You Should Be Drinking These 10 Belgian Beers Right Now
“Want one?” Stillwater Artisanal’s Brian Strumke asked me last Saturday, extending a cold can of bright-yellow Classique.
Normally, this question would’ve been a no-brainer. His earthy, fruity, and slightly funky session beer is one of my favorites, perfect for quaffing from morning to night. Problem is, it was still morning. The clock had yet to tick 9 a.m. As a professional beer journalist, most days I try to not drink until 5 p.m. Then again, this was not most days.
It was the second day of Belgium Comes to Cooperstown (BCTC), Brewery Ommegang’s annual beer festival that features more than 70 breweries and hundreds of different Belgian beers. Every August, Ommegang opens up its hilly, bucolic grounds in upstate New York, not far from Cooperstown, to 3,000 attendees, many of which opt to camp for the weekend. This means afternoons spent drinking boatloads of unique Belgian beers, which for many means simply the best beers in the world. Late nights drinking more beer around a bonfire and campsites, where kegs flow as freely as water faucets. And early mornings, the sun shining too dang bright, battling a hangover boring into your brain. BCTC is a trip down a hop-scented rabbit hole filled with 3,000 of the country’s friendliest, most generous enablers.
“You can’t drink all day unless you start in the morning,” I said, grabbing a Classique and chasing away the previous night’s bad ideas with another one. I had a handful of dizzying hours awaiting me, ones that required me to sample my way through endless beers. Beers, mind you, that made this year's festival theme all the more surreal: Vegas, complete with Elvis skydivers, a wedding chapel, and a seven-foot sad clown singing covers of Lorde songs.
After decoding my dew-soaked notes (reminder: never leave your notebook in the grass overnight), here are some of my favorite Belgian beers and sour ales—some new, some worth a serious revisit—that I uncovered last weekend. You don’t have to drink them at 9 a.m. If you do, I promise I won’t judge.
This is Foaming at the Mouth, Joshua M. Bernstein‘s hopped-up adventures in the ever-expanding universe of beer. And yes, he would like another round, please.
1/10The Standard-Bearer: Duvel Moortgat
Since its 1871 inception, the family-owned Flemish brewery has become one of the world’s greatest brewers and exporters of Belgian beer, with a stable that includes Brasserie d’Achouffe, Maredsous, Ommegang, and Boulevard (acquired last fall). Amid the swelling portfolio, the flagship remains Duvel, the archetypical example of a Belgian strong pale ale. In recent years, the brewery has begun to expand the brand, leading to releases like…
What to Drink: …Duvel Triple Hop. This year’s release features newfangled Mosaic hops, which lend a tropical, blueberry-like note. Recommended for all IPA junkies.
Insurance Guy Beer Blog2/10The Little Farmhouse Brewery That Could: Oxbow Brewing
“Loud beers from a quiet place” is the motto behind Newcastle, Maine’s Oxbow Brewing, which specializes in farmhouse-inspired Belgian ales—apt, given the brewery’s location in a refurbished barn. Oxbow kills it with saisons, sour ales, and other funky fermentations.
What to Drink: In southern Belgium, parched miners once glugged grisette (“little gray”), a refreshing low-alcohol ale. Helping spearhead the resurgence, Oxbow’s super-citrusy Grizacca is a welcome respite for hard laborers and office workers alike.
Joshua M. Bernstein3/10The American Master: Two Roads Brewing
Phil Markowski wrote the book on farmhouse beer. Literally. So when Southampton’s longtime brewmaster left his post for this Connecticut newcomer, a Belgian-heavy lineup was inevitable. Since Two Roads debuted in December 2012, it has released the likes of Via Cordis, a blonde ale fermented with yeast from a monastic Belgian brewery, and Rye 95, a boozy Belgian tripel packed with American hops.
What to Drink: Fruity, refreshing, agreeably spicy, and low in alcohol, the Worker’s Comp Saison is the perfect lunch-break beer.
4/10The Creative Gypsies: Grimm Artisanal Ales
For each beer release, Brooklyn artists turned gypsy brewers Joe Grimm and Lauren Carter Grimm let their creative muses run wild. One brew day they’ll add rose hips to With Love From Grimm, a Belgian-style golden ale, while the next they’ll make the Golden Hour saison with New York–grown spelt. The beers are as idiosyncratic as they are delicious.
