Drink-a-Pint

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been remiss in my beer-blogging duties the past couple weeks, but my co-worker Rhonda is trying her best to remedy that. The other day, I walked into my office to find a “royal sampler” of beer waiting for me. Or, as some others would call it, a bag of beer that her husband bought, didn’t like and was actually considering throwing out before she decided to donate them to a worthy cause three doors down.

Of course, hand-me-down beer is usually a mixed bag, but this time I was in luck. In addition to a few types of Troegs that I’ll be trying in a few days, there were a couple bottles of a Belgian blonde ale I had never heard of from Leffe.

After doing a little research, Leffe has quite a history. The abbey Notre Dame de Leffe was founded in 1152 in southern Belgium where the canons of the abbey brewed ale. Using knowledge passed from generation to generation and ingredients found in the wild near the abbey, the canons developed an ale available only at the abbey.

It’s amazing the recipes survived over the years as the abbey was apparently ravaged by floods, fire, wars and even a little thing known as the French Revolution in 1794. But, the canons kept returning to rebuild and, in 1952, Leffe brews they formed a partnership with the Lootvoet brewery to produce and distribute their beer. Lootvoet was later bought by the company which would become the brewing bohemouth InBev, which eventually moved production of the Leffe brews to the Stella Artois brewery.

Believe it or not, royalties from the sale of Leffe beers are still paid to the abbey and InBev produces seven variations of Leffe: Leffe Brune, Leffe Triple, Leffe Radieuse, Leffe Vieille Cuvée, Leffe 9, Leffe Ruby and the bottles of Leffe Blonde which were sitting in my fridge.

Checking in at 6.6% abv, I was looking forward to giving the Blonde a try. I cracked open the bottle and poured it into a standard pint glass, since I didn’t have a chalice available. It poured a golden color with a slight orange hue and a one-inch foamy head that looked like it would have stayed there as long as I’d let it.

The aroma was interesting and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. There were hints of malt, but nothing else that really stood out. It was strong enough, though, that my wife asked what the smell was when I sat down next to her on the couch. (I generally take that as a good sign.)

So, what about the taste? The beer wasn’t too carbonated and it was a great, smooth drink. It actually reminded me a little of Stella, but with more of a malty taste with just a little honey, coriander and extra sugar tossed in for good measure.

i can honestly say that I really enjoyed this one. It’s a good brew that kicks a little extra punch with a combination of flavors that must have made it fun to be a canon in the dark ages. For those of us who live in the modern world outside the abbey, this is a great beer to kick back with an sip on a quiet Friday evening after a long week of work. (And even better when it’s waiting for you when you walk into work…)