Tag Archives: Blue Nile

Blue Nile’s Battle Belge 2010

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Last night was the first night of Battle Belge 2010 at the Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant in Minneapolis. Bar manager and beer maven Al McCarty matched Belgian and non-Belgian versions of popular Beligan beer styles in head-to-head combat. Styles include saison, strong dark ale, Flemish sour red, tripel, dubbel, and strong golden ale, with two example of each to compare. Ten dollars buys a flight of four 4-ounce pours.

I only did straight comparisons of a couple of the styles, opting instead to sample mostly those beers on the list that I had never tried. The few direct match-ups that I did try showed that while the non-Belgians make some fantastic beers, they generally don’t quite stand up to their Belgian brewing counterparts.

Surly Cynic stood up reasonably well to Dupont Vielle Provision, but it’s hard to go up against the benchmark of the style. Both Unibroue Trois Pistoles and Gulden Draak strong darks were tasty, but the Gulden Draak had more depth and dimension when compared side-by-side. Tripel Karmeliet crushed  Nøgne Ø Tiger Tripel, which was by far the most anticipated and disappointing beer of the night. Tiger Tripel was a murky, muddy mess of a beer that made my doubts about that Norwegian brewery even stronger.

The one category in which the Americans bested the Belgians was strong golden ale. Weyerbacher, a Pennsylvania brewery that is brand new in Minnesota, brought it strong with Merry Monks and took the wind out of Delirium Tremen‘s sails.

The overall winner of the night, and going strong as my best beer of the year for 2009 and 2010 was Cuvee des Jacobin Grand Cru Rouge, better known in this country as Ommegang Rouge. While making comparisons between styles is like comparing apples and oranges, in my opinion nothing else in the line-up came close. Next to Rouge, New Belgium’s La Folie, a beer that I love, seemed overly sour and clumsy. Al bought up all the kegs of this great beer in Minnesota. Sadly the last one blew last night. If you missed it, it’s gone.

Battle Belg continues tonight (Sunday, June 6th) starting at 4:00 PM. Be there!

Hop Heads Only

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A celebration of humulus lupulus at the Blue Nile.

On Saturday the Blue Nile Restaurant was host to a heavenly array of hoppy beers. With twenty-two beers to choose from, including three cask selections, it was a hop heads dream. They were offering $7 flights consisting of four ounce pours of three beers of your choice. With so many beers on offer, this seemed the way to go. Between my own flights and the sips I took from my friends’ glasses, I managed to taste a good number of the beers available. Here are my favorites.

Founders Centennial IPA – This was hands down the best beer of the afternoon. Those who know me know that I like balance in my American hoppy beers. Founders has it in spades. This beer displays a beautiful grapefruit citrus centennial hop flavor and assertive bitterness to be sure.  The hop character is balanced by a malt profile more complex than any other beer I tasted that afternoon. Light toast and biscuit flavors add depth to the normal sweet grainy base malt to make this an exceptional beer.

Victory Wild Devil – Hop Devil has always been one of my favorite IPAs. Add a touch of Brettanomyces wild yeast funkiness and it’s just gotta be good. Wild fermented beers are not usually bitter. There is a danger that the hop bitterness and the wild yeast character will clash. That is not a problem in this beer. The wild notes are subtle, lending a light leather and barnyard to an otherwise balanced and delicious beer. Nice.

Alvinne Extra IPA – This offering from Picobrouwerij in Belgium was a delight. The bitterness is restrained compared to the American IPAs, but this is more than made up for by the delicious Belgian yeast character. Light clove and black pepper phenols blend with the hops rather than fighting with them as happens in many of these Belgian IPAs. This along with a huge peachy fruitiness really set this beer apart from the others. This is a subtle beer. The early sip I had from a friend’s glass was sublime. unfortunately I ordered my own too late in the game after my palate had already been destroyed by hops. Lesson learned.

Other standouts worth mentioning were Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA, Left Hand 400LB Monkey, and the cask version of Summit Horizon Red Ale.

There were really only a couple of disappointments in the selection of beers that I tried. Southern Tier Iniquity was one. I am not a fan of roasted malts in combination with loads of citrusy American hops, but this beer had been recommended to me by so many people that I had to try it. Unfortunately it tasted too much like roasted grapefruit for me to enjoy it. I was also not fond of the Double Bubble from Rush River. This tasted fine at first, but as it warmed strong banana aromas and flavors began to creep in. I also experienced a certain unidentifiable unpleasantness in the finish.

Overall, this was a great event. Thanks to Al for putting it on.