Saison Dupont

Hey all!

 

Hope everyone’s week is going well.  My week is good, we like being home and back at work, although please sign the petition for my company to open its office in Paris at the bottom of this email.  :-)

 

No seriously, it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve had a chocolate croissant, and I’m starting to get the shakes.

 

I didn’t get any responses from last week’s beer suggestion telling me that you were able to try the beer, so this week we’re going with something more widely available:

 

Beer Suggestion for the week of September 24, 2012:

 

Saison Dupont

 

The saison dupont is brewed by the Dupont family at their brewery, which is located about 1.5 hours from Bruxelles (Brussels), Belgium.  When Michael and I visited the brewery, we were unable to tour, as it was Sunday and they were closed, but we did go to Les Caves de Dupont, the tasting room for the Dupont brewery, just next door.  While we were supposed to have a long tasting of all the various Dupontbeers, the proprietors of the tasting room are evidently in the middle of a nasty divorce (this learned by me following a conversation with the lady in total pigeon French), and the female proprietor was, for lack of a better term, totally sh*t-faced drunk at like 2pm.  So, we all had a saison dupont, and moved on to another brewery that will undoubtedly provide the subject of a future weekly beer suggestion.  We were able to try the saison dupont biologique (an organic saison) and the Biere de Miel (a sour beer made with honey) at a later time, and the organic saison was even better than the original (if you see it, drink it!).  I’m not a huge connoisseur of sour beers, but those beer trippers who were seriously dug the biere de miel.

 

Historically, a “saison” was brewed in the winter months, and served to the farmers during the next summer.  These farmers were called “saisoniers.”  Best served around 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12* Celsius).  It’s a cloudy beer, but drinks really smoothly.  It’s also got an ABV of about 6.5%, which makes it no slouch!!

 

This one is definitely available at the Argonaut and most liquor stores that carry the Belgian stuff, so go check it out!!!

 

Have a great week

 

Duvel Triple Hop

Since we just got back from a beer tour in Belgium, I figured it was only fair to impart some of the knowledge we acquired.  So, I figured I’d send out random beer suggestions (I’ll aim for weekly, but will probably forget sometimes), to perhaps acquaint some of you with delicious Belgian beers heretofore unknown.

 

Beer suggestion for the week of September 17, 2012:

 

Duvel Triple Hop

 

Duvel always uses the same two varieties of hops in their beer, the Saaz and Styrian Goldings.  However, beginning a year or two ago, they decided to make one beer with an extra hop – the Citra hop, an American hop – hence, “Triple Hop”.  It will not be around forever, but they did tell us that it is available in the U.S.  It is one of the hoppier beers we tried while in Belgium, has a 9.5% ABV, and it is delicious!

 

For the locals, according to Total Beverage’s website, they carry it at their Thornton store.  I checked Argonaut’s website and didn’t see it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.