REVIEW 42: LA CHOUFFE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Belgium

BREWERY:  Brasserie d'Achouffe

STYLE:  Strong Pale Ale

ABV:  8.0%

PURCHASE:  25.4-oz. bottle, $13.99

SERVING:  Said bottle, poured into Chimay-branded chalice. Between 3/4" and one full inch of head on a standard pour. A slower pour yielded about the same. Excellent retention. (This may have to do with the Chimay chalice's etched bottom, which causes emanating bubbles to spiral back toward the surface almost until the last drop.)

APPEARANCE:  Beautiful beer. Translucent, golden-orange with an effervescent and dense white head. Great lacing.

BOUQUET:  Complex arrangement of malted barley, banana, coriander, cloves, and caramel. Subtle yeast notes, perhaps even a touch of lemon. Everything is soft on the nose.

PALATE:  Medium body with gentle carbonation. Malt and banana are front and center, dominating the entry and mid-palate. Kicking in toward the finish is coriander. Undertones of clove and yeast are noticeable at any juncture. Hops are declared by the bottle's label, but not so easily discernible. The coriander factor rises in the aftertaste, but never becomes too sharp or biting--after all it's coriander, not pepper. Exceptionally smooth mouthfeel. Could stand to pack a bit more bite, if you don't mind my being petty. What's intriguing about this beer is the second (and final) pour from the bottle, which produces small yeast packets toward the bottom of the glass. The label on the bottle foreshadowed this phenomena, detailing how the brewing process leaves a yeast deposit on the bottom of every bottle.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  "La Chouffe" translates to "the gnome." What is a gnome? It was a Renaissance-era mythical creature that could move through the earth as humans easily moved above it, or so said the legend. According to the same legend, gnomes were responsible for brewing a strong pale ale in the Ardennes Mountain region of Belgium, which is where the Achouffe brewery, now owned by Duvel, stands today. "Duvel," or "the devil," now owns the gnome. How about that?

Why would gnomes brew this? How the hell should I know? And what does it matter? What matters is the final product. And if gnomes can produce something like this, perhaps American macrobreweries should offer them internships.




GRADE:  A

What you see near the bottom of the beer are clusters of yeast. Fascinating!