Just trying to get a list going of some Belgian or at least Belgian style ales here, I will add some of my own soon as I can remember what they are called. Please though, no Blue Moon or Hogaarden
the only good witbier i've had was blanche de chambly, and they've stopped carrying it around here....perhaps they even stopped making it. i hope not, it was great stuff.....but then again, i've never had a legitimate witbier of belgian origin, just the good one by unibroue and then a few american takes on it. all in all, probably mostly due to lack of exposure to the style, i prefer the witbier's german cousin. the hefeweizen....i like hacker-pschorr and paulaner a lot, as well as weheinstephaner.....forgive me if i misspelled any of those, i dont feel like looking up the proper names... the weheinstephaner dunkel weisse is great, too, and perfect for quenching thirst and cooling your palate during really spicy meals without clashing with the flavors. great with curry.
My man nesta always coming through! I got to try that blanche de chambly. There is an american take off I have at home, i saved the bottle, soon as i get the name i will tell ya, you HAVE to try it it is heavnly!
but hey, like with most products, you can buy beers online. for me, its hard to find new beers locally at this point, save pilsners and american microbrews. there aren't any specialty beer stores close to me and have to make do with small but ecclectic selections at places like world market, my favorite cigar shop, a wine shop with a few good beers, and whatever they happen to carry at the liquor store or grocery. seeing as the internet could be viewed as the biggest shopping mall in the world offering virtually anything you could want to purchase, i've looked at buying beer online. i think i'm going to start buying online -occasionally- to try something new and to get specialized glassware for my favorite brews. i'm also thinking i should start cellaring some good beer once in a while and stick to cheaper brews for a regular basis. whenever i get a bottle of great beer, its gone the next day, so i've not gotten a chance to really age any of the good belgian and belgian style beers. but hey, this place has a ton of beers available - check it out if you want to try something new that they may not carry in your area: http://shop.belgianshop.com/ i've not shopped there yet, but i probably will....ive been wanting to try some of the brews by la chouffe and fantome but no where i know of carries them. among other breweries.
Now that's an idea, my pubs have yet to restock so it's been the same old for me, so maybe when I have the cash I'll give that a shot.
Those beers you listed are hard to find at most places. They have blue moon at my grocery store and its good.
yeah, what with shipping and handling and all i can't afford to buy online all the time, but then again i can't afford to buy masterpeice beers all the time anyway. i figure it is justifiable as an occasional indulgance... my liquor store and world market both carry paulaner hefeweizen, as well as other paulaner (and paulaner owned) brews (such as salvator doppelbock) world market, a very common chain store, should usually have a very wide assortment as well, and at least at mine they carry several of the unibroue brews, as well as hacker-pschorr and several weheinstephaner brews....not to mention a number of others. blue moon is mediocre. definitely drinkable and much better than, say, budweiser, but keep in mind that it IS made and owned by coors. it's about as much of a craft beer as killians or honey brown....all are drinkable and decent and i'd not turn one down....but they aren't exactly great. very few great beers will be found in a grocery store.....you're lucky if you can get good beers other than bass, guinness, and the likes at a grocery. you're certainly never going to see trappist ales, good witbiers, samuel smiths, or other fine beers in your average grocery.... yeah, they are harder to find a lot of the time, and generally a good bit more expensive. but if you love great beer, you tend to concede these downsides for the pleasure of indulging yourself in something you really love....its no different than people seeking out good wines or brandies or scotch or chocolate or good cheeses or anything else....you get what you pay for, and you might have to look farther than a krogers or winn dixie.
