Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Well, just because you only like reds!

Well, like my old Military-Instructor said... as long as its liquid and makes stupid

I usually don't drink beer at all - no alcohol normally - but the only beer-like thing I like is the so-called "Radler", which might come from the German word for bycicvle : the "(Fahr)rad". So people who want to go by bike can drink this. It consists of lemonade and beer.

There are several mixtures available. The Wikipedia article lists some of them : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy
The German-language one lists some more : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biermischgetränk

Fenris said:

Well, like my old Military-Instructor said... as long as its liquid and makes stupid

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Local saying: 'Besser Alkohol wie kenn geholl.'
Now translate THIS.

Uh, indeed difficult to translate. Had to understand this in the first place myself ...

Well, yes, it's difficult to get unless you read it out loud...
Rhinefranconian innuendo .

I still don´t get it.

Hmmm... okay, let's try to translate it into proper German:
'Besser Alkohol wie kenn geholl' = 'Besser alle geholt als keine geholt'; 'Alkohol' is pronounced like 'all geholl', and 'geholl'/ 'geholt' = 'taken' in the sense of 'sexual intercourse'.
Of course, the relationship to alcohol is lost in translation.

I couldn't resist taking part in this discussion as I am a Zythologist from Belgium.

Let me explain something about Belgian beers.
First of all, when you say that Cristal, Stella or Jupiler are the best Belgian beers then I wonder in which category of people you fall. There are two categories of people, in my opinion, who say such things.
Category A: you compared different kinds of beers and you concluded that Cristal, Stella or Jupiler are the best beers in Belgium.
Category B: you only drink Cristal, Stella or Jupiler and/or maybe a couple of other beers.

If you fall into category A, then I respect your opinion although I don't share it.
If you fall into category B, then I strongly suggest to try out some new beers from Belgium. A whole world of greatness will open up for you.

Now for some facts about Belgium and its beers.
There are over 350 different beers spread over a massive variety of styles, such as blond beer, brown beer, tripels, special beers, luxury beers, trappists(more about that will follow), abbatial beers, champagnebeers, fruitbeers, gueze beers, lambiek beers, ... And those beers are only part of the commercial lineup of beers. We also have amateurbrewers who don't even sell their own beer but only share it with friends. I once had the privilege to drink one of these amateurbrewerbeers and sometimes they are better then what's on the market in that style of beer.

What's so special about Belgium and their beers? Sir Isaac Newton once said "The size of Belgium is inverse to the proportion of the greatness of its beer." That's what makes Belgium stand out in the beerworld. We are a very small part of the world but have the most diverse variety of different beers and styles.

There's one style where Belgians have the monopoly on. Those would be the Trappistes. These beers are brewed by the order of the trappistes, a group of monks, for their own maintenance. The Trappistes just brew enough to maintain their order and to be able to repair their abbeys or to help the unfortunate. In the entire world there are 7 Trappistes beers, 6 of them are located in Belgium and one in the Netherlands.
Those 6 Belgian Trappistes are:
Achel Blond, Bruin(=Brown) and Achel 8°
Chimay Rood(=Red; brown beer), Wit(=White; triple beer) and Blauw(=Blue; brown beer)
Orval
Rochefort 6°, 8° and 10°(which actually is 11,3° of alcohol)
Westmalle Blond, Bruin and Tripel(=triple)
Westvleteren Extra, 8° and 12°(which actually is +/- 10,7°)
Any sane person would say that any of these beers are better than Cristal, Jupiler or Stella.
The only Dutch Trappiste is La Trappe Wit(white beer), Blond, Bruin, Tripel, Quadrupel and La Trappe Bockbeer.
Only these 7 brands of beer are allowed to carry the name of Trappistes.

Now another type of Belgian beer are the champagnebeers, or the bière brut. These beers undergo the same treatment as the champagnes from France. The brew actually undergoes transport to the Champagne region in France to undergo a "dégorgement" and "rémuage" and then they are allowed to carry the name "bière brut". A few examples of these beers are Deus, Malheur Brut Réservé, Malheur Dark Brut and Malheur Cuvée Royale.
Also all of these beers are a lot better than Cristal, Jupiler or Stella.

Now about pilsbeers, the most commercial beers are those of Alken-Maes and inbev, which result in Cristal, Jupiler, Stella, Primus and Bockpils, ... But these aren't the best pilsbeers of Belgium. Did you ever try Golden Hop from brewery Bavik? Or a similar to pilsbeer is Vedett from Duvel-Moortgat. This one is also in my opinion a lot better than the commercial pilsbeers of Belgium.

I could write some more about Belgian beer but at the moment I don't have the time to do it. Maybe I'll write somemore in the near future.

For the Belgians amongst us, in Temse in the province of East-Flanders, on the 28the of April there will be a beerday from my beerclub, De Objectieve Kaaischuimers. If you want to taste great beers at low prices, then we're the place to be. For more information, visit our website www.kaaischuimers.be

To the people from outside Belgium, if you want to make the trip, you're welcome.

Bleh, even though I said I don't like beer, being a total beer wuss, I found your recap of the Belgian beer world quite interesting!
One problem I see is that those special beers you mentioned aren't widely available, as opposed to commercial beers. Kinda comes with the whole commerciality thing I guess, which means that most people probably fall under category B.

Thanks for all the details. I tried a Belgium Brown beer once and didn't like it. If I ever get back there again, I'll certainly make the effort to try a few more styles!!

Bleh said:

For the Belgians amongst us, in Temse in the province of East-Flanders, on the 28the of April there will be a beerday from my beerclub, De Objectieve Kaaischuimers. If you want to taste great beers at low prices, then we're the place to be. For more information, visit our website www.kaaischuimers.be

To the people from outside Belgium, if you want to make the trip, you're welcome.

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Very unfortunate the site in only in Dutch, so for the people who are not familiar with this language ... Perhaps you can suggest this in your club, Bleh. Making your club more internationally isn't always a bad thing.

@Arhu: I don’t know the situation in other countrys like Germany or France, but in Belgium the special beers I mentioned can be found rather easily. I’m not saying they can be found in any supermarket in Belgium but the supermarkets I tend to visit have a decent collection of good Belgian beers. At least they probably have one or two Trappistes probably Westmalle and Chimay because those two Trappistes are the most widespread Trappistes in Belgium.
In Belgium we have beerstores, these are stores that sell mostly beers, wines, liquors and other alcoholic beverages. I assume that in your country there are also such stores. Maybe some even specialize in beer from all over the globe. If you’re interested in Belgian beer, or want to try one or two, then I suggest you try to find such stores in Germany. I think that you’ll find such stores in mayor cities.

@Corwin: Don’t generalise a type of beer if you had only one example of that type. There is a lot of difference between two brown beers. For example, a Rochefort 10° compared to Leffe Brown. Between those two is a whole universe of difference. I don’t know what brown beer you tasted, but it doesn’t mean that because you didn’t like that brown beer that you don’t like any brown beer. That’s the beauty off Belgian beer, the diversity in types and beers of that type. Ofcourse you’re free to taste different styles of Belgian beer, in fact I encouraged it. But don’t give up on a brown Belgian beer. If you haven’t tasted the rochefort 10° yet, I strongly recommend it. But beware, it’s quite strong. It’s in the same category of Westvleteren 12, but that one is very difficult to obtain.

@Bartacus: There is a couple of reasons why it’s only posted in Dutch on our site. Firstly we’re not a big club and we like to stay that way. Secondly we assume that we won’t get any visitations from abroad on our beerday because our beerday is quite small compared to other clubs who have more money than us. So what’s the point in translating our site in other languages. But I’ll probably suggest the idea anyway. We have to argue about something during our meetings. But if a majority agrees about this, I could translate it without problems.

If any of you like to have some more information about the upcoming beerday on April 28th, then pm me and I’ll give the details in English.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one very special beer from Belgium in my prior post. The beer is called “Bush Prestige” and is THE strongest beer from Belgium and probably one of the strongest beers in the entire world. It contains 13% alcoholvolume and when I drank it for the very first time - I drank it in Brussels on a Belgian beerday and it came in 12,5cl tastingglasses - there was only one word that popped in my mind. And it was “WOW”. This beer is a different category alltogether in the entire Belgian beercatalogue. It tastes like sherry and white porto. With a touch of oak. If you find that beer in a store near you, I suggest you buy it, try it and enjoy it with some friends. But don’t open the bottle(75cl) alone, because it’s not meant to be drinked that way. One or two glasses(12,5cl) is really enough when you drink this beer. It’s so full of body and flavor that it easily saturates you. And one advice, take your time tasting it, it’s well worth it.

Never heard of that beer, Bleh, but I'll give it a shot when I find it. I thought Fosters(Australian) was the strongest beer -> I believe it has a 12.5 %, but I could be mistaken. Delirium Tremens isn't exactly a light beer too, but I don't know the percentage of it. The drawings however say it all -> pink elephants.

in regards to fosters its barely over 5%, i've never know a lager even in the range of 10%. found this list rather quickly. i'd almost rather drink a cheap domestic than a fosters though , since they all taste like swill and at least i'd be being patriotic.
http://www.brewery.org/library/AlClbinger.html

After the first few all beers taste the same.

i rarely even have more than the first few these days though...
ironicly enough this morning was my first hangover in ~a year and half.
also for those not familar with kimya dawson here is a nice (and vulgar) live track "the beer"
http://www.kimyadawson.com/audio/10_Kimya_Dawson_-_The_Beer6.mp3
(explicit lyrics)

I wouldn't touch Fosters either, and I live here. The best thing I can say about it, is it's better than any American brew!! I see next, we'll have a thread for drinking songs!!!!

Corwin said:

Sorry, but American beer is the second WORST in the world, after Italian and I've drunk beer all over Europe, North America, and Australia!! Austrian is the best, followed very closely by most German beers. Belgian was a cut above French, but the last lot I had was quite mediocre. We get a great deal of imported beer here, and I've tried a lot of it as well. I find the Dutch beer very enjoyable too!!

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Woah. Are you drunk all the time?

OH and my absolute favorite is Rum. Thats why I clicked on this thread.

I think beer tastes kinda like rotten yeast or something.

If you want to discuss RUM, you'll need to begin another thread!!