1001 Beers

Beer No: 8/1001
Page No: 497
Category: Blond

Unfortunately, this is my last review from the Belgian Beer Festival at Pizza Port.  Though I easily tried 50+ beers, only four are being reviewed herein.  With talk of Pizza Port winding down, it reminds me that I really need to go back this weekend and pick up some beers from their bottle shop.  Pizza Port, Carlsbad opened their bottle shop a couple of years ago and features some really hard to find beers from outstanding breweries.  Their prices are a bit higher than you can expect to find in other liquor stores, but they often feature hard-to-find beers from the San Diego region.

The Pizza Port restaurant itself does quite fine in its own right.  With the brewery next door, they always have a nice rotating selection of in-house brewed beers on tap along with a nice assortment of other macro and micro-brews on tap at all times.  On top of the great selection of beers, Pizza Port features top-notch pizzas.  Their Pizza Carlsbad, featuring a pesto sauce, feta cheese, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes is simply divine, but, as I mentioned earlier, it's the pepperoni and garlic pizza that I have every time there.  Oh, and the sumptuous beer buddies.  Recently, in Arizona, I stopped by another brewpub that tried to copy the Beer Buddies from Pizza Port and they were nowhere near as good.  Instead of a nice, doughy bite, this other brewpub opted for a thin crust, cracker-like buddy and it was not good at all.

So, long story short, if you're ever in the San Diego area, look for a Pizza Port.  They have three locations now, and a fourth will open soon.  Did I mention their beer festivals are the things legends are made of?  Yeah, the Belgian Beer Festival is that good.

So onto the beer, the last of the four, the De Dolle Still Nacht is a pale strong ale, clocking in at 12% ABV.  1001 Beers notes that, originally, the Still Nacht was brewed with a strain of yeast from Rodenbach brewery (one of my personal favorites - including the amazing Rodenbach Grand Cru (one of the 1001, review coming later)).  But when Rodenbach stopped offering the yeast to brewers in 2000, brewer Kris Herteleer cultured what he had left of the yeast and ended up with a stronger, more complex strain.  Since then, he now ferments 20% of the wort with lactic acid bacteria and then blends it back with the rest of the beer which is fermenting with his own yeast strain.  No matter how he does it, this winter seasonal is a gem.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

De Dolle Still Nahct from De Dolle Brouwers

Aroma: 9/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 17/20

Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

Pours a hazy yellow/amber with a small, off-white head which lasts a while. Aromas of fruits, alcohol, and strong sugar/caramel. Taste is of more sugar, a bit of fizzyness, and malts. The beer starts and ends sweet, more of a sipping, after-dinner beer, but definitely something that will warm the soul in a long winter. Finishes with the slightest hint of bitterness and alcohol.