This past weekend was the largest gathering of Belgian and Belgian style ales I have ever had the pleasure to be in the presence of. Pizza Port Carlsbad played host to 117 Belgians with 25 of those on draft! The location was pretty small for the amount of people. I know they tried to solve this by having two sessions, but it was still quite cramped. Once the crowd thinned out, it was a lot easier to move around without knocking people over.

The entry fee [$40] got you in the gate, a Chimay goblet and 8 drink tickets. Additional tickets were available for $1 each. Some of the more expensive Belgians did cost more than one ticket.

I started out with the Pizza Port San Clemente Faceplant. This was a smooth tripel and very excellent. I then moved onto the De La Senne Stouterik. As the name alludes to, it is a Belgian style stout. It was dark in color, with a malty scent that carried over to a smooth, smoked porter.

Occasionally they announced come special, 3 liter bottles of different brews. One of those was Avery’s 15th Anniversary. A cloudy, straw colored Belgian with a heavy ester aroma. It was smooth on the taste buds with a hint of spice. Overall it was very tasty!

Other notables I had the pleasure to try:

• Ellezelloise Hercule Stout [Grainy, roasted flavors, very good brew]
• Brasserie des Franches Montagnes Cuvee [Swiss; ester aroma, astringent finish]
• De Dolle Oerbier Reserva 2007 [Sour taste, pucker factor was high on this one]
• St. Sylvestre Gavroche Strong Ale [French, malty aroma/ester aroma corries over to a malty flavor]
• 2007 Duvel [Ester aroma, huge head, smooth pepper flavor]
• Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere [Spicey with a very lager taste]
• Baladin Al-Iksir [Italy, Spicey ester aroma, spicey taste, golden yellow with a white head]
• Dupont Saison [Sour bandaid aroma, really dry finish, hard to get past the bandaid taste]
• Alpine Chez Monieux [Strong esters, another pucker machine here, very sour, not my cup of tea]
• Bavik Pilsner [Super clear, smooth, will revisit this one]
• Hollister Abbey Dubbel [Grain aromas, nice roasted taste]
• Koningshoven (La Trappe) Quadruple [Dark amber, malty/estery aroma, very sweet and spicey flavors]
• Dupont Avec les Bon Voeux [Cloudy, straw color, pepper smell that carried over into the flavors along with esters]

Overall, I had a great time. I met some great people and chatted about the beers, homebrew, politics and the economy. Hope to see you at the next one!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 1:44 am and is filed under Beer Reviews, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.