BREWERY: Brouwerij Huyghe
STYLE: Strong Pale Ale
ABV: 8.5%
PURCHASE: Draft (12-oz.), $7.50
SERVING: Tulip glass. Usual head of three-quarters of an inch to an entire inch for the first two beers, then the tap seemed to catch a "head fever" and gave me two full inches for Round 3. Average retention this time, as opposed to great retention from the bottled version.
APPEARANCE: Foggy, pale golden body with slightly off-white head. Faint bubbling. Splotchy lacing around the inside of the glass.
BOUQUET: Fairly balanced between malt and hops, with malt notes holding a slight edge. Fruity and citrusy, with noticeable appleskin essences. A tinge of banana and seeming traces of witbier spices such as clove.
PALATE: Goes down effortlessly for a beer of this strength. Carbonation is initially quite tame but gets a bit sharp if held too long. Sweet malt entry, leading to a fruity mid-palate. Lightly hopped. Undertones of banana seem to lurk. Sour apple notes become more prominent toward the end; this was not noticeable in the bottled version. Aftertaste is yeasty, citrusy, and appley, with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kick of pepper and clove at the end.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: This was only the second time I've had Delirium on tap, and like the first, it possessed a strong apple presence. Why I didn't pick up on this in the bottled version, I can't say. Maybe I'm just not that savvy a beer snob. Or maybe it's just not there in bottled form.
This is a deceptive beer. You can almost down this as if it were Budweiser. But then it would be bad news! Good thing for me that it's quality, and not quantity, that I'm after. And quality this is, though I may have overrated it by a hair the first time around.
ORIGINAL GRADE: A
NEW GRADE: A-
Delirium Tremens is also the name of a speed and thrash metal band from Germany. Check'em out!
This is their Facebook page. And here they are live:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Behave yourselves. Cursing is okay. Harassment is not.