The current issue of Brew Your Own magazine offers tips from Americans and Belgians who brewer Belgian-inspired beers.

Interviewed are Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing, Randy Thiel of brewery Ommegang, Rob Tod and Jason Perkins of Allagash Brewing, Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium Brewing, Steven Pauwels of Bouevard Brewing and Mark Ruederich of North Coast Brewing. Bouckaert and Pauwels were both born in Belgium.

Fun reading, plus ideas that will make your beer better (if you are a brewer).

For instance, from Bouckaert:

“Of course I had feedback from my Belgian colleagues, sometimes more than I’m hoping for. As long as we call it Belgian we will have feedback. The problem is that most “Belgian” beer claims really are not Belgian, they are American. We got into the habit of calling funky, sour or high alcohol beers Belgian. That is not what Belgian beer is; this is what American brewing thinks Belgian is.”

Here, here.

And from Paewels:

“Modern brewhouses are designed to brew German-style lagers in a very energy efficient way. When we started using our new state-of-the-art brewhouse we had to make several adjustments to the initial setup. The Belgian, English and German way of brewing is different.”

That’s something to think about whether you are making beers brewed in other countries or simply drinking them.

Harvest Moon Brewing in Belt, Mont., opened in 1997 and began brewing a beer it calls Beltian White shortly thereafter. That’s not a typo. Beltian, as in Belt, get it?

And it is brewed in the manner of a Belgian White Ale, or witbier, although apparently without any signature unmalted wheat.

It popped above the radar because Harvest Moon began bottling earlier this month.

What’s it taste like? Don’t know, but the reviews at Rate Beer are mixed.

Until now Harvest Moon has been best known for its Pigs Ass Porter.

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.”

The San Francisco Chronicle offers a little love to David Keene and the venerable Toronado because the San Francisco pub/bier-cafe/multi-tap is turning 20 years old.

I wasn’t sure in which blog to put the link in, but I picked here because Keene’s devotion to Belgian-inspired beer surely has meant that those of us in far-flung parts of the country (like New Mexico) have access to a few beers we might not otherwise.

From the Chronicle:

Q: What was the first great beer you ever had?

A: Before the bar opened in 1986, I was watching the “Today” show and Bryant Gumbel was in Belgium and they were drinking Chimay. And he made the statement that this was probably the finest beer in the world. And that stuck in my mind and I went out and found Chimay here in San Francisco at Liquor Barn. I got a bottle of it. It came in a 750 (ml bottle) with a cork finish. It was the Chimay red.

For the next year, I pretty much bought the Liquor Barns out of Chimay. I even had to go to L.A. to get it ’cause there was no more Chimay up here. That’s how I started my love affair with Belgian beer, which continues today.

Grab a Belgian or Belgian-inspired beer (wishing it was the Toronado Anniversary Ale from Russian River) and raise a toast to David.

Bob Sylvester, who I met last year during the National Homebrewers Conference in Orlando, reports that his Saint Somewhere Brewing Co. in Tarpon Springs is about ready to start selling beer.

“We are up and running and making our debut at the Wazoo Beer Festival in Tampa FL on Aug. 4,” he writes. The first two beers are a spiced saison and an amber ale. All of his beers will be unfiltered and bottle conditioned, sold only in corked and caged 750ml bottles. They won’t be available on draft or in 12-ounce bottles.

More from the St. Petersburg Times.

“I’d rather put out a small amount of a really good product than a lot of a mediocre product, ” Sylvester told the Times.