1001 Beers

Beer No: 7/1001
Page No: 207
Category: Amber

Throughout the day at the Belgian Beer Festival last weekend, I reckon I tasted at least 50 different beers - from a sip of some to the full 4 oz. taste of others.  Given the fact that you start with 8 tickets for tastings, and I bought 28 more, that's about 20 beers of so that I had the full 4 oz. taste of (some beers were 2-3 tickets in cost, depending on rarity).  So while I was starting to feel a slight buzz at times through the day, the helpful addition of beer buddies at 10am, a pepperoni and garlic pizza at noon, and another pepperoni and garlic pizza at 2pm kept me grounded.  In addition, whenever I went up to get another beer from the wonderful helpers, I rinsed my glass out with water, and instead of just pouring it out, I drank it.  So I kept hydrated that way too.  So what does it matter?  Well, I had both of the De Dolle beers late in the day, but I don't feel that my tastings were impacted by the massive amounts of beer I imbibed.

This beer, like the Iris I had at the festival, I have rated in the past.  Back in August of 2003, I had a bottle of this and proclaimed it a "great beer to drink on a cold night."  And I don't think my review changed that much.  The Oerbier is a malty son of a bitch with lots of sugars and a high 9% ABV.  1001 Beers mentions that the brewery recommends aging the brew for a couple of years before drinking, and I'm not quite sure what vintage this Oerbier was, but chances are it was a 2009.  The book goes on to state that the original Oerbier carried a best-by date of just 100 days.  My how things change.

Note, the Oerbier is the beer on the right in the picture above.  On the left is the Still Nacht, also from De Dolle, and tomorrow's featured beer.  The maltiness is quite evident in the coloring of the beer as the beer is brewed with four different malts and dark candy sugar.  The De Dolle brewery has come quite a long way from when the Herteleer brothers brewed in their mother's bathtub.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

De Dolle Oerbier from De Dolle Brouwers

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Flavor: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

What a head on this beer - poured maybe a 1/5th of a pint and it overflowed on me...once the head subsided, there was slight lacing with a nice brownish/orange coloring. The beer itself has a quite interesting flavor - very spicy, very malty, very high on the alcohol meter. The aftertaste is quite good - especially with the initial alcohol flavor you get when drinking. Aroma is yeasty with a bit of citrus. An enjoyable beer - a very good amount of alcohol and a great beer to drink on a cold night.