The headline for a New York Times (free registration) tasting pretty well summarizes the Belgian approach to “styles”: More or Less Pale but All Belgian.

Eric Asimov writes:

Whoa, I can hear beer connoisseurs saying. I’ve heard of Trappist ales and lambics, Belgian wheat beers and even Belgian red and brown ales, but pale ale?

They have a point. There is no category, strictly speaking, of Belgian pale ales. But the Belgians make a lot of beers that defy categorization. We gathered 23 that may not have a whole lot in common except that they are excellent summer quenchers.

You won’t find all 23 rated (so like me you might be wondering what the other 13 were), but No. 1 is Brasserie des Rocs Blonde and the second is DeRanke XXX Bitter. Two very different beers.

But then so are the next two, Petrus Aged Pale and Orval.

One thing missing is when the beers were bottled, which a consumer can calculate from the mandated “best by” dating.

In his blog, Asimov writes most of these are typical “ready to drink now ales” with a lineup of vintage beers he recently enjoyed at dinner with Garrett Oliver. In fact, several of the beers in Times tasting could do double duty. They are refreshing in the hot August heat, but also fun to cellar.

Bringing us back to Orval.

Speaking on a panel with other Belgian brewers last year at the Craft Brewers Conference in Seattle, Orval brewing director Jean-Marie Rock said that he likes to drink Orval almost immediately after it is released to the public.

He described Americans who like the Brettanomyces character - what Michael Jackson describes as “hop sack” and “fresh leather” aromas - that Orval is known for as “lucky” because he doesn’t intend for it to make itself known until six months after bottling. And he prefers Orval at three months old.

You don’t see much Orval only three months old in the U.S., but you will find bottles less than six. Just reading the description in the times it appears their sample was older and the Brett had kicked in:

“Spicy, bitter and very dry with a lingering touch of orange zest and funk.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 8:44 am and is filed under Abbey-style beers, Tasting-rating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.