Before the Renaissance… before Eurovision… there was beer.

I realise that I have devoted a lot of posts recently to drinking culture recently, but ‘tis the season and it is a blog about Europe after all… so please view it as European history made fun, rather than the ramblings of a pisspot!

It was actually an Australian flatmate who turned my attention to the finer points (and higher potency) of Belgian brews, and ever since my round-about-roadtrip to Amsterdam I’ve had my eye on all things Belgian. So I decided to orchestrate a little taste test – all in the name of historic and scientific learning, of course… starting with a couple of blonde beers that are both readily available on tap in France, Leffe and Grimbergen.

Both of these Abbey beers trace their roots to the twelfth century, first brewed by hospitable Norbertine monks, but the product is a contemporary and commercial variation on the theme. Trappist beers, on the other hand, are brewed in Trappist monasteries under the supervision of the monks.

Unfortunately the major shortcoming of the project was that my beer tasting vocabulary was limited to “nice”, “good” and “drinkable”… until I consulted the Leffe website. Not only do I now know the correct service temperature for the entire Leffe range and the individual angle required to pour each of the beers, but I also know what that “mysterious” tip-of-the-tongue flavour is in the Leffe blonde…

Banana. The next sip – ah yes, clearly banana; the following sip – perhaps that was psychological; and a third sip – why the heck banana?

Sadly, the Grimbergen site is only in French and Dutch, so it will take me a little longer to determine if pineapple and guava were their secret ingredients. So I’ll have to leave it at “nice”, “good” and “drinkable.”

The next selection of Chimay Trappist beers had me imagining the monks sitting around in their nineteenth-century boys club, no women to spur them on to more worthwhile pursuits, comparing measurements:

“Huh-huh, eight…”

“Whoah, guys! Check it out, 8.5!”

I’d like to imagine that this was the case, but further reading indicated that it was actually measures from 1919 prohibiting the sale of spirits in pubs that spurred the production of higher strength beer.

Putting the ‘pist’ back into ‘Trappist’ – the ideal Chimay advertisement, this monk looks like he’s already had a few (too many…)