Beer. (Need I Say More?)

I love wine. I have loved wine since I was old enough to drink legally. I also love mixed drinks (Bacardi and Diet Coke to be specific). Beer has always been around, floating on my peripheral. Beer would orbit around me in social gatherings or at quaint little pubs where there was little much else to drink. I would drink beer, and occasionally I would find a beer that would suit my tastes and I would actually enjoy it.
I moved to Canada, where beer is something that most Canadians absolutely love. I started to really "taste" beer while I was in Canada. Although, to me, Canadian beer is more like American beer times 10. In comparison to the rest of the world, America's standard beer (I am not talking micro-brewery) has a low alcohol content and also seems to all taste the same (at least to me) - which is why I never really got into it. In Canada, the beer is a lot stronger in both alcohol and taste. Then I moved to Belgium.

Moving to Belgium was an incredible eye opening experience to me in terms of beer. It seems as though there are more types of beer brewed here than there are people living here. There are a few websites where one can go to research and rate beer. My favorite beer website, Beer Advocate (www.beeradvocate.com) has a mantra: "Respect Beer". With the nine different styles of beer that are brewed in Belgium, it is hard not to. How can one not respect a country in which beer brewing has been around since the middle ages? It is serious business over here, and since arriving, I have tasted and learned more about beer than I ever knew about wine.

My favorite style of beer is the Trappist/Abbey beer. I love this style as much for the taste as for the history behind them. There are only seven Trappist beers in Belgium. They are: Achel, Chimay, Orval, La Trappe, Rochefort, Westmalle, and Wesvleteren. My favorite of the Trappists is Westvleteren, which has been brewing beer since 1838.

I love really dark beers. These beers have higher alcohol contents, but have amazing tastes as well. My favorite dark beer is the Westvleteren 12, which is also ranked as the best beer in the world. When you get a beer like the Westvleteren 12, it is not like drinking a Budweiser at the bar. It is something that should be savored. This beer should take a long time to drink, and one is enough. It should not be served cold - room temperature serving really helps bring out the different hints of flavors.

Westvleteren Beer

Considering how difficult it is in the U.S. to get Westvleteren (Last I checked on E-Bay, 3 bottles were going for around $130 USD), I am really encouraging all of my readers to head out to a local fine liquor store and buy a good Belgian beer. Good luck and let me know how it goes!