer changed after Brasserie D’Achouffe was bought by Duvel/Moortgat, but it is still an excellent beer. Traditional gueuze can be hard to track down and you may have to settle for the sweeter, more commercial brands, notably Belle Vue Gueuze (5.2%), Timmermans Gueuze (5.5%) and the exemplary Lindemans Gueuze (5.2%). This also contributes to the unparalleled taste. It has a great finish that leaves faint traces of fruit and straw that lingers and begs you to have another taste. The 7.5% Bush is a tasty pale ale with a zip of coriander. Jupiler. Official estimates suggest that there are more than 700 beers currently in production in the pint-sized country, with the rarest and most precious given the same reverence as fine wine. Antwerp's leading brewery, De Koninck, is something of a Flemish institution – and for some a way of life. #20) Piraat – Brewery Van Steenberge – Ertvelde. The beer pours a great orange-amber color with a huge head that remains for quite some time and slowly dissipates into some nice lacing. When the Trappist designation became a strict appellation a requirement was that the beers had to be brewed within the monastery, ending the arrangement with St. Bernard. From the Struise web site regarding the Pannepot beer –, This ‘Old Fisherman’s Ale’, named after the fishing trawlers on which men would risk life and limb to feed their families, sits somewhere in between a Belgian strong dark ale and a stout. It pours with a nice full head that remains for some time. Other fruit beers are available too, but Kriek is perhaps the most successful. Brouwerij ’t Gaverhopke ’t Gaverhopke Extra. Belgian monks finally launch website to sell 'world's best beer' ... had been selling three types of the renowned beer at about five times the price charged by the monks. #11) Saison Dupont – Brasserie Dupont – Tourpes. The Rodenbach Grand Cru matures in oak foeders, or barrels, over a period of two years, giving the beer a unique, complex fruitiness that is reminiscent of wine. Brewed in the Flemish town of Mechelen. Both are very hard to find in the U.S. #9) DeDolle Dulle Teve – De Dolle Brewers – Esen. Its standard beer, De Koninck, is a smooth, yellowish pale ale that is better on draft than in the bottle. Today St. Bernard brews a half dozen beers each unique and each excellent. All the rest of the Het Anker beers are excellent, but this one really shines in my opinion. I had to mention a couple of ‘honorable mentions’ since both of these beers Saison Dupont is a classis saison, or farmhouse ale by which all other saisons are compared. The flavor is a blend of all the above descriptors and is incredible smooth for a beer of this magnitude. The taste is incredible. The finish is semi-sweet , sour and dry. Then this beer became a second refermentation in the barrel. The better examples are not too sweet and taste simply wonderful. Full graceful tenderness, with a clean and neat taste, this beer will enchant you: matured in the bottle, exclusively obtained from pale malt, highly fermented and 100% natural. This is usually a hard question to answer for most. Produced in the Ardennes, this distinctive beer is instantly recognizable by the red-hooded gnome (or chouffe) which adorns its label. The flavor is fantastic and carries through with rich dark fruits, chocolate and spices. Brewed in the Flemish town of Mechelen. 10 great places to go walking in Scotland, Why you should visit Eastern Europe this winter. De Garre has a menu that is like a small book with hundreds of bottles selections as well as several more beers on ‘vat’ (tap); but you are here for the ‘grail’. This was and is ‘the sour’ long before the more recent wave of sour beers took over the market. Pannepot Grand Reserva has aged for 24 months on oak barrels. Like the other special beers of the Brewery Van Steenberge, Gulden Draak is a high fermentation beer with secondary fermentation. During the next summer, this very thirst-quenching beer was served to the “saisoniers” which were working on the fields. Since 1844, this beer has been brewed in our farm-brewery, during the winter time. #18) La Chouffe – Achouffe/Moortgat – Puurs. Emperor Quint used to visit the hospital as part of his regular rounds of his ‘domain’ and it is said that he used to enjoy some ale while visiting. One of the world's most distinctive malt beers, Orval is made in the Ardennes at the Abbaye d'Orval, which was founded in the twelfth century by Benedictine monks from Calabria. The beer