A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 49, Ommegang Abbey Ale

And yet another world class beer to add to my list.  Perhaps this is the best way to educate myself on beer by drinking in all the classics first, just like in literature, but this is in no way as torturous as reading the classics.  Literature.  Torture.  Similar suffixes?  No "tures" affiliated with beer except expenditure and that is bad.  

Anyway, this is one class that I hope to never miss!

Check out the color of this beer:

This beer tastes as beautiful as it looks and smells.  This may just may be my favorite beer so far out of all the beers in all the styles.  I can't even wait to tell you that it is going to score well over 11 as to outdo Spinal Tap.  Is this a collaboration with Duvel?  It mentions something like that on the side of the bottle.

{{ Ace of Spades, Motorhead on XPN, wholly f@ck! one of the best songs ever! }}

See that, mention Spinal Tap analogous with a rockin' beer and Motorhead comes on the radio.  All is right with the world.  Although a Trappist monk might not agree.  Friar Lemmy!

A'ight this beer gets the points for the homebrew love with the crimp top bottle.  Cheers!

This beer pours an amber/burgundy with a beautiful thick orange head of tiny bubbles that are creamy and frothy throughout the drink leaving a very lasting Roman pillar kind of lacing on the glass.

I poured mine at about 50 to 55 degrees and instantly the aroma of crystal malts and sugar candy hit my nose with a bit of that fruity belgian yeast twang.  Some alcohol is slightly playful on your nose hairs as well.  Well, I don't know if you have nose hair, but it plays on mine!  It kind of tickles the base of my brain like when you get that special brain tickler booger that just keeps on coming because of some stringy connection to the brains meninges.  Yeah, don't hide it, you know what I am talking about.  Cool, isn't it?  Ha ha ha you gross fukkers!  I went there and you now know what I mean when I say this beers' aroma is brain tickling!  Awesome.  So glad to bring you all down a notch and start enjoying life.

If you don't taste this beer before you die, you better seek religion as you missed out on your calling and will not be fulfilled.  

{{ Music interjection again.  I'm really glad for WXPN and shows like High's in the 70's and so many others that bring back music that you will rarely hear ever again on free radio.  I don't give them money on their fund drives because my finances are thin.  I regret it.  If you can, do your part.  These folks are working their craft just like any other artist.  Spin away XPN!  Bring Y-Rock back please! }}

Technically there are less ingredients in this beer than The VOS that they offer and you would think it to be less complex, but only slightly so.  There is a lot going on here in way of flavour.  Mostly malty of a caramel style but then you have bready citrus and banana notes as well as a hint of copper (the actual metal).  To be honest the metallic flavor of Belgians used to put me off.  But no longer.  I love it.  There are notes of some dark fruits in here as well, dates maybe.  It's tough to decifer each one so I study and see if I can find them.  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.  But as this beer gets warmer more comes out.  There is only the slightest of hop aftertones with this beer.  I think the hop character is more apparent in the aroma than in the flavour, but they are there and they balance the sweet malts and candy sugar.

Mouthfeel is full and creamy.  The head really is involved in the mouthfeel of this beer in the ways of creaminess.  Carbonation was lively at uncorking (decapping) and really brings out the micro-notes in this beer as well as the alcohol content which is noticeable, but so nice with the banana character.

Extremely well balanced beer.  I am regretting that I don't have another bottle!  Damn!

Turn it up to 11!

World Class beer here.  A definite bucket list beer!  You have to try it to see if you like it.

Have a great rest of your Presidents Day!

Question for you.  Was Lincoln a beer drinker?

-Hooper