...a belgian babe

After a hard day's blogging in the Batcave, there's nothing I like more than cooling my brain with a nice cold beer. In fact I'm quite partial to a frosty one during blogging. Sometimes I've even been known to partake in a beer in the early part of a blogging session, say sort of mid-early afternoon, and then sometimes even middayish (with a meal), and occasionaly about three quarters of the way through the session, perhaps early-mid, late afternoon... and then sometimes late-late afternoon to early-mid-evening, and definately through the later part of the mid evening ....... but never at dusk! I'm not a savage.

So I wasn't surprised to find myself at the local bottle shop the other night, all post-dusky and looking for some short-term inspiration. I remember my brain wasn't working all that well at the time, probably due to too much... umm... blogging, and I was having difficulty making a rational decision as to which beer should have the privelage of coming home with me. I don't usually fall for blondes, but I turned out to be extremely satisfied with the selection I had unthinkingly made.

Actually, Hoegaarden (not at all amusingly pronounced who-garden) is a 'witbier' (white beer) named after the Belgian town where it has been brewed since 1966. And white it is, with a clean, uniform and quite appealing cloudiness that can deceive one into thinking that the glass it is served in is exceptionally frosty.
And Hoegaarden also surprises with it's light, jazzy body and crisp finish, quite different to the heaviness associated with the clay-like, swirling sediments typical of some other bottle-fermented brews. The head is tall and silky and it packs a surprising plethora of fruits, quite apt for it' summery good looks.

Hoegaarden owes much of it's and smooth body and delicate finish to it's 'secret' ingredients, the surprising combination of coriander and curacao orange peel from a recipe developed in 1400's. These ingredients lend it a consistency of palate and spring meadow aroma without the overly zesty punch or excessive sweetness of many contemporary, 'boutique' brews.

And Hoegaarden is also served in it's own unique glass, a thick, hexagonal pint or half-pint tumbler. Legend has it that the shape is so that it can be wrenched from the drinker's hand with a spanner at the end of a big night at the pub (or ye pubbe, depending on the century).

Hoegaarden is quite the rising star, and can be increasingly found on tap at quality drinking establishments (like the Espy kitchen; a great drop to quaff with food) and deservedly so. It's a bloody marvellous beer!

Hoegaarden (the regular one...I haven't tried the fancy varieties yet); 4.5 packets of beer nuts.


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