Getting Back to Belgians

I had a several hour break between school stuff and stopped by Lucky Baldwin's in Sierra Madre for a couple beers. Lately I've been really into lighter Belgian ales such as pale ale's, tripels and blondes. I really love the idea of having a complex yet light, tasty and easy drinking beer. I thought Leffe Blonde may be that beer... until I had Affligem Blond the other day. This beer was a fantastic and easy drinking Belgian pale ale. It's very soft all around. The flavors aren't too sharp and just roll through the mouth really nicely. A little bit of earthiness, a little bit of sweetness, and a great ability to really be gulped. An instant favorite of mine and worthy of a 4.65 on BA.


The next beer up was Het Kapittel Prior, a 9% Belgian dark ale. Poured into a tulip, this beer had the most amazing head retention I've ever seen. It sat there for at least 10 minutes without moving while I let it warm up a little, and it wasn't about to go anywhere. The taste wasn't so exciting though. On first impression it definitely has that Belgian dark ale flavor of roasted malts, sugar, and Belgian yeast. The high alcohol was effectively hidden. Where I thought it went wrong was during the very end of the sip, when a massive sugar quality was picked up. So sweet it was hard to drink. This was my second sampling of a beer from Brouwerij Van Eecke, the first being the Poperings Hommel Bier which I didn't think was that good, but wasn't horrible. Same goes for the Prior.