pours a amber red and has a full head that dissipates quickly. I was IN LOVE… Since that time, these three beers can always be found in my home bar and I drink them regularly. The owner of the brewery, Vincent Dilewyns, was a dentist that home brewed and the ‘hobby’ got out of hand. Belgium's beer-making history goes back centuries and it's famous the world over as being a top beer country. In an effort to not populate the list with many beers from one brewery, I will only list my favorite two beers from each brewery. This beer is aged 24 months; 14 on new French oak and then transferred to Calvados oak barrels for an additional 10 months. During a period of 46 years they brewed and commercialized the beers, while the monks continued to brew for themselves and for sales to 3 pubs in the neighborhood, among which In De Vrede, just next to the monastery. Duvel has it’s own special goblet that is recommended as when the beer is poured, it produces a huge white fluffy head that lingers for a very long time. After the battle on the field of Beverhout in 1382, the inhabitants of Ghent took the dragon as war booty and put it on top of their Belfry. The bitterness of hops is barely discernible in this style of beer. The Rodenbach Brewery has been in business in Roeselare since 1836. Each of these beers is a unique blend, but they all share a brewing process characteristic of the area surrounding Roeselare and Kortrijk. Hoegaarden is easily recognisable for its distinctive octagonal glass © Marcel Bakker/Shutterstock. Maybe brewer Manu Landtsheer should rename it ‘Not Too Ale”. #14) XX Bitter – Brasserie De Ranke – Dottignes. Claire handles all the marketing. A great beer for a summer afternoon or for dinner along with some firm fish, chicken, pork or really almost anything. Saison is his flagship beer and usually one you might be able to find rarely in the U.S. Expect an excellent aroma of dark malts, dark fruits like figs, dates, raisins, toffee, dark sugar and notes of aged port. The aroma is very complex with notes of malt, straw, fruit, pepper and mild notes of tobacco and oak. This beer was one of the first beers over 20% alcohol that was very well put together and actually tastes like a beer. When tasting, there is a slight sweetness that is combined with all the previously mentioned flavors and the beer dries a wonderful semi dry finish that carries many of the flavors with it. The beer was a smashing success, so they decided to brew it again the following year and the year after. Aroma was very thick malt base with loads of oak, coffee, bourbon, chocolate, some anise, smoke and molasses. The beer pours a dark reddish brown with a full head of tight light tan foam. The head lasts FOREVER! Produced at a Trappist monastery in the Ardennes, Rochefort beers are typically dark and sweet and come in three main versions: Rochefort 6, Rochefort 8, and the extremely popular Rochefort 10, which has a deep reddish-brown colour and a delicious fruity palate. Dulle Teve means ‘Mad Bitch’ in Flemish and there is more that one story as to where the name originated. The Girarden gueuze that they use to blend with doesn’t overtake the nuances of the tripel, nor vice versa. This will be the only Top 20 out of all my lists. The flavor profile is incredible. The beer is categorized as  a Belgian pale ale and it fits this bill as well as a strong golden and if it had a bit more haze, one could say it has some characteristics of a saison. This site is owned by Apa Digital AG, Bahnhofplatz 6, 8854 Siebnen, The beer was only brewed as a once a year special on February 24th, but it became so popular that it is now brewed for the entire month of February. The head dissipates rapidly into some great lacing. I am a sucker for tripels, and this is one of the best on the planet. The aroma immediately takes you in and you know this is a world-class sour beer. Pours with a nice full off white head that produces an abundant amount of aromas that include vinegar, sour fruits, cherry, green apples, pepper, some caramel and other spices that meld into a wonderful melange of aromas. The aroma is pure tripel, sweet, malty, spicy, with note of lemon, white grape, apple, stone fruit, banana and pear along with some spiciness including coriander, peppercorn, clove, candi sugar, bread or cracker, herbs along with some floral grassiness and yeast earthiness. Very popular, but a little gassy for some tastes. 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