What to Drink: Crafted with wildflower honey, the Trappist-style Bees in the Trappe would make an ideal pairing for a cheese plate or a pie featuring summer fruit.
5/10The Big Apple Newcomers: Other Half Brewing
Ever since Brooklyn’s Other Half opened this spring, the brewery has set the Big Apple abuzz with its collection of dazzlingly hopped, West Coast–style IPAs such as Hop Showers and the potent All Green Everything. Beyond bitterness, brewers Sam Richardson and Matt Monahan also do Belgian exceedingly well. The Lembeek 86 Blonde is fermented with unruly Brettanomyces yeast, while the multi-grain Veldrijden Love saison is brewed with oats, spelt, raw wheat, and rye.
What to Drink: The hazy Hup! Hup! Hup! tastes like a Belgian pale ale vacationing on an American hop farm. Try it in the tasting room on your next swing through New York City.
6/10The Expat Craftsman: Boulevard Brewing
Though I have an embarrassment of brewing riches at my disposal in Brooklyn, my pulse always quickens when I spot a bottle from Boulevard. At the Kansas City, Missouri, brewery, Belgium-born brewmaster Steven Pauwels devises some of America’s most sublime Belgian beers. Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale is a spicy classic, Long Strange Tripel is rich and fruity, and the Sixth Glass is dark and complex. With Duvel now steering the company, the brewery’s beers should eventually see wider distribution.
What to Drink: Spiked with wild Brettanomcyes yeast and hit with heaps of hops, Saison-Brett is a rustic, earthy companion for washed-rind cheeses.
7/10The Friend to Food: Brewery Ommegang
Headquartered on a former hop farm, festival host Ommegang might be America’s best-known Belgian-focused brewery. That’s in no small part thanks to its series of Game of Thrones–inspired beers. But Ommegang is far more than a one-trick pop-culture pony. The brewery makes standout food-friendly beers like the amber Rare Vos and Witte, a wonder with seafood and salads, as well as the dessert-appropriate Three Philosophers.
What to Drink: Attendees got an early taste of the latest GoT beer, Valar Morghulis, which is set to debut this fall. My take: The malty, figgy dubbel would be divine with caramelized duck or a nice steak.
8/10The Belgian Twin: Allagash Brewing
Over the last several decades, Portland’s Allagash has become America’s preeminent Belgian-inspired brewery. From the malty Dubbel to the aromatic White, a witbier spiced with coriander and Curaçao orange peel, and plenty of spontaneously fermented wild beers, there’s nary a style that Allagash doesn’t knock out of the park.
What to Drink: Dry, citrusy, and peppery, the Saison—the brewery’s first new year-round beer in more than seven years—is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to food pairings.
9/10The Globetrotter: Stillwater Artisanal Ales
In a former life, Brian Strumke was a techno D.J. playing gigs around Europe. These days, Strumke has ditched clubs for the brew kettle, fashioning flavor-forward saisons like Of Love & Regret, featuring chamomile, dandelion, and lavender, and Migdal Bavel, which was made in Italy with myrrh and Sichuan peppercorns. P.S. His farmhouse ales and stouts are also excellent.
What to Drink: Gose Gone Wild is technically German, but this tropical-charged sour wheat ale is good that I’ll happily grant it a passport to Belgium. It was my favorite beer of the festival.
10/10The Wild Cards: Dogfish Head and Smuttynose
Last but not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two of my other favorite finds from last weekend, even if they're not readily available at your local bottle shop—yet:
First up is Smuttynose's limited-edition Brett & I, a tart and earthy wild ale that takes 13 months to make, courtesy of an extended slumber in red-wine barrels. (Seek it out on the just-commenced East Coast vs. West Coast Punk Rock Beer Tour.)
Then there was Dogfish Head's peachy and lightly puckering Festina Pêche, which was run through a Randall (a kind of instant flavor-infuser) filled with Sour Patch Kids. Mind—and palate—blown. (Technically, Festina is a German-inspired Berliner weisse, but since the country neighbors Belgium I'll give it a pass.)
