Belgian 101 - An Idiot's Guide please

[TheMumbler]

I might say that to me 5am Saint (i think - the pink one in Sainsburys) tastes a bit like a Stella with a lilt top.

How dare you!

With a dash of horlicks! It is more bitter than that suggests I suppose.

*shrugs* bitter + beery + lilt is what I get on the basis of one bottle (or vaguely in that ball park). I'm not a fan. Like I said I may have peculiar tastebuds. I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't like it, or enjoy a Stella with a Lilt top and a dash of Horlicks for that matter if that is what floats your boat.

In the main I have found Brew Dog to be the taste of American ideas poorly implemented. That might be hugely unfair - I'm not any kind of an expert on them. 5am saint is the only brew dog beer I've really not got along with, oh and that one with kola nut in it - I forget the name. I've had some good beer from them, but not all of it by any stretch of the imagination.

I know some people love 'em, fair enough. There has been plenty of debate about their beer and their marketing. A thread on Belgian beer isn't really the place to revist it. Feel free to split off a thread. :

 

[lancsSteve]

Man 'O man I love sour beers. It took a few to get used to them though. I've tried them on many of my friends, the missus and my Dad but they just think I'm mental...

My (limited) experience is that wine afficionados 'get' these MUCH more than beer drinkers.

"Horse blanket" is one of those phrases that I view as just judging speak. I think sometimes flavours bring back memories of places and things not related to stuff we put in our mouths and we then start describing that flavour in such a way.

Very much so - there are a set of phrases that =describe flavours by connection. TheMumbler described a Girardin Geuze as "like Asti poured over stinky cheese rind and through a sock with a dash of cider vinegar added" - which I think is eloquent and quite accurate, and better than the 5am saint descirption at least.

I think there is mileage in choosing one's adjectives with soem care e.g. 'parmesan' not 'socks'. But there's always the risk of going too far down this line of description and before you know it you sound like these two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzjR0yL4f0Y

 

[Swazi]

My (limited) experience is that wine afficionados 'get' these MUCH more than beer drinkers.

I thought that this would hold true. My Dad was a wine nut when I was young. He tried to get me into the tasting (complete with silly tasting language). Being a teenager I wasn't bothered.
The first sour beer I gave him to try was a Rodenbach Grand Cru. He gave it back and said it was faulty and that there was no way he was going to have any more. I tried to explain before he tasted it but it didn't help. :hmm: