The Beer Belly Files

I've decided to blob about something I am very fond of... BEER! I love beer but I have forever lost my taste for cheap beers. For me, they are only good to help keep the buzz going. You know, when you're tipsy enough that taste doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to try each week, or as often as possible, to share with you my exploits with beer and to feature some special brews and brew reviews.

Today 's beers are both made in the Belgian Trappist style. The Belgian brews have become my "new favorite", especially the Trappist style brews. I still buy and drink the English/Irish style brews as a rule, but drink the Belgian style for special occasions ( read as have the money for it). The word Trappist comes from the the monks that have made these beers famous. There are many Trappist monks in Belgian abbeys right now churning out these delicious treats. Trappist and abbey beers are divided into three types: enkel, dubbel and tripel (basic, double and triple). The terms come from the amount of malt in the recipe; dubbel would have twice as much as the basic, etc.. I really love the triples the most. Triples are blond or sometimes brown, it uses more fermentables and an alcohol tolerant strain of yeast, which makes them strong in alcohol and taste. They taste like you dropped a shot glass into the brew, that's how readily tasted the alcohol is. The beers are bottle conditioned, meaning that a small amount of yeast is left is still fermenting in the bottle. This is achieved by either unfiltering the beer so the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle, or filtering it and then reseeded with yeast so that an additional fermentation takes place.

St. Bernardus Abt 12 (Abv 10%)

This is a strong and delicious brew. It's brewed by Trappist monks as I've stated using the reseeding method of bottle conditioning. It comes in a champagne/wine sized bottle (750ml) with a cork in it, like most beers of this type do. I paid retail: $9.99 per bottle.

Allagash Tripel Reserve (Abv 9%)

The Allagash Brewing Company is an American brewery located in Portland, Maine. It's owner, Rob Todd, saw that While both German and British styles had become prevalent throughout the country, Belgian style brews were very difficult to find. Recognizing that void, he started a small 15 barrel brewery to help fill it. I've had the dubbel and the tripel and both are wonderful brews. The tripel is blonde in color and are definitely modeled in the Belgian trappist style. Again this beer is bottled conditioned to give you that strong alcohol taste. I paid retail: $8.99 per bottle.

-Jim