Saturday 25 February 2012

Open it! Struise Brouwers Pannepeut Old Monk's Ale 2009



Sometimes Twitter can be really annoying, with a lot of waffle going on and often used as an excuse for people to go on self righteous tirades. However sometimes it's just a great way of expressing yourself in 140 characters, exploring the things you love, getting in contact with people you wouldn't otherwise and involving yourself in things otherwise outside of your reach.

For me, one of the great examples of this is Open It! Masterminded by the beer writers Mark Dredge and Andy Mogg. It's an excuse to open those bottles you've been saving for the right occasion - read about it here. All you need to do is crack open something awesome, hash tag #openit, tell everyone about it on Twitter and see what everyone else has been opening. There's something about synchronised drinking that appeals to me so I decided to get involved and open a bottle of Struise Brouwers Pannepeut Old Monk's Ale 2009 that I bought in the Brugs Beertje, heralded by many as one of the best beer cafes in the world - and I have to agree.

This beer is dark, dark brown. The only reason it doesn't have the blackness of an imperial stout is that it shines like the darkest sun. The aroma is a world of raisins, fig, demerera sugar, burnt toast and a Belgian yeasty richness. The first swig of this beer makes you sit back in your chair and let out a big “oh there we go”! The second is rich and expressive. This beer delivers a huge amount of flavour but with an unexpected freshness.

This is an abbey dubbel on steroids, delivering savoury vegemite, dried fruit, saffron and an almost sour cream-like meatyness to the finish...which for the record is very long! The beauty of this beer is that with all those dark, rich, earthy flavours, there's also a bright freshness making it extremely moreish.

Similar to the bracing acidity of the big, chunky wine of  Chateauneuf du Pape, the carbonation and secretive hop snappiness balances this otherwise very luscious beer perfectly.


#openit

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