Ok here we go, I just had
Real Ale's Devils Backbone. For those not familiar or have not tasted Reals Ale's beer, they are in Blanco TX. They have amazing beer, very thoughtful, different and enjoyable. But I'm starting to have a tough time with American breweries trying to do Belgian style beers.
I know there are guidelines to the belgian styles, see
http://www.beertown.org/education/pdf/BA_Beer_Style_2009.pdf to learn more, but American beers have always tried to be new exciting and different,
Hop Stoopid for example as well as countless others. I have tried a few "Belgian Ales" by American craft breweries and they are trying to be like a Belgian, not truly different and American, not even Belgian. There are tons of reasons they could never master the Belgian style, 100's of years of practice, water content being one of the other biggest factors. I'm not saying they don't make beers that are enjoyable, they are, but because popular Belgian ales use candi sugar American breweries versions tend to be too sweet.
Brooklyn Brewery's local 1 and 2 is a perfect example, nice clean, bottle conditioned but not surprising, sweet. Where is the American invention? Just because you use a trappist ale/belgian type of farmhouse yeast doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a sweet beer.
My favorite Belgians are somewhat sweet but they taste better than their American counterparts are:
La Chouffe's Houblon Chouffe,
Chimay's blue, and
Hoogstraten Poorter. These beers truly capture years of work and have a refined taste that American breweries still can't capture. But why do we try? I say make something new with the huge amount of ingredients at our disposal. I appreciate these breweries introducing the Belgian Like style to the american public, awareness and education will build many followers. But why not try a Belgian yeast strain with an american fruity cascade hop. How about a subtle flavor enhancement to the popular brown ales by including only belgian aroma malts. Just some ideas to share.
I want something new.