In other news, broken lizard's BEERFEST opens nationwide in theaters. These guys are the creators of supertroopers and club dread. Great movies to watch while drunk or otherwise. I'm thinking of pulling back a few brews tonite and going to see it myself.
wow, looks like all three of the last posts were made at the same time, cause as soon as i clicked "submit" there were your two replies under mine....nuts! no, i've not tried hoegaarden yet, though. i'll get around to it eventually, but right now i'm poor and sticking with stuff in a lower price range....i can get a 12 of honey brown for 8 bucks rather than a 6 of hoegaarden...what can i say, money is important....wish i'd gone for the killians or something instead, though, cause this is my first pack of honey brown and its drinkable but a bit too sweet. at least its keeping me from continuous drinking. ill probably try hoegaarden before it gets too cool outside, but i can't wait for fall and winter (then i will be more prone to drinking the big, malty, high alcohol beers i love - hello imperial stout, trappist, and abbey ales! hello unibroue and chimay and sameul smith and corsendonk! i can't wait to meet you!) despite your negative opinion of hoegaarden, its received great ratings at beeradvocate.com.... however my heart sank the other day when i noticed the grocerys are carrying it now, and not only that its being marketed much like blue moon.....the sixpacks had inserts sticking out stating "try it with a slice of orange!" or something.......if the distributors don't even think a classic such as this can stand on its own without adding fruit juice to it, theres something wrong......perhaps its only well rated because its an archetypal classic witbier that people know, and perhaps just a step or two above blue moon.....there have got to be better ones out there, but i want to see what the fuss is all about regardless.... ugh, beerfest looks kind of bad to me.....kind of really bad....but to each his own
some of these sites show what a glass of the beer looks like next to the bottle.....hoegaarden looks transparent....not a good quality in an unfiltered beer, if you ask me....that alone turns me off to it....and the aparent lack of any head....maybe i WONT try it.... oh, this is also a good beer site, relayer: http://www.liquidsolutions.biz/main/
WOW, that fuckin first beer that popped up looked like heaven!!!!!!!!! I cant wait for work to end, 45 more minutes!
hey, have you ever had delirium noel? i want to get a couple bottles to save for christmas. its supposedly great, but i've never tried it....maybe i should just get one to try first, but i can't justify the expense for immediate consumption at this point in time. and to the german side of things, i've been wanting to try an eisbock, like EKU28.....
well they're carrying it at the aforementioned cigar shop, but i was just curious if you'd tried it before perhaps and had an opinion. i've never seen any of the delirium brews for sale around here until this. i'd have expected delirium tremens or delirium nocturnum over the christmas brews, though....whatever, if its good its good. i should try it sometime when i can afford it...its not exactly flying off his shelves. its in a less than spectacular part of town and miller and budweiser probably sell much better, along with cigarettes and lottery tickets.....but he sells cigars so sometimes people who enjoy some of the finer things will also buy beer there, so he keeps a lot of good stuff around.
Blanche Du Chambly isn't a very good representation of a witber. It's way too clean and refined. I like it, but it isn't a good example of the style by any means. Hoegaaarden is probably the best, along with Chimay White.
That's a silly reason to form an opinion over a beer you haven't tried. Hoegaarden is the original, quintessential witber. Trust me. It doesn't even compare to a pseudo-wit like Blue Moon. Hoegaarden sets the standard for all witbers, it doesn't matter how popular it is. It is popular because, unlike many other Belgian beers, it is palatable to more people, thus carried by most of the better grocery stores. Hoegaarden IS good beer. I wouldn't lie. It ranks as one of my all-time favorites, though it has suffered over the years due to increased commercialization and mass-production on behalf of Interbrew. It has lost a lot of its original character, but is still good.
Actually, it sounds like you're describing Blanche Du Chambly, which IS transparent and has none of the usual witber cloudiness that Hoegaarden has. That's because, unlike Hoegaarden, it is filtered. That's why Blanche Du Chambly is not a good example of a witber, but rather an immitation of one. But again, I enjoy the flavor of it. It's just not a good example of the style. If you've only had Blue Moon and Chambly, you haven't had a real witber.
Why limit yourself to belgians? There are many german hefe's that are equally as good (or better depending on your own individual tastes)
