Belgian Ale Night

It was a day like any other day. Trying to graduate school and squeeze in time to do experiments between all kinda of administrative nonsense and mountains of useless paperwork, but at least the evening held the promise of something delicious. Dr. Didier Depireux, a Belgian, had his parents bring a few bottles of beer over when they visited recently and it just so happened one of the bottles is Jim’s french-canadian roommate’s favorite beer: Forbidden fruit. This beer was the reason for the occasion.  Brewed by Hoegaarden and known as ‘verboden vrucht’, the bottle had a crown top metal cap (unusual for Belgian beers, I think).

Jim acquired a rather large bottle of Chimay red to use as a baseline comparison. The bottle of Forbidden fruit was smaller, and the bottle had a substantial quantity of sediment in it, something I dont mind too much (also, it’s high in vitamins!) especially since all my homebrew also has it.  We opened both, pouring each a sample of the Chimary red and the Forbidden fruit, cheersed to Didier and his family, and took a drink of the Forbidden fruit.

I have to say, despite the fact that I am not the world’s largest fan of Belgian style beers, this one was not too shabby.  What it lacked in body it made up for in flavor AND, very importantly, it did not have an overwhelmingly strong alcohol taste/smell to it.  For me, this is a big issue, as I usually tend to drink a substantial quantity of beer when I do drink, and I could see myself downing a few of these beers in a night, rather than just a few and waking up the following day unable to look at sun light.  The beer gave off a rather small quantity of head, something made up for by the Chimary.  The size of the head is important for a beer, as it traps in some of the aroma and maintains some of the carbonation.  However, Forbidden fruit had a very nice carbontaion style.  The bubbles were very very small, almost champagne style, which made the Chimary’s bubbles seem very large by comparisson.  You could actually feel the difference between the two while drinking.  I do feel that Forbidden fruit would have lost a good deal of its carbonation within a few minutes, so you’d be doing yourself a favor by drinking up.

I was a bit surprised by tasting this beer, since I head some quick reviews online and the tastings were all over the place.  A lot of people tasted a bitter beer with alcohol finish, others had a sweet beer with no alcohol, or sweet with alcohol, etc.  In the end, I’d have to say the beer had sweet malty taste, without a big alcohol taste, and had a dry finish.  You could smell some overtones of fruit… but not citrus, though I’d need another beer to be able to better detect the fruit.  Not a bad beer, and in the lineup, I’d put it above Chimary Red as far as categorizing beers based on goodness goes.  Maybe next time we can compare it to Chimary Blue!

Recommended pairings: A strong cheese… I’m thinking bleu and a real sharp cheddar (NY aged, of course).  You might be able to get away with the classic mussels dish, but it should be a very strongly seasoned and flavorful dish to match the flavors in the beer.